The French daily Le Figaro reported on the Greek dream of two Bulgarian villages, Tsrantcha and Brashten, and its people to be annexed to Greece. The French newspaper noted that the people of the two small villages (with 600 and 800 inhabitants respectively) have asked in a written statement to become administrative parts of Drama or Kavala, two nearby Greek cities, because they have lost all hope in their own country.
Situated somewhere in the deep of the Rhodopi mountains and natural borders between Greece and Bulgaria, the inhabitants of the two villages, who are mostly farmers, claim to often fall victims to speculators because they cannot prove they own the land where they are living (their titles of ownership were lost during the communist regime in Bulgaria).
Iline Dolaptchiev from Tsrantcha told Le Figaro that in Greece, unlike Bulgaria, people show respect to farmers. The news spread in the Greek media, and bloggers have expressed their surprise and concerns over such a notion being promoted in the Balkans, because it could result in many more villages around the different countries asking for annexation for political and geopolitical reasons. According to News247.gr many villages in South Bulgaria are inhabited by Sarakatsani, a group of Greek shepherds, who keep the Greek traditions and Orthodox faith.
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