Muslim Bulgarians , the descendants of Bulgaria n Christian s who converted to Islam under the Ottomans . Their name is usually traced to the words ''помъчен'' ("tortured") or ''помагач'' ("collaborator")." They speak Bulgarian as a mother tongue and are not to be confused with the country's ethnic Turks and other Muslim s. Bulgaria does not consider Pomaks to be a separate ethnic group but a religious minority.
Members of the Greek Muslim Minority who speak Bulgarian Dialect s of the Rhodope type and number some 30,000 in the Greek region of Western Thrace . Greece has tentatively promoted the development of a standard Pomak Language distinct from Bulgarian via the publication of a Greek -Pomak dictionary. The Pomaks of Greece are not legally recognised as a separate minority but rather form part of the wider Muslim minority.
