Massacre at Batak

The Turkish Government intended to break the spirit of the Bulgarian people finally and completely, and thus render any future revolt an impossibility.

Continuing Russo-Turkish War 1877,
our selection from Political History of Recent Times by Wilhelm Mueller published in 1882. The selection is presented in twelve easy 5-minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Russo-Turkish War 1877.

Time: 1877-1878
Place: Balkans

But before Abdul-Aziz ceased to reign, one of the cruelest tragedies that modern history records had been enacted in Bulgaria. Ever since the Crimean War it had been the policy of the Turkish Government to eradicate the Bulgarians and settle Tartars and Circassians in the provinces south of the Danube, in order to form a strong bulwark against Slavic aggression from the north. The Tartars remained almost exclusively in the Dobrudja; the Circassians spread through the mountainous regions of Bulgaria. Bravely though the latter had fought against the Russians in their native mountains, in Bulgaria they proved nothing more than lazy robbers. Work they would not; they lived by pandering the unfortunate natives.

At length, inspired by the example of Herzegovina and Bosnia, and incited in all probability by Russian and Serbian agents, after vain complaints and petitions, on May 1, 1876, some young men raised the standard of revolt against such shameless oppression at Drenovo, near Tirnova. Almost at the same time an insurrection broke out in the region between Philippopolis and Sofia, and soon the insurgents numbered about ten thousand men. Abdul-Kerim, commander of the army in Roumelia and Bulgaria, could not muster more than fifteen thousand regular troops, and so recourse was had to the expedient of commissioning Bashi-Bazouks — volunteers without uniform — or, in other words, arming the Muslim population to suppress the revolt. Even the prisons were emptied, and murderers were enrolled to put down the rebellion. Such a course could not fail to result in massacres of the most atrocious description. The insurrection was soon suppressed, but the massacres continued. It appears to have been the intention of the Turkish Government to break the spirit of the Bulgarian people finally and completely, and thus render any future revolt an impossibility. The number of the luckless victims of this barbarous policy has been variously estimated at three thousand to one hundred thousand.

Batak was the place that suffered most severely, as it is also the name best known in connection with the massacres. All the Bulgarian villages in the neighborhood had been destroyed before the Bashi-Bazouks appeared at Batak, on May 12th. Hitherto the villagers of Batak had enjoyed immunity, and as they were under the special protection of Achmed Aga, the leader of the Bashi-Bazouks, they were in hopes that the storm might leave them untouched. Achmed Aga, as chief of police of the district, called upon the inhabitants to surrender their arms. His demand was at once complied with. One of the men that brought the weapons was shot dead, and the rest were sent back with orders to bring all the gold and jewelry in the place. But, without awaiting their return, the Bashi-Bazouks fell upon the hapless village, proclaiming themselves commissioned by the Sul tan to rob and murder all the inhabitants. The headman of the village was impaled upon a spit and roasted alive. Of the women, some were stripped naked, robbed of their jewelry, outraged, and then murdered — others were carried off to grace the harems of neighboring Turkish magnates. A correspondent describing the appearance of the village a few weeks later said: “The path was strewn. with bones and children’s skulls; on the hill lay one hundred fifty whitened skeletons, still half covered with clothes. When the sack of the village was completed the girls and women were brought to this spot, where, after the most terrible abuse, they were slaughtered like cattle. Before the church a hideous odor greeted us. The churchyard is sur rounded by a wall six feet high. The space between this wall and the church was filled in three feet deep with corpses, which were covered with nothing but stone slabs. The church itself was full of moldering pieces of flesh, half-burnt bones, and bloody garments. Opposite the church stood the schoolhouse, where three hundred women and children sought refuge and were burned alive by the Bashi-Bazouks. At the lowest estimate four thousand corpses were lying unburied in the village. Before the massacre Batak numbered thirteen thousand inhabitants: it now numbers one thousand two hundred. If we estimate the missing at one thousand, there still remains a difference of more than eleven thousand to be ascribed to the account of the Turks.”

A correspondent writing from Bulgaria on August 15th said:

The actual participants in the May insurrection were long ago sent to their last account; since then the authorities have been casting into prison chiefly innocent men, who never thought of rising against the Government. Of one thousand twenty-eight Bulgarians who were imprisoned at Tirnova, only four had been guilty of any acts of insubordination; the rest were merchants, clergymen, teachers, and peasants. About eight hundred unoffending clergymen and teachers have been put to death. The rich merchants in Grabrovo, Tirnova, Lovatz, and other places were seized in their shops and killed almost without exception; their property fell to the treasury, or rather to the officials, who shared it among themselves. The poorer prisoners were for the most part allowed to live. So far five thousand six hundred twenty- eight persons have been released from prison.”

All doubt as to the complicity of the Government is dispelled when it is remembered that the worst offenders were rewarded — the commander of Pestuvizza with a silver medal, Tussoum Bey of Klissura with the Medjidi order, and Achmed Aga of Batak with promotion to the Yuzbashi.

The Bulgarian massacre could not fail to excite the greatest indignation in ail Europe, but more especially in Serbia and Montenegro. Serbia had long hesitated between peace and war. She had to fear, not alone the superior strength of the Turks, but also the jealousy of Austria, or rather Hungary, which had no desire to encourage the dream of a great Serbia. In February of 1876 the war party at length gained the upper hand and made such open preparations for a campaign against Turkey that Austria and Russia united in a joint note urging the Serbian Government to refrain from hostilities. In Belgrad Austria was looked upon as the only obstacle and popular indignation ran so high that on April 9th, the national festival, stones were thrown at the Austrian consulate. Austrian influence did not prove strong enough to hold the Serbians back. On May 5th an unmistakable war ministry was formed, with Ristic as Minister for Foreign Affairs and on the 2 2d a national loan of twelve million francs was de creed. Prince Nikita at once placed himself at the head of the Herzegovinian movement and issued orders to the insurgents. On June 26th the latter proclaimed him as their prince, and two days later the Bosnian insurgents, imitating their example, pro claimed Prince Milan Prince of Bosnia. The Serbian army had been for some time assembled on the border, while the Turks had also collected a considerable force on their side of the line.

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