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420 Dobrinka Parusheva these papers as a possible “réservoir” for comparisons for the period 1909-1915. In 1916, Balgaran made its second appearance at the end of an epoch that was about to change the entire value system of Europe and the European way of thinking. As any other time, this period was open to humorous interpretation. 1900s: Peaceful Time There are many situations and persons that attracted the attention of the Bälgaran caricaturists during the first decade of the twentieth century. However, only a few can be considered from the point of view of imagining the Other, conceived in terms of the neighboring peoples beyond the state border, since all the Balkan countries were focused on their current domestic problems and not on the disagreements with their neighbors. As an exception to this, representations of the sultan of the Ottoman Empire can be cited as representative of Bulgarian attitudes regarding the politics of the empire. Abdul Hamid’s image was used to comment on the inability of the empire to follow the way of reforms in general and, more particularly, to apply the reforms in Macedonia required by the Great Powers. At the end of February 1905, for instance, the sultan was pictured in European clothing accompanied by an editorial note: “Reforms will be introduced to the extent to which the European suit suits him.” Three years later, the Ba/garan people made fun of the sultan again; this time occasioned by the dissatisfaction of the Great Powers with the fact that the reforms already promised in 1903 had not yet begun. Abdul Hamid looks very uneasy in the face of the appearance of a “squadron” of flying eagles; a map of Macedonia sticks up out of his pocket: “I do not know why these Miirzsteg eagles are flying to me—because of this bone or??” (ill. 189). Only the sultan was made an object of fun during this first decade of the twentieth century. None of the other Ottoman politicians, stereotypical images of Turks, or Muslims in general were caricatured. At the same time, Balgaran occasionally published pictures stereotyping Greek and Serbs. For the Bulgarian people or, at least, for Bulgarian intellectuals, such as those working for Bälgaran, the Serb was closely identified with the image of the pig (pig-breeding is one of the main occupations in Serbia). And during 1906 when there were problems with trading and customs between Serbia and Austro-Hungary, some images of Serbs in traditional clothes accompanied by a pig appeared on the pages of Bälgaran. There were, however, no other negative elements at that time. Later, the images changed and Serbs were personified in the form of pigs (as we will see below). The Greeks, however, were thought of as stingy and swindlers: a caricature from the same year shows a man wearing modern clothes, leaving a restaurant while the waiter complains: “He is wearing down-at-heel shoes, gives as baksheesh (a tip) fake money—he could be an attaché at the Greek embassy ...” This image of the Greeks was similar to the traditional one, as presented in a Bulgarian dictionary dating from the late-nineteenth century, conveyed in proverbs: “The Greek tells lies as nine Gypsies do. The
