ΒELONGING and BUSINESS in the POSTSOCIALIST BALKANS1 Georgios Agelopoulos University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki

Anthropology of East Europe Review THE COCA-COLA KASHKAVAL NETWORK: ΒELONGING AND BUSINESS IN THE POSTSOCIALIST BALKANS1 Georgios Agelopoulos University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki The winter of 1991 - 1992 was a time of of the deep freeze theory is based on a mentality significant political changes in the Balkans. As a similar to that of Balkanism in Todorova’s terms result of these changes, the former socialist Balkan (Todorova 1997). Balkanism and the deep freeze states (Albania, Bulgaria, Rumania)xxxvii experienced theory formulate symbolically powerful constructions a sudden opening of their borders. For the first time (“The Balkans”) with supposedly eternal since WWII the citizens of these countries were characteristics not influenced by historical changes. completely free to travel abroad without any direct Furthermore, both are the product of scholars who official or indirect unofficial restrictions. The same “valorise Eastern Europe as foreign and distanced applied to citizens of “the West”xxxviii, who were able from the rest of the world” (Kurti 1996: 13) and for the first time in the last forty years to enter these especially from the West. Finally, both approaches countries almost without restrictions. It is true that establish political and ethnic correctness as a this freedom of movement did not last long for the precondition for scholars working in the area (Kurti citizens of former socialist countries. However, it is 1996: 15). justifiable to assert that it is far easier to travel My aim is to argue against simplistic and between these countries and the EU states today than ahistorical explanations such as the above-mentioned it was pre-1991. models. In my opinion, the situation is far more With the exception of refugees from the complex and perplexing and involves a revaluation former Yugoslavia seeking asylum in other countries and reconstruction of past relationships by those and the illegal migration of people coming from SE involved in the present. In order to ethnographically Europe, little research has been carried out on the illustrate my argument I will refer to the case of the impact that this freedom of contact has had on Balkan Krasiotes population living in Greece and Bulgaria. societies. In the majority of cases, reports in the Thus, this article will hopefully contribute towards international press and the views of certain politicians fulfilling one of the tasks of postsocialist ethnography tend to confirm what Verdery calls the “deep freeze as suggested by Hann, Humphrey and Verdery: to theory”,xxxix alternatively known as “the heavy lid point out the self-representations emerging after the theory”. Briefly speaking, this popular model of collapse of socialism on both sides of the border explanation claims that from the moment socialist dividing former socialist and capitalist societies regimes collapsed, previously existing socio- (Hann, Humphrey and Verdery, 2002: 21). My data economic relationships and structures were taken are based on fieldwork conducted in Greek “out of the deep freeze” and were free to develop. Macedonia and in the Bulgarian Black Sea coast in This is a model used not only to explain the rise of 1991 - 1992 and in 1996.xl Since 1996 I have been nationalist movements in the area, but also to justify following further developments from Greece. phenomena such as the recent significant presence of The Krasiotes population of Greece and Italian companies in Tirana and the strong presence Bulgariaxli of Greek companies in Sofia. The work of A. Brzezinski (1998), G. Kennan (1993) and R. Kaplan Rila is a town on the Black Sea coast of (1994) can be classified as supporting such an Bulgaria. Until the beginning of the twentieth century explanatory model. Rila was predominantly a Greek town, called Krasia, with a total population of more than 4,000 people. As pointed out by Pearson, this model is More than 2/3 of its population were Greeks who totally ahistorical (Pearson 1995: 76). In my opinion, called themselves Krasiotes Greeks, the rest of the it is more than ahistorical, it is of a metaphysical population being Turks and Bulgarians. Until 1926 a nature. What such an explanation presupposes is the great number of Greeks lived in southern Bulgaria possibility of a break in history which amounts to a (sometime known as Anatoliki Romilia, Eastern gap that lasted forty-five years. According to such Rumelia) and in the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, from claims, Balkan societies somehow managed to Sozopol to the south to Burgas to the north. Precise remain unchanged during this forty-five-year period, numbers cannot be provided due to the flexibility and and when socialism collapsed they then returned to ambiguity of national identification in the southern the situation that existed before WWII. The discourse Volume 25, No. 1 Page 42 Anthropology of East Europe Review Balkans.xlii Furthermore, the majority of data In actuality, the Krasiotes community was regarding the distribution of populations in the area divided in 1925. Almost 70 - 75% of Krasiotes during that period are not considered to be reliable decided to leave their homeland. Some families (Pearson 1983). Estimations of the number of Greeks preferred to stay in Rila. According to the Treaty of living in what was Eastern Rumelia vary from 40,000 Neuilly, the nuclear family was officially recognised to 150,000 people. According to the official as the migration unit but the right to migrate was Bulgarian statistics, the 1920 census showed the recognised for every person who was older than presence of 42,074 Greeks in Bulgaria (Mancev eighteen years old. Therefore, it happened that some 1992: 33). The Krasiotes were included in this brothers and sisters were separated because one number. The Greeks of Rila (Krasia) were engaged in preferred to remain in Rila while the other migrated trade, wine production and fishery. They were a to Greece. During my visit to Rila in the summer of bourgeois population clearly distinct from the other 1992 I had the chance to talk with some members of rural populations of the same region. the Krasiotes community and discuss the reasons for As a result of the re-arrangement of borders their choice. Briefly speaking, those who preferred to between the Balkan states following the Balkan remain in Rila justify their decision on the basis of Wars, some populations found themselves living in a existing kinship ties with non-Greek families, their foreign national state. The Balkan Wars were political affiliations and/or because of various followed by massive exchanges of populations personal reasons. between the Balkan states. Population transfer Three hundred and sixty families (i.e. seemed to many despairing politicians during that households) arrived in Greece, with 288 of them period to be the most definitive, or the most drastic, settling in a village in central Greek Macedonia. The solution to the abiding minority problem (Pearson process of establishing the community in its new 1983: 139). Various treaties were signed to control all settlement was similar to the one reported in the these population exchanges. Based on the agreements relevant bibliography (Eddy 1931, Pentzopoulos of the Treaty of Neuilly signed in 1919, a total 1962). This village was later named Nea Krasia (new number of 46,000 Greeks came from the northern Krasia). Although the majority of the population of part of Bulgaria to Greek Macedonia, and 92,000 the village was composed of Krasiotes, a number of Bulgarians (i.e. Macedonians with Bulgarian national other populations were also settled there. These were affiliations) moved from Greek Macedonia to Pontic Greeks who arrived during the twenties in the Bulgaria. village as refugees from the Caucasus, Thrakiotes The exchange of populations between Greeks who came almost at the same time as refugees Greece and Bulgaria was never completed. This was from the European part of Turkey, Sarakatsans and due to the nature of the treaty which made clear that Macedonians of Greek national consciousness the departure of the "minority" population was not (“Graikomani”) who used to live in the area. Soon compulsory. In any case, it was not possible for such after their establishment in Greece, the Krasiotes an exchange of population to be completed for the revived their tradition of wine production and wine very simple reason that there were no clear and trading, and after WWII Nea Krasia consequently absolute criteria to define who was Greek and who became one of the most rapidly developing and was Bulgarian. Groups of people who defined wealthy villages of central Greek Macedonia. The themselves as Greeks at that time remained inside present-day population of the village is about 4,000 Bulgaria; the same happened with the Macedonian persons. supporters of the Bulgarian Exarchatexliii in western As already explained, a number of families Greek Macedonia. In the immediate post-WWII from Krasiotes preferred to stay in their Bulgarian decades, the Bulgarian Greeks and the Macedonians homelands rather than move to Greece during the of Greece were gradually assimilated or forced to twenties. Relationships between the Krasiotes of Rila migrate, usually outside Europe. and the Krasiotes of Nea Krasia were sustained Some Krasiotes families had already been through the use of various strategies. During the living in Greece since 1903, but the final decision to period 1926 – 1939 relations were based on written move to Greece was taken sometime during the correspondence, but actual visits were rare due to spring of 1925. As was the case with the Kostilides financial difficulties. Reading the letters of those community of Greeks from Bulgaria studied by relatives who remained in Rila was something of a Danforth, the pressure applied by the Bulgarian ritual. From 1940 to the late fifties relations were authorities to leave Bulgaria could no longer be almost non-existant due to WWII, the Greek Civil resisted (Danforth 1989: 134).

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