--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tolgs001" <george.st@...> wrote:
> >I am not amazed and far from furious (your
> >assumptions on my personality make me just a
> >bit impatient).
>
> I made no assumptions whatsoever. I put "furious"
> in bracktes, and adding a Smiley,
Sorry, much of what I got on the topic was dressed with so much
negativism, I could not differentiate the well-meaning from the simply
spiteful humor.
and I recalled
> to myself to persons/situations in my own past,
> i.e. when I talked with one Bulgarian colleague
> or another about this theme -- only for a couple
> of minutes. And those people weren't, in fact,
> furious at all.
Eben.
They were only firm stating that
> the Asens were true Bulgarians.
Because they sincerely thought that's what they were. Not because
they wanted to hide the truth from you (like George's assumptions on
me being disingenuous). Let's say they were baffled. On the other
hand, if they were intelligent, soundly-thinking individuals, they
thought at least that they have to check on what you are saying before
they can react in any way.
Thus, I & al.
> Romanians were prompted to conclude that in
> Bulgaria the role of the Vlakh (Romanian) element in
> creating the 2nd Bulgarian czarate is not explained
> to the general audience.
I have never heard of such an element, but I honestly want to know
more. I am not discarding you and blaming you of excessive patriotism
a priori. I think everyone on the Balkans has to learn to do this.
And it will not come so easily.
The knowledge thereof
> may be restricted to circles of the professionals.
Yes, who did not write it down for reasons I cannot comment on. This
is still in the area of hypotheticals for me.
>
> >I NEVER READ THAT THE BROTHERS OF ASEN WERE
> >VLAKHS!
>
> So you also confirm my impression described above.
Yes. But your message sounded like more than an impression, excuse
me. While I appreciate the erudition and insight of individuals on
this list and their potential capability of adding a lot to my own
views, I am often distressed by the intellectual arrogance exercised
by them on one another. Not just knowledge, but the way you make use
of knowledge and the way you bring it to others is important in
determining how enlightened you actually are.
By the way, because there were questions on the ethnicon Bulgar, there
were actually references to what Bulgar means in a book of the old
Volga Bulgars that never got to us through history. An Arab historian
who wrote an account of his travel to Volga Bulgaria has saved just
the first sentence of this book for us, because he was so strongly
impressed by it:
Every Bulgarian should know that Bulgarian means wise, knowledgeable.
Whether this is true or not, I would like to stick to being Bulgarian
exactly in this way in all future debate.
Eva