Post by EriTopSheqeri on Jan 17, 2011 4:22:45 GMT -5
CHAPTER EIGHT
MACEDONIA, 1903-1904
THE Macedonian rising of 1903 was a purely Bulgar movement. As is
invariably the case with such risings, it was ill-planned; and
untrained peasants and irregular forces never in the long run have a
chance against regulars. Its history has been told more than once in
detail. I need only say that, instead of revolting simultaneously,
one village rose after another, and the Turkish forces rode round,
burning and pillaging in the usual fashion of punitive expeditions.
Thousands of refugees fled into Bulgaria--thus emphasizing their
nationality--and within the Bulgarian frontier organized komitadji
bands, which carried on a desultory guerrilla war with the Turkish
forces for some time. But it was soon obvious that, unless strongly
aided by some outside Power, the rising must fail.
The most important point to notice now is that not a single one of
these many revolutionaries fled to Serbia, or claimed that they were
Serbs. They received arms, munitions and other help from Bulgaria,
from Serbia nothing. They were rising to make Big Bulgaria, not
Great Serbia. Serbia now claims these people as Serbs. She did not
then extend one finger to assist them.
Milosh would not help the Greeks to obtain freedom because he did
not want a large Greece. Similarly, Serbia and Greece in 1903 did
nothing at all to aid the Macedonian revolutionaries. Most of us who
have worked in old days to free the people from the Turkish yoke
have now recognized what a farce that tale was. Not one of the
Balkan people ever wanted to "free" their "Christian brethren"
unless there was a chance of annexing them.
The Bulgar rising died down as winter came on and acute misery
reigned in the devastated districts. In December, as one who had
some experience of Balkan life, I was asked to go out on relief work
under the newly formed Macedonian Relief Committee. The invitation
came to me as an immense surprise and with something like despair.
I had had my allotted two months' holiday. I had never before been
asked to take part in any public work, and I wanted to go more than
words could express. Circumstances had forced me to refuse so many
openings. I was now forty, and this might be my last chance.
The Fates were kind, and I started for Salonika at a few days'
notice, travelling almost straight through. Serbia was depressed and
anxious, I gathered from my fellow travellers, as we passed through
it. Bishop Firmilian, whose election to the see of Uskub the Serbs
had with great difficulty obtained in June 1902, had just died. The
train was full of ecclesiastics going to his funeral at Uskub.
Russia had aided his election very considerably. It had coincided
with Russia's support of Petar Karageorgevitch to the throne of
Serbia, and all was part of Russia's new Balkan plans in which
Serbia was to play a leading role.
Petar was not received by Europe. Firmilian was dead. Serbia was
anxious. They buried Firmilian on Christmas Day in the morning,
dreading the while lest they were burying the bishopric too, so far
as Serbia was concerned--and I reached Salonika that night.
The tale of the relief work I have told elsewhere. I will now touch
only on the racial questions.
In Monastir I tried to buy some Serb books, for I was hard at work
studying the language, and had a dictionary and grammar with me.
Serbian propaganda in Monastir was, however, then only in its
infancy, and nothing but very elementary school books were to be
got. The Bulgars had a big school and church. If any one had
suggested that Monastir was Serb or ever likely to be Serb, folk
would have thought him mad--or drunk. The pull was between Greek and
Bulgar, there was no question of the Serbs. There was a large
"Greek" population, both in town and country, but of these a very
large proportion were Vlachs, many were South Albanians, others were
Slavs. Few probably were genuine Greeks. But they belonged to the
Greek branch of the Orthodox Church, and were reckoned Greek in the
census. Those Slavs who called themselves Serbs, and the Serb
schoolmasters who had come for propaganda purposes, all went to the
Greek churches.
As for the hatred between the Greek and Bulgar Churches--it was so
intense that no one from West Europe who has not lived in the land
with it, can possibly realize it. The Greeks under Turkish rule had
been head of the Orthodox Christians. True to Balkan type, they had
dreamed only of the reconstruction of the Big Byzantine Empire, and
had succeeded, by hooks and crooks innumerable, in suppressing and
replacing the independent Serb and Bulgar Churches.
But Russia, when she began to scheme for Pan-Slavism, had no
sympathy with Big Byzantium, and was aware that when you have an
ignorant peasantry to deal with, a National Church is one of the
best means for producing acute Nationalism. Under pressure from
Russia, who was supported by other Powers--some of whom really
believed they were aiding the cause of Christianity--the Sultan in
1870 created by firman the Bulgarian Exarchate. Far from "promoting
Christianity" the result of this was that the Greek Patriarch
excommunicated the Exarch and all his followers, and war was
declared between the two Churches. They had no difference of any
kind or sort as regards doctrine, dogma, or ceremonial. The
difference was, and is, political and racial.
Never have people been more deluded than have been the pious of
England about the Balkan Christians. In Montenegro I had heard all
the stock tales of the Christian groaning under the Turkish yoke,
and had believed them. I learnt in Macedonia the strange truth that,
on the contrary, it was the Christian Churches of the Balkans that
kept the Turk in power. Greek and Serb were both organizing
komitadjis bands and sending them into Macedonia, not to "liberate
Christian brethren"--no. That was the last thing they wanted. But to
aid the Turk in suppressing "Christian brethren."
I condoled with the Bulgar Bishop of Ochrida on the terrible
massacre of his flock by the Turks. He replied calmly that to him it
had been a disappointment. He had expected quite half the population
to have been killed, and then Europe would have been forced to
intervene. Not a quarter had perished, and he expected it would all
have to be done over again. "Next time there will be a great
slaughter. All the foreign consuls and every foreigner will be
killed too. It is their own fault." Big Bulgaria was to be
constructed at any price.
I suggested that, had the Bulgars risen in 1897 when the Greek made
war on the Turk, the whole land could have been freed. He replied
indignantly, "I would rather the land should remain for ever under
the Turk than that the Greeks should ever obtain a kilometre."
Later I met his rival, the Greek Bishop. He, too, loudly lamented
the suffering of the wretched Christian under the Turkish yoke. To
him I suggested that if Greece aided the Bulgar rising the Christian
might now be freed. The mere idea horrified him. Sooner than allow
those swine of Bulgars to obtain any territory he would prefer that
the land should be for ever Turkish.
Such was the Christianity which at that time was being prayed for in
English Churches.
Bulgars came to me at night and begged poison with which to kill
Greeks. Greeks betrayed Bulgar komitadjis to the Turkish
authorities. The Serbs sided with the Greeks. They had not then the
smallest desire "to liberate their Slav brethren in Macedonia." No.
They were doing all they could to prevent the Bulgars liberating
them. Of Serb conduct a vivid picture is given by F. Wilson in a
recently published book on the Serbs she looked after as refugees
during the late war. She gives details taken down from the lips of a
Serbian schoolmaster, who describes how he began Serb propaganda in
Macedonia in 1900. "We got the children. We made them realize they
were Serbs. We taught them their history. . . . Masters and
children, we were like secret conspirators." When the Bulgars
resisted this propaganda he describes how a gang of thirty Serbs
"met in a darkened room and swore for each Serb killed to kill two
Bulgars." Lots were drawn for who should go forth to assassinate.
"We broke a loaf in two and each ate a piece. It was our sacrament.
Our wine was the blood of the Bulgarians."
A small Serb school had recently been opened in Ochrida, and I was
invited there to the Feast of St. Sava. The whole Serb population of
Ochrida assembled. We were photographed together. Counting the Greek
priest, the schoolmaster and his family, who were from Serbia, and
myself, we were a party of some fifty people. Ochrida had a very
mixed population. More than half were Moslems, most of them
Albanians. Of the Christians the Bulgars formed the largest unit,
but there were many Vlachs. These were reckoned as Greeks by the
Greeks, but were already showing signs of claiming their own
nationality. The Serbs were by far the smallest group, so small in
fact as to be then negligible.
The Kaimmakam was an Albanian Moslem, Mehdi Bey, who kept the
balance well under very difficult circumstances, and to-day is one
of the leading Albanian Nationalists. He asserted always that
Ochrida should, of right, belong to Albania. Albanian it was indeed
considered until the rise of the Russo-Bulgar movement. As late as
1860 we find the Lakes of Ochrida and Presba referred to as the
Albanian Lakes by English travellers.
www.gutenberg.org/zipcat.php/19669/19669.txt
MACEDONIA, 1903-1904
THE Macedonian rising of 1903 was a purely Bulgar movement. As is
invariably the case with such risings, it was ill-planned; and
untrained peasants and irregular forces never in the long run have a
chance against regulars. Its history has been told more than once in
detail. I need only say that, instead of revolting simultaneously,
one village rose after another, and the Turkish forces rode round,
burning and pillaging in the usual fashion of punitive expeditions.
Thousands of refugees fled into Bulgaria--thus emphasizing their
nationality--and within the Bulgarian frontier organized komitadji
bands, which carried on a desultory guerrilla war with the Turkish
forces for some time. But it was soon obvious that, unless strongly
aided by some outside Power, the rising must fail.
The most important point to notice now is that not a single one of
these many revolutionaries fled to Serbia, or claimed that they were
Serbs. They received arms, munitions and other help from Bulgaria,
from Serbia nothing. They were rising to make Big Bulgaria, not
Great Serbia. Serbia now claims these people as Serbs. She did not
then extend one finger to assist them.
Milosh would not help the Greeks to obtain freedom because he did
not want a large Greece. Similarly, Serbia and Greece in 1903 did
nothing at all to aid the Macedonian revolutionaries. Most of us who
have worked in old days to free the people from the Turkish yoke
have now recognized what a farce that tale was. Not one of the
Balkan people ever wanted to "free" their "Christian brethren"
unless there was a chance of annexing them.
The Bulgar rising died down as winter came on and acute misery
reigned in the devastated districts. In December, as one who had
some experience of Balkan life, I was asked to go out on relief work
under the newly formed Macedonian Relief Committee. The invitation
came to me as an immense surprise and with something like despair.
I had had my allotted two months' holiday. I had never before been
asked to take part in any public work, and I wanted to go more than
words could express. Circumstances had forced me to refuse so many
openings. I was now forty, and this might be my last chance.
The Fates were kind, and I started for Salonika at a few days'
notice, travelling almost straight through. Serbia was depressed and
anxious, I gathered from my fellow travellers, as we passed through
it. Bishop Firmilian, whose election to the see of Uskub the Serbs
had with great difficulty obtained in June 1902, had just died. The
train was full of ecclesiastics going to his funeral at Uskub.
Russia had aided his election very considerably. It had coincided
with Russia's support of Petar Karageorgevitch to the throne of
Serbia, and all was part of Russia's new Balkan plans in which
Serbia was to play a leading role.
Petar was not received by Europe. Firmilian was dead. Serbia was
anxious. They buried Firmilian on Christmas Day in the morning,
dreading the while lest they were burying the bishopric too, so far
as Serbia was concerned--and I reached Salonika that night.
The tale of the relief work I have told elsewhere. I will now touch
only on the racial questions.
In Monastir I tried to buy some Serb books, for I was hard at work
studying the language, and had a dictionary and grammar with me.
Serbian propaganda in Monastir was, however, then only in its
infancy, and nothing but very elementary school books were to be
got. The Bulgars had a big school and church. If any one had
suggested that Monastir was Serb or ever likely to be Serb, folk
would have thought him mad--or drunk. The pull was between Greek and
Bulgar, there was no question of the Serbs. There was a large
"Greek" population, both in town and country, but of these a very
large proportion were Vlachs, many were South Albanians, others were
Slavs. Few probably were genuine Greeks. But they belonged to the
Greek branch of the Orthodox Church, and were reckoned Greek in the
census. Those Slavs who called themselves Serbs, and the Serb
schoolmasters who had come for propaganda purposes, all went to the
Greek churches.
As for the hatred between the Greek and Bulgar Churches--it was so
intense that no one from West Europe who has not lived in the land
with it, can possibly realize it. The Greeks under Turkish rule had
been head of the Orthodox Christians. True to Balkan type, they had
dreamed only of the reconstruction of the Big Byzantine Empire, and
had succeeded, by hooks and crooks innumerable, in suppressing and
replacing the independent Serb and Bulgar Churches.
But Russia, when she began to scheme for Pan-Slavism, had no
sympathy with Big Byzantium, and was aware that when you have an
ignorant peasantry to deal with, a National Church is one of the
best means for producing acute Nationalism. Under pressure from
Russia, who was supported by other Powers--some of whom really
believed they were aiding the cause of Christianity--the Sultan in
1870 created by firman the Bulgarian Exarchate. Far from "promoting
Christianity" the result of this was that the Greek Patriarch
excommunicated the Exarch and all his followers, and war was
declared between the two Churches. They had no difference of any
kind or sort as regards doctrine, dogma, or ceremonial. The
difference was, and is, political and racial.
Never have people been more deluded than have been the pious of
England about the Balkan Christians. In Montenegro I had heard all
the stock tales of the Christian groaning under the Turkish yoke,
and had believed them. I learnt in Macedonia the strange truth that,
on the contrary, it was the Christian Churches of the Balkans that
kept the Turk in power. Greek and Serb were both organizing
komitadjis bands and sending them into Macedonia, not to "liberate
Christian brethren"--no. That was the last thing they wanted. But to
aid the Turk in suppressing "Christian brethren."
I condoled with the Bulgar Bishop of Ochrida on the terrible
massacre of his flock by the Turks. He replied calmly that to him it
had been a disappointment. He had expected quite half the population
to have been killed, and then Europe would have been forced to
intervene. Not a quarter had perished, and he expected it would all
have to be done over again. "Next time there will be a great
slaughter. All the foreign consuls and every foreigner will be
killed too. It is their own fault." Big Bulgaria was to be
constructed at any price.
I suggested that, had the Bulgars risen in 1897 when the Greek made
war on the Turk, the whole land could have been freed. He replied
indignantly, "I would rather the land should remain for ever under
the Turk than that the Greeks should ever obtain a kilometre."
Later I met his rival, the Greek Bishop. He, too, loudly lamented
the suffering of the wretched Christian under the Turkish yoke. To
him I suggested that if Greece aided the Bulgar rising the Christian
might now be freed. The mere idea horrified him. Sooner than allow
those swine of Bulgars to obtain any territory he would prefer that
the land should be for ever Turkish.
Such was the Christianity which at that time was being prayed for in
English Churches.
Bulgars came to me at night and begged poison with which to kill
Greeks. Greeks betrayed Bulgar komitadjis to the Turkish
authorities. The Serbs sided with the Greeks. They had not then the
smallest desire "to liberate their Slav brethren in Macedonia." No.
They were doing all they could to prevent the Bulgars liberating
them. Of Serb conduct a vivid picture is given by F. Wilson in a
recently published book on the Serbs she looked after as refugees
during the late war. She gives details taken down from the lips of a
Serbian schoolmaster, who describes how he began Serb propaganda in
Macedonia in 1900. "We got the children. We made them realize they
were Serbs. We taught them their history. . . . Masters and
children, we were like secret conspirators." When the Bulgars
resisted this propaganda he describes how a gang of thirty Serbs
"met in a darkened room and swore for each Serb killed to kill two
Bulgars." Lots were drawn for who should go forth to assassinate.
"We broke a loaf in two and each ate a piece. It was our sacrament.
Our wine was the blood of the Bulgarians."
A small Serb school had recently been opened in Ochrida, and I was
invited there to the Feast of St. Sava. The whole Serb population of
Ochrida assembled. We were photographed together. Counting the Greek
priest, the schoolmaster and his family, who were from Serbia, and
myself, we were a party of some fifty people. Ochrida had a very
mixed population. More than half were Moslems, most of them
Albanians. Of the Christians the Bulgars formed the largest unit,
but there were many Vlachs. These were reckoned as Greeks by the
Greeks, but were already showing signs of claiming their own
nationality. The Serbs were by far the smallest group, so small in
fact as to be then negligible.
The Kaimmakam was an Albanian Moslem, Mehdi Bey, who kept the
balance well under very difficult circumstances, and to-day is one
of the leading Albanian Nationalists. He asserted always that
Ochrida should, of right, belong to Albania. Albanian it was indeed
considered until the rise of the Russo-Bulgar movement. As late as
1860 we find the Lakes of Ochrida and Presba referred to as the
Albanian Lakes by English travellers.
www.gutenberg.org/zipcat.php/19669/19669.txt