Many historians have believed that the ancient Bulgars were a Turkic people. However, I think that it is more plausible to think that they were related to the Indo-Iranian
Sarmatians or the Indo-European
Scythians.
This map gives the location of the Sarmatians and the Scythians in the year ~100 BC
Now compare it with the location of the Bulgars ~650 AD
Some interesting information on the Proto-Bulgars:
Rasho Rashev - On the origin of the Proto-Bulgarians (1992)
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'Dardanidae duri, quae uos a stirpe parentum
prima tulit tellus, eadem uos ubere laeto
accipiet reduces. Antiquam exquirite matrem:
hic domus Aeneae cunctis dominabitur oris,
et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis.'
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
–Plato–
'Many people, I believe, wish for a society where faith, decency, pro-life convictions and national self-determination within Europe can flourish; and not be swallowed up in a dictatorial EU bureaucracy.'
–Gerry McGeough, Irish Nationalist and POW–