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Kornitsa is a village in Gotse Delchev Municipality, in Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria. It is situated 9 kilometers northwest of Gotse Delchev and 63 kilometers southeast of Blagoevgrad in the foothills of Pirin mountain. The river of Marevo flows through the village.
After the First Balkan War the village together with the whole region of Nevrokop joined Bulgaria and was subject of ethnic and religious changes due to the migration after the war. Almost all of the Greek and the majority of the Turkish population fled from the area and many Bulgarian Christian and some Bulgarian Muslim people came from the parts of Macedonia, left outside the Bulgarian border. The local population of Bulgarian Muslims however continued to present vast majority of the rural population, including the village of Kornitsa. Immediately after becoming part of Bulgaria, forces of IMRO with the assistance of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church started a process of enforced conversion of the pomak population to Christianity and changing of their Islamic names. There were 250 pomak households in Kornitsa in the end of 1912.Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. „The Human Rights of Muslims in Bulgaria in Law and Politics since 1878“ , Sofia, November 2003, p. 25. The campaign led to no significant results after those actions, because the local people returned to their old names and religion in the recent months. There has been several other attempts of conversion- in 1917 and in 1942. After 1944 the conversion ceased for a while, but in 1956 a new strategy has been formed about the "national awareness of the Bulgarian Muslims". On March 28, 1973 in the village of Kornitsa armed forces of the Militia and the Army attempted to occupy the village and met organized resistance from the local people and there were casualties from the both sides. There is a monument in the center of the village and annually a memorial service takes place there. Many families were displaced to the Northern districts of Bulgaria - Mihaylovgrad (nowadays Montana), Vratsa, Pleven, Tolbuhin (nowadays Dobrich). Twelve people were imprisoned for different terms. The aftermath of those events seriously affected the life of the people, who left in these villages. The policy towards changing the Islamic names and diminishing the influence of the Islamic religion led to restrictions on the traditional clothing, especially of the women. On December 29, 1989 year the new Bulgarian government officially ceased the assimilation and returned the old names, so that day is praised as a holiday and named "Kortolush Bairam".
The Marevo river flows through the village and gathers water from the higher parts of the mountain. There are three small cirque lake in the Kornitsa cirque - Kornitsa lakes. Places for picnic and rest have been made along the river and the village is an access point for mountain tours.
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