Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-08-17
TURKEY 5 AWFUL CRIME
Memorandum Presented to
Powers by Bulgaria, Enum-
Grating Atrocities
OFFICIAL SOURCES EMPLOYED
Massacres. Individual Muir
ders. Destruction of Villages, Arbi-
trary Imprisonment and Tortures Are
Only Few of the Crimes Charged
No Sign of Promised Reforms.

Sofia, Bulgaria. Aug. 1.-THE Bull
garian government has presented a
memorandum to the powers setting out
at great length the condition of affairs
during the past three months in Mace
donia, since the Turkish government
undertook to inaugurate the promised
reforms. The most precise details,
dates, places and names of persons are
given in the memorandum. the whole
constituting n terrible category OF muir
der, torture, incendiarism, pllage, ami
general oppression committed by the
Ottoman soldiers and officials. These
particulars We're obtained entirely from
official sources, such as the reports of
the Bulgarian consuls, and agents of
the Bulgarian government and in many
instances the reports made by Turkish
authorities. The Bulgarian govern
ment guarantees the absolute truth of
every statement and challenges the
in the memorandum. The memorandum
begins by stating that during the past
three months the Ottoman government.
has taken series of measures with the
alleged intention of inaugurating the
era of promised reform and of assuring
peace and tranquility to the Bulgarian
population of European Turkey, but
which have had the contrary effect
of further eNasperating this population
and reviving the revolutionary move
ment. Instead of proceeding solely
against persons guilty of breaches Of
the public order, the military and civil!
authorities have sought every possible
pretext to persecute. terrorize and ruin
the Bulgarian inhabitants, alike in the
large cities and in the small villages.
Terrible Charges Made.
Wholesale massacres. individual muir
ders, and destruction of villages, the
pillaging and selling, i'll treatment, tor
lures, arbitrary Imprisonment and ban
ishment, the closing and disorganizing
of churches and schools, the running OF
merchants, the collection of taxes for
many years in advance-such. pro-
ceeds the memorandum, are among the
acts of the Ottoman administration of
the vilayetS of Salonica, MonaStir, Us
kug Adranople.
The memorandum next relates in de-
tail a number of such cases in each
rilayet. Beginning with the viayet of
Salonica, it states that in the town Of
Salonica itself the Bulgarian profess
sors of the university, the students AMI
shopkeepers, in fact all the intelligent
Bulgarians in the city, have been cast
into prison. One hundred and twenty
soldiers entered the village of Gorna
Ribnitza May 10th and tortured to
death five men and two women. Dur
ing the first three weeks OF July TWEEN
ty-five villages in the district of Tx
vesch We're subjected to the depreda-
tons of the Turkish soldiers and Bash.-
Bazouks. The villagers were beaten
and tortured, the women violated and
the houses plundered while the adj
ministrative authorities looked on.
In the vilayet of Monastir artillery
bombarded and RACED the fiourishing
town of Smerdesch, the three hundred
houses being left heap of ruins.
At the beginning of July two Greek
bands with the connivance of the au-
thorities pillaged Bulgarian villages
and murdered many of their inhabi-
tants.
In the vilayet of Uskub the entire
Bulgarian population has been system
atically prosecuted since last May.
In the districts of Palanka, Koschan!,
Koumanovo and Gostigar, the prisons
are filed with Bulgarian priests,
schoolmasters and merchants. During
June the soldiers and Bashi -Bazouks
terrorized the inhabitants of the Szch.-
tit district. torturing the people with
red hot irons. Similar astrocities per-
petrated in the vilayet of Adrianople
are cited.
Altogether the memorandum gives
particulars of no less than 131 individ-
ual and general cases of excuses and
outrages committed by the Turkish
authorities. In summarizing the spe
cific details of the outrages mentioned
the memorandum declares that whole
sale masSacres We're perpetrated by
regulars and Bashi Bazouks in the
town of Salonica and the villages of
Baldevo, Banitza, Echourilovo. Kar-
binza, Moghila Smerdesch and Enidja,
while the scenes of carnage, pillaga
and incendiarism were everywhere ter
rible.
Two Hundred Killed.
At Smerdesch over 200 BulgarianS
We're shot, killed with swords or burned
to DEATH over $50 houses and the
churches and schools We're set on fife
with petroleum and pillaged, the prop
erty being sold by the soldiers ana
Bashi- Bazouks in neighboring places.
Similar scenes occurred at other viii
lagos. The villagers abandoned their
homes and fled to the mountains.
over 5000 men, women and children
fed from the sanjak of Sores and even