The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1903-08-19
THE FERQG|OUs TURK.
Bulgaria's seathing Exposure Of
Turkish Barharity.
Men, Women and Children Mas
sacred in Various Places
The Women Raped.
Men and Women Tortured to Death and
the Prisons Filled With Priests,
Schoolmasters and Merchants.

Sofa, Bulgaria, Aug. 1e.-The Bull
garian Government has presented a
memorandum to the Powers. setting
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 terrible cate
cory of murder, torture. incendiar
ism, pillage and general oppression
committed by Ottoman soldiers and
officials. These particulars were OBJ
tanned 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 authori-
ties. The Bulgarian Government
guarantees the truth of every state
men5, and challenges the Porte to dis
prove q single charge made in the
memorandum, which begins by stating
that during the past three months
the Ottoman Cover hanmesnt taken q
series of measures with the alleged in
tention Of inaugurating the era Of
promised reform and Of assuring peace
and tranquility to the Buiarian pop
ulation Of European Turkey, but
which have had the contrary effect Of
further exasperating this population
and revivipg the revolutionary move
ment. Instead Of proceeding solely
against persons guilty of breaches of
tbe public order. the military and
civil authorities have sought every
possible preSext to persecute. terrorize
and ruin the Bulgarian Inhabitants,
alike in the large cities and in the
small villages.
Wholesale massacres, individual
murders, the destruction of villages,
the pillaging and setting fire to houses,
the arrests, ill-treatment, tortures.
arbitrary Imprisonment and Danish
ment, the closing and disorganizing
of churches and schools, the running
of merchants, the. collection of taxes
for many years in advance, such, :"
proceeds the memorandum, are among
the acts of the Ottoman administra-
tion of the vilayets of Salonica, Mon
astir, Uskub and Adrianople. -
The memorandum next relates in
detail 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 pro-
fessors 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 Ribnitiza on May 10, and
tortured to death five men and two wo-
men. During the first three weeks of
July twenty-five villages in the district
ofTikvesch were subjected to the de-
predations of the Turkish soldiers and
Bashi- -Bazouks. The villagers were
beaten and totured, the women violated
and the houses plundered, while the
administrative authorities looked on.
In the vilayet of Monastir artillery
bombarded and razed the fourishing
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
authorities, pillaged Bulgarian vii
lagos and murdered many of their in
habitants.
In the vilayet of Uskub the entire
Bulgarian population has been sys-
tematically prosecuted since last May.
The director of the Normal School at
Uskub was imprisoned because his
library contained the revolutionary"
works Of "Othello'' and 'tLes Miser.
ables.77
In the districts of Palanka, Kos
chani 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 Schtif District, torturing the peo-
pie with red hot irons. Similar afro
cities, prepetrated in the vilayet of
Adriaaople, are cited
Altogether, the memorandum gives
particulars Of no less than 13l indi-
vidual and general cases of excessess
and outrages committed by the Turkish
authorities. In summarizing the
specific details of the outrages men
toned, the memorandum declares that
wholesale massacres were perpetrated
by regulars and Bashi-Bazouks in the
tSEU O1 SalOulCd aGO GuS FlllaRoS O1
Baldeyo, Banitza, Tchourilovo, Kar-
binza, Aoghila, Smerdesch and
Enidje, while the scene of carnage,
pillage and ineendiarism were every
where terrible. At Smerdesch over
two hundred Bulgarians we're shot,
killed with swords or burned to death.
Over 25 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
neighboring places. Similar scenes
occurred at the villages of Gorna
Ribnitza, Igoumenetz, Dobrilaki and
Nikoden. The villagers there aban-
doned their homes and fed to the
mountains. Over 1000 men, women
and children fed from the Sanjak of
Seres and even more from the Sanjak
of Kirkklisse.
1t is difficult, says the memoran-
dunn, to obtain the exact number of
Bulgarians who we're imprisoned,
mostly on the himsiest pretext, as
when they were released, others were
Immediately arrested. The estimates
obtainable give for the vilayet of