VII -- [February 27, 1903] 

THE BALKAN PERIL

TURKISH APOLOGIA

ALBANIAN EXTORTION AND OUTRAGE

PASSPORTS REFUSED TO OUR COMMISSIONER

In order to show how official Turkey regards the Macedonian crisis I cannot do better than reproduce the substance of a long interview I had a few days ago at Sofia with Ali Farukh Bey, the Turkish Commissary there. Ali Farukh Bey, the Sultan's chief representative in Bulgaria, is an exceptionally able man. Some years of his diplomatic career were spent in London and in Washington, so that he speaks English fluently, or almost as fluently as French, the language upon which he is apt to fall back in his moments of excitement, when the rush of his ideas puts he powers of instant expression to the test. He is entirely frank, outspoken, straight-forward, and withal, courteous, engaging in manner--just the sort of man to get on with, especially when you are at variance with him, as I happened to be just then. "No," said he, after exchange of the usual salutations, and over the customary cigarettes and Turkish coffee, "no; I cannot sight your passport into Macedonia nor can I grant you a teskerch." A teskerch means a local passport, good only for a specifically named place, whereat the traveller, if he means to proceed further, must ask for a new permit, which may or may not be refused. "Stringent orders," on this matter, continued Ali Farukh Bey, "have been issued from Constantinople. If I did grant your a teskerch to Djumaia (the scene of some of the worst outrages of the last three months) my colleague there might stop you. Besides, I would be responsible for your safety. You might get captured. You might lose your life. And then people would cry out: 'Oh! the unspeakable Turk.'" The expression, "unspeakable Turk," came as glibly as if he had learnt it in Fleet street. And there was a humourous twinkle in Ali Farukh Bey's eyes as he uttered it, hitching up his shoulders almost to his ears, bending his head forward and sideways, and turning up the palms of his outstretched hands. "And they would go on abusing the unspeakable Turk after it had been discovered that the culprits were not Turks, but some of those Bulgarian or Macedonian brigands who infest the mountains about Djumaia and Raslock." The allusion was quite to the point, for Miss Stone's captors were not Turks at all, but members of a Bulgar-Macedonian band. Some of the foremost men in the revolutionary organization have told me so themselves, while expressing their regret for the fact.

SHAM FUGITIVES

"I do not deny," he continued, "that deeds of violence have sometimes been committed in Macedonia by our soldiers and police, but they have been very few. If we could catch the culprits we would hang them on the spot." And here his Excellency Ali Farukh Bey jerked his chin upwards, and rapidly drew his forefinger thereunder towards his left ear, as who should say, That's how I'd have the thing done. "Come, now," said he, "don't your soldiers and police in England commit atrocities which your Government cannot detect? Why, then, do you come down upon us. The stories which you hear about murders, pillage, violation, etc., etc., are ridiculous exaggerations. It was the same in 1876, when your paper, "The Daily News," always our enemy (here he bowed politely), published Monsieur MacGahan's letters. I say they were gross exaggerations. Bah! And now you, too, are unjust. Your letters in 'The Daily News' are copied into the French, German, Russian, and Bulgarian papers. They will raise prejudice against Turkey. These fugitives whom you have questioned at Dubnitza, and at Rilo, and elsewhere, are not fugitives at all. They are shams. I mean that they are not fugitives from your 'unspeakable Turk' (another profound bow), but from their own countrymen, their own bands. Bands--bah!"

How is that O Effendi? "How! What the European papers call the Macedonian insurrection is got up by the Commitas (Committees) in Sofia. What did General Tzontcheff do last autumn? He went with a small band of insurgents across the frontier, only just across; and he spied the Turkish outposts far off. Then he fired a few shots at them. The Turns ran up to him, and he and his band ran away from them; and because he fired a few shots and called it a victory, and got the public to believe him. All nonsense. General Tzontcheff is a farceur. What are they, these insurgents? They are blaguers--ces gens-la. The Macedonians are quite content. They would be quite loyal to his Imperial Majesty the Sultan if only the Commitas would leave them alone. Take an example. The people of Raslock were quite loyal and peaceful. And because they refused to take up arms the Commitas called them traitors, killed some, robbed others, so that many of the Raslock people took flight into Bulgaria, and they are now at Dubnitza and the other places which you yourself have been to. So I say that the fugitives in Bulgaria have run away, not from the Turks, but from the Bands. If you want to reform Macedonia you should begin, not with the Turks, but with the insurgents." Now it is quite true that the people of Raslock were opposed to Tzoncheff's intervention. It is also true that there was some fighting between them and his followers, and that some lives were lost on both sides. But it is also true that Raslock is at this moment one of the strongholds of the insurrection. And it is no less true that the Committees have done many a terrible deed. But I shall return to the subject, and amplify what I formerly wrote about the revolutionary organization.  

A QUESTION OF ARITHMETIC

To return to Ali Farukh Bey's view of the crisis. Said he: "It is all wrong to say that there are three thousand or two thousand refugees within the Bulgarian frontier. There may be seven hundred, but not more." (At Rilo alone there lately were over six hundred, and as many at Dubnitza.) "We offered to replace them in their villages. But they refused to return to their homes, because, as they said, they were afraid of the Bands. That is why they do not rejoin their relatives, whom they left behind in the villages. Besides, if they have received all the money collected for them, they must be very well off at Dubnitza and the other places where they have settled down. And supposing there were two thousand refugees, that is a small proportion in a population of six hundred thousand Macedonian Christians. You have a large proportion of vagrants in England." Now, it is the fact that offers were made, on the Turkish side, to replace the fugitives in their villages. But it is also the fact that when the Bulgarians and Macedonians proposed that the returning exiles should be accompanied, or preceded, by a Turco-Christian local Commission of inquiry into the causes of the flight, their reasonable request was rejected. As for the composition of the Macedonian population, the Turkish Commissary's statements were startling. Said he: "There are six million inhabitants in Macedonia. Most of them are Turks. There are less than six hundred thousand Bulgarians." Here, in Southern Macedonia, I have studied maps and tables carefully based upon the Turkish official statements of tax-paying families, and head of families, throughout the province. These statements show that the entire population of Macedonia amounts to no more than two and a quarter to two and a half millions, that the Moslem section counts no more than eight hundred thousand, and that of the large Christian majority the Bulgarian-speaking inhabitants are the most numerous by far. But it must be borne in mind that in Bulgaria and Roumania there are 300,000 Macedonians, who, if adequate reforms were introduced, would return to their country. The maps of population, drawn up by independent authorities, show that in the country villages (and there are more than four thousand of them) the people who speak Bulgarian largely outnumber the Turks, Greeks, Servians, and Wallachs.

BULGARIA THE CULPRIT

"The Bulgarian Government," said Ali Farukh Bey, "encourage the revolutionary bands. Their object is to excite Europe against Turkey. Europe tells us to reform our administration of Macedonia. We are doing this of our own accord, as in the case of the land tax. Bulgaria asks us to employ Christians in our administrative work; but it Bulgaria's own administrative departments there is not a single Turk--not one." Here Ali Farukh Bey thumped the table with his fist. "I call it hypocrisy. And Bulgaria wants us to give autonomy to Macedonia. Ah! Autonomy! I know what that means. Europe gave autonomy to Eastern Roumelia, an autonomy subject to his Imperial Majesty the Sultan. And what has happened? Eastern Roumelia has become Southern Bulgaria, and sends her deputies to the Chamber in Sofia." Here I threw in the remark that if, as his Excellency had just said, most of the Macedonians were Turks, and only a small remnant Bulgarian, Macedonians would not vote (as Roumelia did) for union with Bulgaria; so that his Excellency might feel at ease on that point. But it seemed to pass unheeded. Ali Farukh Bey was thoroughly aroused. He poured forth a torrent of passionate speech, "Autonomy for Macedonia--Macedonia for the Macedonians--a Christian Governor-General for Macedonia--never, never, never--until the last Turk in Macedonia dies at his post."

I have given an accurate summary of my interview with Ali Farukh Bey. He not only granted me permission to publish it, but said he would be obliged to me if I would. Ali Farukh Bey is to the core a true Ottoman Turk. In the Turkish Empire there is no more loyal servant to the Sultan than he. It is not long since he received in Constantinople, and from the Sultan's own hands, a high decoration for his reports on the Macedonian movement and the work of the societies.

WHAT THE TURK MAY LOSE

And now I would ask the reader to consider that challenge of Ali Farukh Bey's: "Never--until the last Turk dies at his post." The words express the feeling of every true Turk, from the Sultan downwards. Take a map of South-Eastern Europe. Macedonia is more than half the size of England, is a large as the two Bulgarias put together, and in physical (perhaps also in intellectual) resources is richer than either. Cut off Macedonia and of the Ottoman Empire on this continent, what is there left? So the coming struggle for autonomy in Macedonia means the beginning of the Turk's last battle for a foothold in Europe. By the natural promptings of self-preservation the Turk is bound to resist to the bitter end every attempt to liberate Macedonia. It will be said that after Macedonia is gone Albania will remain. But if it did remain--loyal I mean--it would be as a fragment divided from the Empire. Only it would not remain loyal. The preservation of what of loyalty survives in it--and that is not much--is inextricably bound up with the continued subjection of Macedonia. Hence a second necessity for the Turk's resistance, even unto death, to the liberation of the province. Here are some interesting facts which I have been investigating in Constantinople. Some time ago the Sultan, in order to conciliate his unruly Albanians, promised to grant them certain concessions of an autonomous character. The Sultan changed his mind, although he made an Albanian, Ferid Facha, his Grand Vizier. Flattering words were still addressed to the Albanians. They were the "bulwark" of Islam against Europe and against the rebellious Macedonians, and so on. And as partition of the Empire was contrary to the law of Islam, the Sultan, as Caliph, as Commander of the Faithful, could not grant anything like autonomy to any of his provinces. Macedonian autonomy would sever the Sultan from his cherished Albanians, who, therefore, must help him to fight against it. The other day a powerful Albanian in Constantinople declared (I must not say where and to whom) that the Albanian Mahommedans would pour "80,000 men" into the plains to do battle for their master. And he added, "If we are done for, so are the Christians," meaning that there would be a general massacre.

THE ALBANIAN BULWARK

I must now try to five your readers some idea of the nature and character of the Albanian "bulwark." The "bulwark" means the Albanian bey, or chief, or ruling brigand, as he may be variously named. He is the Sultan's man so long as he is permitted to levy tribute at his pleasure. Every Macedonian village on the Albanian borderland has at least one of these Chiefs for its "patron," or overlord. Often it has two or three. For the beys are numerous, and occasionally they fight each other for autocracy over this or that village. Payment of tribute to one bey does not necessarily exempt a village from payment to his rival. Some curious manifestoes, lately addressed by these Chiefs to the luckless Macedonian villagers on the Albanian frontier, are now in the possession of a high diplomatic personage in Southern Macedonia. They have been translated for me. I have also taken down the depositions of Macedonian refugees from the Albanian borderland. For many years Macedonian farmers, shepherds, artisans, unable to endure the extortions of their Albanian tyrants, have been drifting into the towns of Southern Macedonia. Since the beginning of the present agitation, nearly four thousand of them have immigrated into Salonica and its neighborhood. Let us begin with the manifestoes. The first of them, written in Turkish, is addressed by Yasan Kalosh to the villagers of Galitchnik. He orders them to pay him three hundred Turkish pounds (over three hundred pounds sterling). He threatens them with death if they refuse. The second letter is written in Bulgarian, the language of the villagers. Its author is Tahir Tola, who informs the inhabitants of his district that his is in immediate need of a thousand liras, that he gives them five days within which to find the money, that if they delay payment he will compel them to pay double the amount, that he fears none but God, that if they prove obdurate they shall perish. The same extortioner also addresses letters to individuals; to Trupko Ghinov, a well-to-do Bulgarian shepherd, from whom he demands a hundred liras. In another letter, Yasan Kalosh, already named, warns the shep-herds of a certain locality that he will kill them if they submit to any "patron" except himself. Tahir Tola once more writes a rescript, which begins: "To the slaves of Galitchnik."

EXTORTION AND OUTRAGE

I now summaries a number of depositions made to me by refugee immigrants into Southern Macedonia from the Albanian frontier. These immigrants are respectable, intel-ligent men. The first of them, "A," let us call him, abandoned his home eight months ago, and settled in Salonica, where he keeps a small store. In the border country he was a farmer. "But my oxen, sheep, and corn were at the mercy of the Albanian Beys and Turkish officials. They never paid for what they took. When I appealed to the Judge he would not listen. They Beys have oppressed us as long as I can remember. But in the last three years they have grown more cruel. No women are safe from them. Shortly before I left my village a beautiful Christian girl named Valika, the daughter of my friend Athanas, was seized by a Turk while she was carrying food to the labourers on her father's field. He said he would spare here if she would come to his house and turn Mahommedan. She refused, and when she cried for help he took out his revolver and shot her on the spot.

Here is a curious story, illustrative of the custom of blood feud in these wild regions of South-Eastern Europe. Giorgi Gruyoff, of Zapishta village, a man whom my informant knew, was killed by the "brigand chief" Koletz, his overlord. The dead man's son, Dimitri, was then accused of having taken his father's life. He spent his money in defending himself before the Kaimakam (local governor), who was the murderer's friend. Dimitri then went to Salonika in search for work, taking his young son, Nicola, with him. At Salonica there chanced to be living at this time the murderer's brother. Two Turks, cronies of his, took his life, and sent word to Zapishta village that Dimitri and his son Nicola had avenged the old man's death. Soon after, young Nicola, accompanied by his uncle, Ivan, went on a journey to Zapishta, their village. On the way they met the "brigand" (the murderer), who was making for Salonica, to avenge his brother's death. The brigand cut the boy and his uncle to pieces, "which he divided among the women of his party." All this happened "a year ago."

A very intelligent witness was a Macedonian whom I shall call "C." He gave me a list of names of sixteen Albanian beys, or brigand chiefs, with the tribute exacted by them from the villages. Among them were the two manifesto-writers already named. One of them, Met Alia, received a present from the Sultan for his services. Another, Bahram Bali, was the bey who boasted that he had killed a hundred men with his own hand. A third, Saif Eddin, has been keeping a number of Christians on his property in compulsory labour. The sums exacted by the beys ranged from twenty-five to four hundred liras (Turkish pounds). "It is not only the Albanian beys who extort our money and property from us," said this witness; "we have to pay the Turkish Government's taxes as well. In my district there were once a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. Now there are no more than thirty thousand. We are robbed. It is useless for us to complain. In my village many men were last year captured and held to ransom. Tahir Tola (whose rescripts I had already heard read at the Bulgarian Agency) "captured two shepherds. They escaped. They appeared before the judge. Tahir was not punished. He afterwards killed the two villagers, and seized their property, but nothing was done to him. I know four men of Mavrovo village who are still captive because they have not paid their ransom money. They beys some-times cut off a captive's ear or part of a finger, and send it to his family in order to extort the money; and the poor women, having no money, go to the judges, who will do nothing. Last Christmas two women of Galileknik village shut their door in the face of a party of Turkish soldiers who intended to assault them. They fired shots through the door. Both women were wounded , but they are alive. The soldiers' commandant made an inquiry, and nothing came of it. We are taxed when we give our daughters in marriage and if we build a house. We are taxed upon everything we do." The foregoing will give the reader some con-ception of what Turkish government means in the borderland and in the villages of South-Western Macedonia. As I write I hear that the Russo-Austrian scheme of reforms has been made public. If it amounts to no more than my informant tells me, it will settle nothing; abuses will go on as before; and the insurrection will follow.

[In view of the difficulties of our Commissioner's mission, it has been deemed prudent to suppress the name of the place from whence the present letter was dispatched. It is Probably that some time may elapse before further news arrives.]