The cruel history of Bulgaria.

The period in the history of Bulgaria from the end of the fourteenth century to the end of the 19th century is the most terrible and bloody. In those days, there was no independent Bulgarian state, and the lands of the Bulgarians were under the rule of the Ottoman Empire (in Bulgarian historiography also called "Turkish slavery" or "Ottoman yoke").

In the Turkish empire, the population was divided into religious communities of "faithful" and "infidels", which were united in Muslim millet and Orthodox millet (or Greek millet). The Orthodox millet included various peoples united on the basis of religious affiliation under the supremacy of the Greek patriarchate in Constantinople, and the Ottoman laws prescribed certain rights and duties to members of each millet. The Ottoman state sought to constantly emphasize the greatness of Islam and Muslims on its territory. The greatest rights were enjoyed by Muslims. Members of other communities had mainly duties (a certain color of turbans, a line of residence in a certain quarter-ghetto, a ban on horseback riding, tax money or children). Together with the transition to the subordination of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Greek church books appeared in the Bulgarian lands, and the Slavonic liturgy remained partially only in the provinces. Two independent Orthodox churches - the Pec Patriarchate and the Ohrid Archdiocese - later became victims of the Fanariot.
At that time, a partial Islamization of the Bulgarian ethnos was carried out, at the expense of the Bulgarians, who converted to Islam and moved to the Muslim millet. Some Bulgarians of the Orthodox faith remained faithful to the Patriarchate of Constantinople after the restoration of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. They were "greek". Most Bulgarians have preserved their native language, faith and traditions. A particularly positive role was played by the Bulgarian clergy and monasteries.
In the times of the Ottoman Empire many Bulgarians died. The Turks destroyed Bulgaria with great cruelty. Great entertainment for the Turks was to chop off the heads of the newborn Bulgarian children. Turks laughed - babies without heads fell like chopped chickens. Cruelty of Turkey, Bulgaria still remembers.