The Bulgarian Community in Istanbul in The Time of Sultan Mehmed Resad: Settlement, Population and Economy

Abstract

In the middle of the 19th century the Bulgarian community began to take on an important position in the economic life of Istanbul. The Bulgarian community increased in number through the engagement of more and more Bulgarians as merchants, shopkeepers and textile workers, and the Bulgarians in Istanbul became the protagonists of the Bulgarian Church Movement. In 1870 Sultan Abdulaziz issued the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate and the Bulgarians became a new Orthodox millet. They established their millet organizations and institutions and started to be registered as a separate group in the official Ottoman population registers.