Kurdzhali

(Turkish kircali, literally “plains dweller”; from kir, “field,” “plain”), members of armed units that formed illegally in various regions of the Balkan Peninsula after the Russo-Turkish War of 1789–91. The Kurdzhali, made largely of landless peasants and déclassé elements, subjected the local population, especially the Bulgarians, to pillage and atrocities. They were used by Turkish separatist feudal lords in the struggle against the central authorities. At the beginning of the 19th century, they were crushed by the regular Turkish Army, and the survivors went into the hired service of various Turkish pashas (for example, Osman Pazvantoglu).

a territorial and administrative division in southern Bulgaria, along the Turkish border. Area, 4,000 sq km. Population, 300,000 (1970). Administrative center, Kurdzhali.

The district of Kurdzhali is located in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains, in the Arda basin. Its mining industry, nonferrous metallurgy, and hydraulic power engineering, which have developed since the advent of popular rule, are of importance for all of Bulgaria. In 1969, about 77 percent of the district’s total industrial output came from heavy industry. An ore beneficiation plant and a lead and zinc combine have been built in Kurdzhali to utilize local ores. Tobacco-growing (the high-quality oriental type) is Kurdzhali’s main agricultural concern, accounting for 20 percent of Bulgaria’s total tobacco crop. Most of the tobacco of Kurdzhali is exported.

a city in southern Bulgaria; the administrative center of the district of Kurdzhali. Population, 45,000 (1970).

Kurdzhali is the center of Bulgaria’s most important tobacco-growing region. The city’s major industries are tobacco and nonferrous metals production (with a lead-zinc combine, drawing from the local ores of the Rhodope Mountains).