Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-12-26
THE WORK OF THE TURK
A Picture of Life in Eastern Europe
Today.

| It is impossible for the most cold
booded human being, a Turk excepted.
| to visit the unhappy vilayet of Adfia-
NOBLE now and remain calm. Some
what hardened as / am by the horrors
Of Monastir my blood is still boiling
from the accounts of Turkish cruelty
III Adrianople.
l managed to reach Kirk Kilisse,
which is siXty-five kilometres from
Adrianople, and spent a day and a half
in that pretty town, to the great an
noyance of the authorities. Longer I
could not stay; even as it was, an at
tempt was made to force me to leave
at once, but a sick horse proved an
insurmountable obstacle. Originally /
intended to go to Tirnovo, through the
heart of the devastated country, but in
the face of such opposition it was I'M
possible. The evening before 1 left [
was arrested by soldiers While strolling
on the fringe of the town, and kept am
nour standing in the road, threatened
by soldier with his rifle whenever l
moved. But it is not of these things
that L Wish to write.
Before commencing my list of
atrocities. however. | wish to state en-
phatically that as in every case my in
formants We're Greeks, or Turks of q
more humane character, there can be
no question Of biased stories, and that
the balance of crimina!ity" no more
exists in this unhappy vilayet than it
did at MOnastir. Even the rabii
Bulgarphobes could quote no instance
of Wanton cruelty on the part of the
komitajis, nor the name Of a single
village, Turkish not excepted, burnt by
the bands. If DO not always quote
my informant, which / could do in
every case, it is for obvious reasons:
but / hold the proofs in many cases in
my possession.
TO commence with. l will take Il few
extracts from a letter of Il komitaj
now imprisoned at Adrianople. l read
the original myself-a dirty scrap OF
paper folded into the smallest possible
shape, and struggled in a plate of food
remnants out Of the prison. II is dated
18th Sept, old style (2ath new Style:
The military tribunal has been abol-
ished, and d new one has been insti-
tuted in its place 1t passes sentences
80 far it ..as condemned thirty-siX
years deportation, and the remaining
twenty to death, or to one hundred and
ona years hard labor. No good can be
expected from, q thoroughly fanatcal
tribunal whose motto is 'Ghiaoura izat
etmek seba2ter' CIT is a good work to
Cypress the unbeliever).
After sentence the prisoners are
shut up in dark cells without windows,
into which they are packed like
sardines. From these holes they are
taken for ten minutes in the fresh air
once in twentyfOur hours. Many are
already prostratred from fortunes I'M
dergChe and from the filth and misery.
ant. are left without medical assistance.
The writer of these lines was Ill and
taken before the doctor, Socro5 EffenGi
Whit is your nationality"
Bulgarian.
Poison, poison for you, The Sultan's
enemy. Oksc! rGet OUT. in Creek.
Such was the medical help | OBJ
tanned. 1t is a pitiful sight, II YOU
could see the poor skeletons of pea
SAINTS, starving, naked, sitting the
whole day with eyes fixed and heads
bowed on their breasts; how quietly
their lives are passing away! The long
weary day passes only to be succeeded
by the twice worse night. It is worse
than the Turkish torture. .. 0 God.
why dost not Thou look down upon the
'raya' Turkish name for Christian
subject and sheep alitel to see to what
Il condition he has been reduced? But
let them torture us. Brutal Turkey
may kill us, but the oppressed slave
Will not be annhilated by the killing of
a few hundreds. We are soon to be
dcported to a distant land, to living
tombs such as ST. Jean d'Acre,
Podroum, and Diarbekir. But we do
not fear; from the day we consecrated
our lives to the holy cause. from the
day on which We kissed the holy re-
volver ana the twice holy dagger 1.-THE
ceremony on joining the instruction
partyl. We have ever been ready to die
for this cause