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The settlement of Armenians on Bulgarian territory dates back to Armenians in the service of the Byzantine army, later to numerous settlements of Armenian military, and the growth of Paulicianism, a heresy created mainly by Armenians and Syrians. Mass immigration started in the beginning of the 17th century, when an economic and political crisis developed in Ottoman Armenia. After Bulgaria's 1878 Liberation from Ottoman rule, there were 4,000 Armenians in the Principality of Bulgaria and 1,300 in Eastern Rumelia, according to an 1884 census. Waves of refugees fled to Bulgaria after the 1896 and 1915 genocides. During the rule of Kemal Atatürk and after the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War, the Armenians were compelled to seek refuge beyond Turkey. On the orders of the Alexander Stamboliiski government, Bulgaria opened its borders to refugees in 1922, and approximately 25,000 Armenians settled in the country. Today there are 13,000 Armenians in Bulgaria, with their own churches, schools, newspapers and cultural life in many cities such as Plovdiv, Sofia, Shumen, etc.
