Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-08-17
Present Their Side of the Case
to the Powers.
Statement Issued Enumerating the
Terrible ATROCITIES Of the Turks.
The Continent Given Something to
Thing of, at Least.

great length the condition of affalrs
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 a terrible category OF
murder, torture, incendiarism, pillage
and general oppression committed by
the Ottoman soldiers and officials.
These particulars were obtained entire
ly from official sources such as the
reports of the Bulgarian consuls ana
agents of the Bulgarian government
and in many instances the reports Oh
the Bulgarian consuls and agents OF the
Bulgarian government and in many IN
stances the reports made by TURKISH
authorities. The Bulgarian government
guarantees the absolute truth of every
statement and challenges the Forte 10
disprove a single charge made IN the
memorandum.
The memorandum begins by stating
that during the PAST three months the
Ottaman government has taken a Sc
ries of measures with the alleged IN
tention of inaugurating the era OF
promised reform and of assuring peace
and tranquility in the Bulgarian popu-
lation of European Turkey but when
have had the contrary effect of further
exasperating this population and reviv-
ing the revolutionary movement. In
stead proceeding solely against persons
guilty of breaches of the public order
the military and civil authorities have
sought every pos sble pretext to perse-
cute, terrorize ana ruin the Bulgarian
Inhabitants alike in the large cities and
in the small villages.
Wholesale massacres, individual muir
ders, the destruction of villages, the
pillaging and setting fire to houses,
arrests, ill-treatment torture, arbi-
trary Imprisonment and Punishment,
the closing and dsorganizing of church.
es and schools, the running of mer-
chants. the collection of taxes for many
years in advance, such AYERS the MEM
orandum, are among the acts of the
Ottoman administration of the vilay-
etes of Salonica, Monastir Uskub and
Adrianople.
The memorandum next relates in de-
tail a number of such cases in each
vilayet Beginning with the vilayet of
Salonica. it states that in the town of
Salonica itself the Bulgarian professors
of the university the students and
shopkeepers, in fact all intelligent Bull
garians in the city have been cast into
prison. One hundred and twenty
soldiers entered the village of Gorna-
Ribnitza, May 10, and tortured to
death five men and two women. During
the first three weeks of July, % villages
in the district of Tikvesch were subject
ed to the depredations of the Turkish
soldiers and Bashi- BaZouks. The viii
layers We're beaten and tortured, the
women violated and houses plundered
while the administrative authorities
looked on.
In the Vilayet of Monastir, artillery
bombarded and RACED the fourishing
town of Smerdesch, the 300 houses be-
ing left a heap of ruins. At the be-
ginning of July, two Greek bands with
the connivance of the authorities pill
LACED Bulgarian villages and murdered
many OF their Inhabitants In the
vilayet Of Uskurb the entire Bulgarian
population has been systematically
prosecuted since last May The d-
rector of the Normal school at Uskurb
contained the Revolutionary" works
"Othello" and Les Miserabes" In
the districts of Palanka, koschani
Koumanovo and Gostigar the prisons
are filled with Bulgarian priests
schoolmasters and merchants. During
June. the soldiers and Bashi- BaZouks
terrorized the inhabitants of the Schtif
district torturing the people with red
trated in the vilayet of Adrianople are
cited
Altogether, the memorandum gives
particulars of no less than 131 indi-
vidual cases of excuses and outrages
committed by the Turkish authorities.
In summarizing the specific details of
the outrages mentioned, the memoran-
dun declares that wholesale massacres
were perpetrated by regulars and
Bashi-B aZouks in the town of Salonica
and the villages of Baldevo, Banitza,
Tchourlovo, Karbinza, Moghila, Smer-
desch and Enidje, while the scenes of
carnage, pillage and incendiarism We're
everywhere terrible.
At Smerdsch, over 200 Bulgarians
We're shot. killed with swords or burn
ed to death. Over $50 houses and the
cnurcneS ana schools were SET on ire
with petroleum and pillaged, the prop
erty being sold by the soldiers and
Bashi- Bazouks in neighboring places.
Similar scenes occurred at the villages
Of Gorna- Ribnitza. Igoumenetz. Dob
rilaki and Nikoden. The villagers there
abandoned their homes and fled to the
mountains.
Over 5000 men, women and children
fled from the Sanjak of Sores and even
more from the Sanjak of Kirkklisze.
1t Is difficult, says the memorandum,
to obtain the exact number of Bull
garians who We're imprisoned, mostly
on the flimsiest pretexts, as when they
were released others We're Immediately
arrested. The estimates obtainable
give for the vilayet of Salonica 900
prisoners; for Uskub 500; for Monastir
$50, and for Adrianople $50; a grand
total of $500. AS information is lack
ing from many districts in these
vilayets it is thought that without ex-
aggeration the number of prisoners
y ~, ~;