Eastern Rumelia

Eastern Rumelia
Източна Румелия (Bulgarian)
Ανατολική Ρωμυλία (Greek)
روم ايلئ شرقى (Ottoman Turkish)
Autonomous Province of Ottoman Empire
(in personal union with Bulgaria from 1886)
1878–1885

Principality of Bulgaria (dark green) and Eastern Rumelia (light green) after the Berlin Congress in 1878, formally in personal union from 1886.
  •   Eastern Rumelia
CapitalPlovdiv
Population 
• 1884
975,030
Government
 • TypeAutonomous Province
Governor-General 
• 1879–1884
Aleksandar Bogoridi
• 1884–1885
Gavril Krastevich
• 1886
Aleksandar I
• 1887–1908
Ferdinand I
History 
• Established
1878
13 July 1878
6 September 1885
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Adrianople Vilayet
Principality of Bulgaria
Today part ofBulgaria

Eastern Rumelia (Bulgarian: Източна Румелия, romanizedIztochna Rumeliya; Ottoman Turkish: روم الی شرقى, romanizedRumeli-i Şarkî; Greek: Ανατολική Ρωμυλία, romanizedAnatoliki Romylia) was an autonomous province (oblast in Bulgarian, vilayet in Turkish) of the Ottoman Empire with a total area of 32,978 km2, which was created in 1878 by virtue of the Treaty of Berlin and de facto ceased to exist in 1885, when it was united with the Principality of Bulgaria, also under nominal Ottoman suzerainty.[1] It continued to be an Ottoman province de jure until 1908, when Bulgaria declared independence. Ethnic Bulgarians formed a majority of the population in Eastern Rumelia, but there were significant Turkish and Greek minorities. Its capital was Plovdiv (Ottoman Filibe, Greek Philippoupoli). The official languages of Eastern Rumelia were Bulgarian, Greek and Ottoman Turkish.[2]

  1. ^ Statelova, Elena (1999). История на България. Том 3 [History of Bulgaria. Volume 3]. София: Издателска къща „Анубис“. p. 16. ISBN 954-426-206-7.
  2. ^ "Art 22 in The Organic Statute of Eastern Rumelia, promulgated in the three equally valid language versions: Bulgarian, Greek and Osmanlica (Ottoman Turkish)". Saedinenieto.bg (in Bulgarian). 1879. Retrieved 8 April 2022.