Balkan Supernatural Folklore Tales Inspire Turkish Horror Author

Abdulharis Pasha of Strandzha, a mountainous region that straddles modern-day Turkey and Bulgaria, was the son of an Ottoman lord.

He joined the Ottoman army as a commander during the 16th Century siege of Vienna, and was made a pasha to combat Balkan bandits - although later he went on to become a bandit himself.

Then, finally, he turned into a vampire, living on for several more centuries as he menaced the Turkish, Bulgarian, Serb and Greek populations of Strandzha, Thrace and other parts of the Balkans.

As a vampire, Abdulharis also witnessed the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 and the fall of Edirne (Adrianople) to Bulgarian forces as the Ottoman Empire lost the majority of its European lands to the united Balkan nations.

Abdulharis is, of course, a fictional character, created by Turkish horror novelist Mehmet Berk Yaltirik, whose writings draw on the Balkans' rich folkloric legacy of supernatural stories, dating back thousands of years.

"I always had an interest in fictional horror stories but when I saw the richness of the Balkan region in regards to the folklore of horror stories, I started to use Balkan motifs and characters in my stories and books," Yaltirik told BIRN in an interview.

Yaltirik is a young novelist, historian and editor from the Turkish city of Edirne in Eastern Thrace - the only remaining Turkish area in the Balkans.

"When I was in Edirne, I started to hear stories from old people which were passed down from older generations, about evil spirits, ghouls and bandits who attacked people on their migration routes," he explained, referring to Balkan Turks and other Muslims who fled to Thrace because of the conflicts in the Balkans but were preyed upon by gangs of thieves along the way.

"This led...