There’s a large minority of Bulgarians and surprisingly Albanians that live in modern day Ukraine, who are there for like 200 years already. So much to the point that they influenced Ukrainians culture and the other way around.

Coincidentally, these minorities live in the part of Ukraine (Odessa), that was historically under the Ottoman Empire for over 300 years, maybe even 400 (not vassal, not “technically a part of”, but fully a part of).

My questions are the following:

• I’ve tried searching “Bulgarian/Albanian Ukrainians folk outfit” but I’ve got no results. Do you any of you have confirmed photos of what the Albanian folk outfit in Ukraine looks like?

• What are some direct similarities you can draw between Albanian and Ukrainian culture, either in terms of dance, food, music etc…

• How did this region of Ukraine, despite being under direct Ottoman rule for centuries, retain so little Turkish influence?

I did some research on this part of Ukraine and apparently, the old folks outfits of Odessa of the ethnic Ukrainians is like lost media. Little is known about them. It’s almost as if Ukraine tried to vehemently suppress and erase its Ottoman influence, as even though Ukraine/Turkic culture has a lot of parallels, I can’t really picture Ukrainian people saying mašala, drinking Turkish coffee out of a džezva and eating rahat lokum.

But in theory, they should be able to given their history. Yes?