Eastern Rumelia Eastern Rumelia ( , " Iztochna Rumeliya " ; , " Rumeli - i Şarkî " ; , " Anatoliki Romylia " ) was an autonomous unit ( Oblast in Bulgarian , vilayet in Turkish ) in the Ottoman Empire , created in 1878 by the Treaty of Berlin and de facto ended in 1885 , when it was united with Bulgaria , of which it is a part today . However , it continued to be " de jure " an Ottoman province until 1908 , when Bulgaria declared independence . Ethnic Bulgarians had an absolute majority within Eastern Rumelia , with a significant ethnic Turk and Greek population . Its capital was Plovdiv ( Ottoman : " Filibe " , Greek : " Philippopolis " ) . History . Eastern Rumelia was created as an autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 . It encompassed the territory between the Balkan Mountains , the Rhodope Mountains and Strandzha , a region known to all its inhabitantsBulgarians , Ottoman Turks , Roma , Greeks , Armenians and Jewsas Northern Thrace . The artificial name , Eastern Rumelia , was given to the province on the insistence of the British delegates to the Congress of Berlin : the Ottoman notion of " Rumelia " refers to all European regions of the empire , i . e . those that were in Antiquity under the Roman Empire . Some twenty Pomak ( Bulgarian Muslim ) villages in the Rhodope Mountains refused to recognize Eastern Rumelian authority and formed the so - called " Republic of Tamrash " . The province is remembered today by philatelists for having issued postage stamps from 1880 on . See the main article , Postage stamps and postal history of Eastern Rumelia . Unification with Bulgaria . After a bloodless revolution on 6 September 1885 , the province was annexed by the Principality of Bulgaria , which was " de jure " a tributary state but " de facto " functioned as independent nation . After the Bulgarian victory in the subsequent Serbo - Bulgarian War , the " status quo " was recognized by the Porte with the Tophane Agreement on 24 March 1886 . With the Tophane Act , Sultan Abdul Hamid II appointed the Prince of Bulgaria ( without mentioning the name of the incumbent prince Alexander of Bulgaria ) as Governor - General of Eastern Rumelia , thus retaining the formal distinction between the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia and preserving the letter of the Berlin Treaty . However , it was clear to the Great Powers that the union between the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia was permanent , and not to be dissolved . The Republic of Tamrash and the region of Kardzhali were reincorporated in the Ottoman Empire . The province was nominally under Ottoman suzerainty until Bulgaria became " de jure " independent in 1908 . 6 September , Unification Day , is a national holiday in Bulgaria . Government . According to the Treaty of Berlin , Eastern Rumelia was to remain under the political and military jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire with significant administrative autonomy ( Article 13 ) . The law frame of Eastern Rumelia was defined with the Organic Statute which was adopted on 14 April 1879 and was in force until the Unification with Bulgaria in 1885 . According to the Organic Statute the head of the province was a Christian Governor - General appointed by the Sublime Porte with the approval of the Great Powers . The legislative organ was a Provincial Counsel which consisted of 56 persons , of which 10 were appointed by the Governor - General , 10 were permanent and 36 were directly elected by the people . The first Governor - General was the Bulgarian prince Alexander Bogoridi ( 1879 – 1884 ) who was acceptable to both Bulgarians and Greeks in the province . The second Governor - General was Gavril Krastevich ( 1884 – 1885 ) , a famous Bulgarian historian . Before the first Governor - General , Arkady Stolypin was the Russian Civil Administrator from 9 October 1878 to 18 May 1879 . During the period of Bulgarian annexation Georgi Stranski was appointed as a " Commissioner for South Bulgaria " ( 9 September 1885 - 5 April 1886 ) , and when the province was restored to nominal Ottoman sovereignty , but still under Bulgarian control , the Prince of Bulgaria was recognized by the Sublime Porte as the Governor - General . Administrative divisions . Eastern Rumelia consisted of the departments ( called in Bulgarian окръзи " okrazi " , in Ottoman terminology " sanjaks " ) of Plovdiv ( Filibe ) , Pazardzhik ( Tatarpazarcığı ) , Haskovo ( Hasköy ) , Stara Zagora ( Eski Zağra ) , Sliven ( İslimye ) and Burgas ( Burgaz ) , in turn divided into 28 cantons ( equivalent to Bulgarian околии " okolii " , Ottoman " kazas " ) . The cantons were : Population and ethnic demographics . The earliest information on the ethnic demographics of Eastern Rumelia , before the first census was conducted , comes from ethnographic maps of the Balkans by Western cartographers . There is however little information on the actual population numbers of the different ethnic groups before 1878 . According to a British report before the 1877 – 1878 war , the non - Muslim population ( which were mostly Bulgarians ) of Eastern Rumelia , was about 60 % which proportion grew due to the flight and emigration of Muslims during and after the war . The results of the first Regional Assembly elections of 17 October 1879 show a predominantly Bulgarian character : Of the 36 elected deputies , 31 were Bulgarians ( 86 . 1 % ) , 3 were Greeks ( 8 . 3 % ) and two were Turks ( 5 . 6 % ) . The ethnic statistics from the censuses of 1880 and 1884 show a Bulgarian majority in the province . In the discredited census of 1880 , out of total population of 815 , 951 people some 590 , 000 ( 72 . 3 % ) self - identified as Bulgarians , 158 , 000 ( 19 . 4 % ) as Turks , 19 , 500 ( 2 . 4 % ) as Roma , and 48 , 000 ( 5 . 9 % ) belonged to other ethnicities , notably Greeks , Armenians and Jews . The repetition of the census in 1884 returned similar data : 70 . 0 % Bulgarians , 20 . 6 % Turks , 2 . 8 % Roma and 6 . 7 % others . The Greek inhabitants of Eastern Rumelia were concentrated on the coast , where they were strong in numbers , and certain cities in the interior such as Plovdiv , where they formed a substantial minority . Most of the Greek population of the region was exchanged with Bulgarians from the Greek provinces of Macedonia and Thrace in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars and World War I . As of 2001 , there are about 3400 Greeks in Bulgaria , and about 4100 Sarakatsani . Eastern Rumelia was also inhabited by foreign nationals , most notably Austrians , Czechs , Hungarians , French people and Italians . The ethnic composition of the population of Eastern Rumelia , according to the provincial census taken in 1884 , was the following : The population ' s ethnic composition in the Bulgarian provinces of Pazardzhik , Plovdiv , Stara Zagora , Haskovo , Sliven , Yambol and Burgas , which have approximately the same territory as Eastern Rumelia according to the 2001 census is the following : Ownership . Property abandoned by Muslims fleeing the Russian army during the 1877 – 1878 war was appropriated by the local population . The former owners , mostly large landholders , were threatened with trial by military court if they had committed crimes during the war , so that they would not return . Two Turkish landowners who did return were in fact sentenced to death thus preventing others from desiring to come back . Those Turkish landowners who were not able to take possession of their land were financially compensated , with the funds collected by the Bulgarian peasants , some of whom were indebted as a result . For those who did return a 10 % property tax was issued , forcing many to sell off their property in order to pay the tax . Michael Palairet claimed that land rights of Muslim owners were largely disregarded despite of being guaranteed by the powers and de - Ottomanization of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia led to the economic decline in the region , which is contradicted by many other authors , who show rapid growth of the economy as well as rapid industrial development and growth of exports in Bulgaria after 1878 . Notes and references . Notes . < br > < br > < br >