THE REVOLT IN MACEDONIA. WHAT LED TO THE TROUBLE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXV, Issue 4254, 3 July 1895, Page 5

THE REVOLT IN MACEDONIA. WHAT LED TO THE TROUBLE.

The London ' Chronicle ' of May 17 publishes a terrible list of Turkish official outrages in Macedonia. In nearly every case the culprits have not been punished at all, or if nominally punished the sentences have been commuted to mere detention for a brief period. We give some sample cases :—: — At Blatetse, also in the ca'.a of Kotchani, some women and maidens holiday-making on the Feast of St. EJias were suddenly attacked by a band of Turks of the same village, who abducted one of the women. The villagers coming to her rescue, they decamped, leaving the poor woman half dead from their violence. The whole of the Christian portion of the village complained to the prefect of Kotchani, but to no purpose. An attempt to outrage the Bulgarian schoolmistress in this village of Blatetse was happily frustrated by the unexpected arrival of some of the villagers. On January 21, 1894, the village of (10) , in the same c«:« of Kotchani, was visited by a Government official, whose name has not transpired, with a military escort and a couple of his own Albanian servants. The official, who had come to inquire into the complaints of the inhabitants, stayed with his companions at the house of a Bulgarian. He rewarded the hospitality of his host by attempting to outrage one of the female inmates, but luckily the man's sons were aroused by her screams, and after a hard struggle they succeeded in rescuing her. The complaints made at Kotchani by the family were unheeded. In the village of Tersino (Kotchani) there lived a well-to-do Bulgarian, the father of four daughters and one son. Two of the elder girls were abducted and forced to become Mahomedans in 1893, and last year the third daughter nearly shared the same fate. A party of armed Turks tried to carry her off, but were defeated by the desperate resistance of her father and brother. The Turks fled without their prey, but not until they had killed the father and severely wounded the son.

The Mayor of Leskovitsc, caza of Istib, having learned that some Turks were planning to abduct his daughter, took couriscl with the village priest and scboolmastor, and with their help managed to semi the girl away by night to

Istib. Two days later the priest was seized and beaten by three Turks and publicly inaulted. He complained at Istib, but the accused were not punished. On January 27 last some Turks, taking advantage of the absence of the four sons of Z , garroted tbe father and abducted his only daughter. It is not yet known where she has been taken to. About the same time a Turk, named (11) , entered the house of X ,of St. Nicholas (Sveti-Nicole), Istib, where the Bulgarian schoolmistress lodged. (11) endeavored to abduct one of the two women in the house, but was unsuccessful, and the schoolmistress fled in terror to Keuprulu (Kuprili). Last Christmas Day a Turk violated the only daughter of V , a ohild of twelve. On the father complaining, he was arrested for daring to demand the punishment of an honorable Mahomedan. The notorious brigand (12)- , who is the scourge of the district of Kitchevo, recently carried off the daughter of a Bulgarian peasant of Yagol, and ho still keeps her in his mountain retreat. At Keuprulu there is a rich Turk named (13) , notorious for his assassinations and abductions. On being foiled in one of his more recent exploits, an attempt to abduct the daughter of , he revenged himself by killing her father at his mill. He has not been punished, either for this murder or for numerous other crimes committed by him at Martoltsi. In February last the village of Konopitsa was the scene of a horrible tragedj'. A Turkish Bey of Kafadartsi entered the house of a peasant, whose daughter's beauty had unfortunately attracted his attention. After garroting the father he outraged the daughter. The unhappy girl seized a knife to avenge herself, but she was killed by her brutal assailant. Last July a villager of Bania, caza of Raglaz, working in the fields with his wife, was attacked by two Mussulmans of the same village, named (14) and (15) . They succeeded in garroting the husband, and then violated his wife. They have not been punished.