Evening journal., 1903-08-17
ATROCITIES OF
TURKS EXPOSED
Bulgaria Makes Public the
Porte's Reform" Measures
in Macedonia
TERRIBLE CATEGORY OF CRIME

BdIldn government mas presented q
memorandum to the powers setting
out at great length the condition OF
affairs during the past three months
in Macedonia since the Turkish gov
ernment 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 cate
CORY OF murder, torture, incendiarism,
pillage and general oppression com.
mitted by the Ottoman soldiers and
officials. The Bulgarian government
guarantees the absolute truth of every
statement. and challenges the Porte
to disprove a single charge made in
the memorandum.
The memorandum begins by stating
that during the past three months the
Ottoman 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 to the Bulgarian popu-
lation of Europe and Turkey but which
have had the contrary effect of further
exasperating the population and re-
viving the revolutionary movement
Wholesale massacres, individual
murders. the destruction of villages,
the pillaging and setting fire to houses,
the arrests. i'll treatment, tortures, ar
bitrary Imprisonment and Punishment,
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 administra-
tion of the vilayets of Salonica, Mon
astir. Uskub and Adrianople.
The memorandum relates in detail
a number of such cases in each vii
ayet. Beginning with the vilayet oi
Salonica, it states that in the town
Salonica itself the Bulgarian profess
sors of the university, the students
and shopkeepers, in fact all the intel
ligent Bulgarians in the city, have
been cast into prison. One hundred
and twenty soldiers entered the village
of Gorna-Ribnitza May 19 and tortured
to death five men and two women.
During the first three months OF July,
35 villages in the district Of TilSvesch
were subjected to the depredations Of
the Turkish soldiers and Bashl-Ba-
zouks. The villagers we're beaten and
tortured, the women violated and the
houses plundered while the admins
trative authorities looked on.
In the vilayet of Monastir. artillery
bombarded and razed the fourishing
town of Smerdesh, the 800 houses being
left a heap of ruins. At the begin
ming of July two Greek bands with the
connivance of the authorities pillaged
Bulgarian villages and murdered many
of their inhabitants.
In the vilayet of Usl1ub the entire
Bulgarian population has been syste-
matially prosecuted since last May.
The director of the normal school at
Uskub was imprisoned beause his Ii
bray contained the revolutionary"
works of "Othello" and Les Misera-
bles."
In the districts of Palanka, Kosch-
eni, Koumanovo and Gostigar the pris-
ons are filled with Bulgarian priests,
schoolmasters and merchants. During
June the soldiers and Bashi-Bazouks
terrorized the inhabitants OF the Sehtif
district. torturing the people with red
hot irons. Similar atrocities perpe-
trated in the vilayet of fdrianople are
ited.
At Smerdesch over two hundred
Bulgarians were shot, killed with
swords or burned to death. over $50
houses and the churches and schools
were set on fire with petroleum and
pillaged. the property being sold by the
soldiers and Bashi-BazOuks in neigh
boring places. Similar scenes occurred
at the villages of Gorna-Ribnitza, Ig-
oumenetz, DobrilalSi and Nikoden. The
villagers there abandoned their homes
and fed to the mountains. over 5000
men, women and children fed from tn
Sanjak Of Seres. and even more from
the Saniak OF Kirkklisse.
In onclusion. the memorandum de-
nies that Bulgaria fomented the revo-
luton in Macedonia,snd says the above
exposures condemn Turkeys govern
ment in Europe.