I am a dark haired Brit/German mix

ahhhh

lulz

nearly triggered me there

lol

There are some people who claim that Balkans are not Slavic because we only adopted language

yes

I heard this

I spent a lot of time in Bulgaria

But outsiders cant really comprehend it

Because we have like gazillion of toponyms here that are purely slavic

names also

and it is easy to see 500 years of turkish ottoman rule htere

as well as customs

there*

however

they are Slavs

while you can surely adopt language, you cannot adopt every custom and every tradition

true

but to me it's as foolish as saying Ukrainans aren't slavs

Like all ancient slavic festivals here have been recycled to appear Christian

And Slavic toponyms are everywhere

Very close to me home is a hill called "Mogyla" which has thaht name for like hundreds years

since they minged with the early Turkik settlers

Bulgarian famous mountain is also called Pirin, which is their pronunciation of Perun

Khazars

There are many misconceptions though

Procopius, 1400 year ago

where are you from in the Balkans?

Did not describe Balkan Slavs as blonde at all

But as "ginger" in appearance

lol

Chechens

Same for Goths and like tribes

But obviously, at the time, Byzantium was not yet in established contact with Slavic people from northern lands, like Novgorod etc

Which are much more blonde in appearance

Fables we have here, like 90% of them are full of Slavic mythology

I used to debate these ideas a lot

but I think the term white applies to all native European peoples

and even can extend to Georgia

Chencens are white - probably whiter than Spaniards, Greeks, etc