Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-08-02
TURKISH cRUELr,Es.
Massacre Of unarmed Villagers
$4,000 Killed in Gold. Blood
Outrages Upon Women.

The Pera correspondent Of the Lon.
, don Times says: tits needless to say
that the representatives of the foreign
! powers, ani especially the French
Ambassador, are far from satisfied
, that justice has been done. The clever
. wretches who suffered capital pun.
ishment at Salonica, were common
malefactOrs, obnoxious to the Turk.
ish populace, and scarcely worth the
rope with which they were hanged
and of the real instigators of the
murder not one has been brought to
trial, the government not daring to
rouse the fury which would be kind
led among Mohammedans, should il
be known that only one drop of pre-
cions Mussulman blood had been
spilled to atone for the blood of two
Christian victims. In Bulgaria, on
the contrary, the wholesale execution
of men supposed to have been impli-
Gated in the abortivc insurrcction is
incessant. Twelve of these wretches
were hanged in Tartar Bazardki on
the 10th. Two of them were priests.
With respect to the horrors OF which
that once flonrishing province has
been and is still the theatre. / beg to
snbioin letter written by man
whose thorough information and
whose impartiality, and even loyal
attachment to the Ottoman Govein-
ment, l have every reason to rely.
| think it is of the highest importance
that the fact should be strictly inquir-
ed into and made manifest through
out the civilized countries:
As a general rule, the officers and
soldiers of the regular army have be-
haved vely well. Cheyket Pasha is
the most striking exception. The
Governors of many Of the towns have
not only done well, but in many
cases have acted heroically. The
Government here has probably not
ordered any general massacre of un-
armed villagers, but it is directly re,
sponsible for these outrages, because
1t has known of them and made no
effort to stop them, because it has or
dered the disarming of the whole
Bulgarian population. and then arm
ed the Circassians and Bashi Bazouks, |
and turned them loose upon these |
helpless towns. What has been done |
by these savages?
l More than one hundred Bnlga-
rian towns have been utterly destroy
ed. although no pretext of revolu-
tlonary movements existed i'm regard |
to more than five or six of these. A |
province formerly bringing i'm rev.
enue of FL, 100000 to the Government
has been devastated. The names of
these towns and all the particulars
Inn NraI, ~
wishes to see them.
:. At least $4,000 unarmed and. in
offensive people have been massacred
in. cold blood. According to the
Turkish papers of Constantinople,
at least 10000.
3. More than 1000 Bulgarian chill
dren have been taken and sold as
slaves. They have been sold public
ly in the streets Of Adrianople and
Philiopolis.
4. Horrible tortures of every de-
scription have been inflicted on thons-
ands of those not murdered
.. The ontrages upon women have
been more general and more brutal
than in any case l ever read of.
These outrages are more terrible be-
cause Bulgarian women have higher
ideas of virtue than those of any 9TH
cr nationality in the East. If the
women of England could know the
facts such cry of Indignation would
go up As would arouse all Europe to
action.
6. At least 10000 Bulgarians are
now !.sy u pr.IIsss9Aa Al and are undergoing
middle ages, and which were former
ly declared to be abolished in Turk
ey by the Sultan Abdul Medjid.
Z. Many thousand refugees are
crowded in the larger towns, where
they suffer all kinds of abuse from
the Turkish population, and are starv-
ing to death because the Bnlgarians
are not allowed to help them.