KING CONSTANTINE’S TELEGRAM

KING CONSTANTINE’S TELEGRAM

July 12, 1913.

The general commanding the Sixth Division informs me that Bulgarian soldiers under the command of a captain of gendarmes gathered in the yard of the school house at Demir-Hissar over one hundred notables of the town, the archbishop and two priests, and massacred them all. The headquarters staff ordered the exhumation of the bodies, with the result that the crime has been established. Further, Bulgarian soldiers violated young girls and massacred those who resisted them. Protest in my name to the representatives of the powers and to the whole civilized world against these abominations, and declare that to my great regret I shall find myself obliged to proceed to reprisals, in order to inspire their authors with a salutary fear, and to cause them to reflect before committing similar atrocities. The Bulgarians have surpassed all the horrors perpetrated by their barbarous hordes in the past, thus proving that they have not the right to be classed among civilized peoples.

(Signed) CONSTANTINE, King. (Page 300)

The accounts you are about to read are of those who either witnessed or themselves experienced the Greek atrocities at Kukush.

EVIDENCE OF FATHER JOSEPH RADANOV, of Kukush.

On July 2 he could distinctly see from Kukush that the surrounding villages were on fire, Salamanli among others. Fields of corn and stacks’ of reaped corn had been set on fire even behind the Greek positions. The Greeks moreover had fired upon the reapers who had gone to work in the early morning in their fields. The refugees from the neighbouring villages began to arrive upon the heights called Kara-Bunar about a mile away, and were there bombarded by artillery.

Next day (July 3) the battle approached the town, but the Bulgarians retained their position. About midday the Greeks began to bombard Kukush, but when I left no house had taken fire. (Page 300)

FATHER JEAN CHIKITCHEV.

I took refuge after midday on July 3 with Father Michel and meant to stay with him. I saw the shells falling upon the sisters’ orphanage. I saw the hospital struck by a shell. There were at this time no Bulgarian troops in the town, although they were in their positions in front of it. The town was unfortified. The bombardment seemed to be systematic. It could not be explained as a mistake incidental to the finding of the range. Quite forty shells fell not far from the orphanage and three or possibly four houses were set on fire. At this point I left the town and fled with the refugees. Next night it looked as if the whole plain were burning.

NOTE.-Both the above witnesses were priests of the Catholic Uniate Church. (Page 300)

MR. C. [the name may not be published] a Catholic resident in the village of Todoraki near Kukush, states than on July 6 the Greek commandant of Kukush arrived accompanied by thirty infantrymen and eighty armed Turks. He was bound and left exposed to the full sun without food or water from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. His house was pillaged, and 200 francs taken with all his personal property. On being released he learnt from the villagers that they had lost in all £T300 during the pillage. Two men were beaten and twelve were bound and sent down to prison in Salonica. The women were not maltreated. (Page 301)

PETER SHAPOV, of Zarovo near Langaza, a shepherd.

He was taking his sheep and goats on the road to Demir-Hissar when Greek cavalry overtook the refugees on the edge of the town and began to slash out with their sabres to left and right. They took 600 goats belonging to himself and his two brothers. One of his brothers was wounded by a cavalryman and died afterwards at the Bulgarian frontier. The Bulgarian army was quite half an hour’s walk away. There were no Bulgarian troops near them. (Page 301)

MATE, Wife of Petro of Bogoroditsa, near Langaza.

I saw the Greek cavalrymen when they entered our village. I fled and in my haste was obliged to leave a baby of eighteen months

behind in the village in order to flee with this one which I have with me, a child of three. I saw our village in flames. I want my child. (Page 301)

ELISAVA, Wife of Georghi of Zarovo, near Langaza.

We all fled when the shells began to fall in our village and got safely to Demir-Hissar. Then I heard people saying the Greek cavalry are coming. There was a panic; children fell on the ground and horsemen rode over them. I lost my children, save one whom I was able to carry. My husband had two others with him. I do not know what has become of him, and have not seen him since that day. (Page 301)

MITO KOLEV, a boy of fourteen from the village of Gavaliantsi, near Kukush.

On Wednesday, July 2, after the fighting at Kukush, the peasants fled from our village except a few old people. I fled with the rest and reached Kilindir. On Thursday I went back three hours’ walk to our village to collect our beasts and find my mother. I found her and was going along the road back to Kilindir with others. As we were leaving our village I saw a Greek cavalryman in uniform on horseback. He fired his rifle at me and missed. I threw myself on the road, pretending to be dead. He then shot my mother in the breast and I heard her say as she fell beside me, “Mito, are you alive?” and that was the last word she spoke. Another boy came up and ran away, when he saw what had happened. The soldier pursued him, shot him, and then killed him with his sword without dismounting. Then I saw a little cripple girl named Kata Gosheva, who was in front of us hiding in a ravine. The soldier went after her, but I do not know whether he killed her. He then came back, passed us and met other cavalrymen. A certain miller of the village named Kaliu, who could speak both Greek and Bulgarian, then came up and lifted me up. The miller had a Mauser rifle. He hid in the ravine when he saw that the two troopers were hurrying back and I hid in some hay. I heard the horses’ hoofs going towards the miller. They talked, and I suppose he must have surrendered. He then came back to where I was and the miller said, “Mito, Mito, come out or the cavalry will kill you.” So I came out. We both then went to the school house

where we found other Greek troopers. I was quite sure they were Greeks because I recognized the uniform.

They used to come to our village sometimes before the war broke out. They questioned the miller in Greek and wrote something and gave it to him. The miller then said, “Let’s go to the mill. It is about fifteen minutes from the village.” We stayed there for an hour. In the meantime, three other Greek troopers came up from another direction. The miller went to meet them and showed them his piece of paper. The miller told me to gather straw, and he did the same. The troopers set fire to it so as to burn down the mill.

[In reply to a question, Mito explained that the mill was not the miller’s personal property. It belonged to the village community, which employed him.]

The miller took away his mattress on his horse, which was at the mill. The troopers then left us and went to the village. We followed and the miller said to me, “We had better ask them for another bit of paper so that they will let us go to Salonica.” Then some cartridges which had been left behind began to explode in the mill. This brought up other troopers at a gallop. They fired on us. The miller said something to them in Greek, showed them the paper and they chatted. I saw them looking at me. Then one of them drew his revolver and fired. The ball went through my clothes without wounding me. I fell down, pretending to be dead. He fired again and this time the ball went in at my back and came out at my breast. Then, still on horseback, he struck me on the shoulder with his sabre and the same blow wounded my finger.

[Mito lay down and showed exactly how it happened. He still had the scars of all these wounds. The position was perfectly possible.]

Blood was flowing from my mouth. I hid in the corn all the rest of the day and saw the village take fire in three places. The cavalry then gathered together and then rode off. I was in pain, but managed to walk away. I met two neighbors on my way and one of them took me in his cart to Doiran. There I met my father and had my wounds dressed in the military hospital. We fled through the mountains, and I was taken to the hospital in Sofia. (Pages 301 and 302)

VLADIMIR GEORGHIEV of Dragomirtsi, near Kukush.

I left the village when the war began and afterwards went back to find some of my property. I saw the Greek cavalry, perhaps a whole regiment of them. There were ten in our village with officers. I managed to hide in some reeds near the village. I saw Cavaliantsi burning. About 2 o’clock eight cavalrymen passed and burned the mill. They then went into the village to finish the burning. I also saw our own village Dragomirtsi burning, and heard two or three shots fired. Toward 6 o’clock I fled and on my way met Mito Ko1ev, who was wounded and could hardly walk. Mito said he could not ride, so it was no use to offer him my beast. I left him and went on. (Page 302)

CHRISTO ANDONOV, of Gavaliantsi.

He was beaten by the Greek soldiers. He saw the mother of Mito Ko1ev near the Greek cavalrymen and supposes she must have been killed. He did not see what happened very distinctly as he was at considerable distance. He saw the boy named Georghi Tassev killed with a sabre thrust by a trooper who was one of five. Some way off Kata Gosheva, the lame girl, was killed with a sword. This he saw quite distinctly. He was hidden in the ravine at the time.

NOTE.-These two witnesses were in a crowd of refugees at Samakov. In passing through the market place we inquired whether anyone present came from the village of Gavaliantsi. They stepped forward and told the above stories when asked to explain what happened to them after the battle of Kukush. (Page 302)

A Land of Sorrow

December 15th, 1915

Everything is in ashes and ruins, everything is devastated. Only the little white churches have been preserved, together with the small mills on the banks of streams: they can easily be seen from the hilltops.

Greek armies had marched here, devastating everything on their way. I do not know what was done in other parts of Macedonia by other peoples that conquered it one after the other: Turks, Bulgarians, Serbs. Probably the same, but here, in the region of Kukush, it was done by the Greeks. You can pass from village to village without meeting a living soul, except for the shepherds and their herds. Perhaps it is a village there in the distance? No, it is all in vain! It is nothing but ruins. The miserable huts have been pulled down. Nothing can be seen but the blackened walls overgrown by weeds. Nothing. Nobody. Only occasionally a rabbit dashes across the field, swift as lightning in the wilderness; hardly a bird fluttering its wings as its starts its flight, and then everything is silent and motionless again, under the clear sun in the glimmering blue light of December. The water is so clear that the horses can hardly stop drinking from it. They drink thirstily from every small stream that we pass by. Fields that could be tilled stretch around us, but there are no furrows in sight. Those that used to till it have been either killed or banished. Macedonia could be the granary of the Balkans. This is the conclusion to be made after one-sees those numerous mills and rich little churches.

Lieutenant V. Lebedev, En Macedoine avec l’armee Francaise. Impressions d’un officier Russe. Traduit du Russe par Paul Trogan Le Correspondant, 88 anee, 10 Septembre 1916, Paris, 1916, p.p. 842-849.

MR. G., a Catholic inhabitant of Kukush, interviewed at Salonica, made the following statement:

“After fleeing from Kukush, I arrived at Akangeli with some thousands of refugees from all the surrounding villages. It is close to the station of Doiran. Between two and three p.m. on Sunday afternoon (July 6) the Greek cavalry arrived, possibly 300 of them, with officers. The inhabitants went out to meet them with white flags and the priest at their head. About 120 people of the village were told off to look after the cavalry horses. These people disappeared and no trace could be found of them next day. That evening the women, both natives and refugees, were all violated, often repeatedly. The soldiers pillaged and killed, but would spare a man’s life for five piastres or so. Probably fifty inhabitants of

Akangeli were killed. I and another man were bound together by the cavalry. Six piastres and a watch were taken from me and my life was spared, but my companion was killed at my side. Women and girls were stripped and searched to find money. I saw many cases of violation myself. It was done more or less publicly, sometimes in the houses but sometimes in the fields and on the roads. I saw the village burnt and witnessed another case of the murder of a peasant.”

In reply to questions he stated that he saw the corpses of the fifty inhabitants after they had been killed. Some were shot and some were bayoneted. Again in reply to a question he was certain there was no conflict in the neighborhood and no shots were fired, but the villagers were told to collect their rifles and surrender them. They did so and one went off accidentally in the hands of an officer who was breaking it. He was wounded, and the soldiers at once killed a boy who was standing near. Turks joined with Greeks in the pillage and so did the infantry, which arrived next day. (Page 303)

GEORGHI CHARISANOV, of Selo-Surlevo.

He took refuge in Akangeli. A squadron of Greek cavalry arrived on Sunday afternoon, gathered the refugees together and demanded arms, telling them not to fear. They then began to beat and rob. The Turks who followed them assisted in the pillage. On Monday, Greek infantry came and joined in sacking the village. Anyone who resisted was killed. There was a general panic and everyone fled who could. There were refugees from quite fifteen villages in the place. The soldiers violated women all the time, even little children. The soldiers went round from house to house on Sunday night and ordered the people to open the doors. They had a native of the village with them in order to give confidence to the people. Women were searched for money. About one hundred men were taken to look after the horses of the cavalry and these disappeared. On Monday the village was burned. We had given ourselves up quite voluntarily to the cavalry and welcomed them, and had surrendered about one hundred rifles. There was no excuse for what the soldiers did. (Page 303)

MITO ILIEV, a butcher of Akangeli.

I was there when the Greek army arrived on Sunday afternoon towards four o’clock. Reckoning from St. Peter’s day it must have been July 6. The village was filled with refugees from Kukush district, perhaps 4,000 altogether. The people went out to meet the cavalry by each of three roads. There were about 400 of them. We made a white flag and showed the Greek colors. Everything went quietly at first. The commandant asked for the mayor, and inquired in Turkish whether he would surrender and give up the arms of the village. We fetched our rifles (generally old Martinis) and piled them on a cart. The soldiers called for bread and cheese which were brought out. They then said, “Who is the butcher here, that he may kill sheep for us.” I was chosen and troopers went with me to fetch and kill thirty sheep. Meanwhile the soldiers began to demand money from everybody. I saw a young man, a refugee from another village, whose name I do not know, killed with a sword because he had nothing. I was told that a boy of fifteen was killed about this time, but did not see it. The people were now gathered together in the square of the village and told to sit down. This I witnessed. The Greek command came and asked, “Where do all these people come from?” Then he separated the Akangeli from the rest to the number of about sixty and sent them to a wood called Chulak. Nothing more was ever heard of them. I went on cooking the sheep. Then the soldiers began to violate all the women. I heard cries going on all night, especially about 11 o’clock. The soldiers were not drunk, and they had officers with them. I stayed all nigh at my oven, and saw the two daughters-in-Iaw of Stovan Popovali violated in front of me a few paces away by three soldiers. Next morning, when we talked together in the village, I heard of many other violations. On Monday the Greek infantry arrived, seized me and told me to lead them to Dourbali. I led them there, and as I went off Akangeli began to blaze. I heard cries and rifle shots on all hands. When I got to Dourbali I fled to Atli, half an hour away, and hid in the house of my partner Saduk, a Turk. I sent Saduk to see what had become of my wife and family. He came back and said that everyone was being killed in the village, that he had seen many corpses, that my house was not burnt, but there were three dead bodies in front of it. Saduk advised me to flee, and I did so. The Turks in our own village (Akangeli) behaved well, but strangers from other Turkish villages came and joined in the pillage.

In reply to questions the witness stated that an officer was accidentally wounded in the arm while examining one of the revolvers which had been given up. This he saw personally, but denied that it explains the killing of the young man who was the first to be killed with a sword. That happened some distance away. (Page 303, 304)

STOYAN STOYEV, aged 18, of Akangeli.

This witness, at Dubnitsa, in reply to a question addressed to the group of refugees, whether any of those present came from this village or had passed through it in their flight, related in outline almost exactly the same story as the last witness, including the details about the conversation between the commandant and the mayor. The pillage he said, began while the arms were being gathered. A rifle went off accidentally, and an officer was wounded, while the Greek soldier was emptying it. This he saw from a distance of about forty meters. Then the cavalry drew their swords and some people were killed, certainly two youths. At this point he hid and saw little more. He heard from a friend of his, a youth who came running out of the house of Dine Popov, that his wife was being violated. He then fled to a Turkish village. (Page 304)

ANASTASIA PAVLOVA, a widow of Ghevgheli.

Shortly before the outbreak of the second [Balkan] war I was staying with my daughter, a school teacher, in the village of Boinitsa. A Greek lady came from Salonica and distributed money and uniforms to the Turks of the place some six or eight days before the outbreak of the second war. She also called the Bulgarians [Macedonian parishioners of the Exarchate Church] of the village together, and told them that they must not imagine that this village would belong to Bulgaria. She summoned the Bulgarian priest [Exarchate priest], and asked him if he would become a Greek. He replied “we are all Bulgarians [Macedonians belonging to the Exarchate Church] and Bulgarians [Macedonians belonging to the Exarchate Church] we will remain.” There were some Greek officers with this lady who caught the priest by the beard. Then the men who were standing by, to the number of about fifty, had their hands bound behind their

backs, and were beaten by the soldiers. They were told that they must sign a written statement that they would become Greeks. When they refused to do this they were all taken to Salonica. When the men were gone, the soldiers began to violate the women of the place, three soldiers usually to one girl. [She named several cases which she witnessed.] The soldiers came in due course to my house and asked where my daughter was. I said she was ill and had to gone to Ghevgheli. They insisted that I should bring her to them. The Greek teacher of the village, Christo Poparov, who was with the soldiers, was the most offensive of them all.

They threatened to kill me if I would not produce her. The soldiers then came into the room and beat me with the butts of their rifles and I fell. “Now,” they said, “you belong to the Greeks, your house and everything in it,” and they sacked the house. Then sixteen soldiers came and again called for my daughter, and since they could not find her they used me instead. I was imprisoned in my own house and never left alone. Four days before the war I was allowed to go to Ghevgheli by rail with two soldiers to fetch my daughter. She was really in the village of Djavato. At Ghevgheli, the soldiers gave me permission to go alone to the village to fetch her. Outside the village I met five Greek soldiers, who greeted me civilly and asked for the news. Suddenly they fired a rifle and called out, “Stop, old woman.” They then fired six shots to frighten me. I hurried on and got into the village just before the soldiers. They bound my hands, began to beat me, undressed me, and flung me down on the ground. Some Servian soldiers were in the village and interfered with the Greeks and saved my life. My daughter was hidden in the village and she saw what was happening to me and came running out to give herself up, in order to save her mother. She made a speech to the soldiers and said, “Brothers, when we have worked so long together as allies, why do you kill my mother?” The soldiers only answered, that they would kill her too. I then showed them the passport which had been given to me at Boinitsa. I can not read Greek and did not know what was on it. It seems that what was written there was “This is a mother who is to go and find her daughter and bring her back to us.” The Greek soldiers then saw that it was my daughter, and not I, who was wanted and my daughter cried, “Now I am lost.” The soldiers offered me the choice of staying in the village or going with my daughter to Ghevgheli. I

begged that they would leave us alone together where we were until the morning, and to this they agreed. In the night I fled with my daughter, who disguised herself in boy’s clothes, to a place two hours away which was occupied by Bulgarian soldiers. I then went myself to Ghevgheli and immediately afterwards, the second war broke out. The Bulgarians took the town and then retired from it, and the Greeks entered it. The moment they came in they began killing people indiscriminately in the street. One man named Anton Bakharji was killed before my eyes. I also saw a Greek woman named Helena kill a rich Bulgarian [Macedonian belonging to the Exarchate Church] named Hadji Tano, with her revolver. Another, whose name I do not know, was wounded by a soldier. A panic followed in the town and a general flight. Outside the town I met a number of Greek soldiers who had with them sixteen Bulgarian [Macedonian belonging to the Exarchate Church] girls as their prisoners. All of them were crying, several of them were undressed, and some were covered in blood. The soldiers were so much occupied with these girls that they did not interfere with us, and allowed us to flee past them. As we crossed the bridge over the Vardar, we saw little children who had been abandoned and one girl lying as if dead on the ground. The cavalry were coming up behind us. There was no time to help. A long way off a battle was going on and we could hear the cannon, but nobody fired upon us. For eight days we fled to Bulgaria and many died on the way. The Bulgarian soldiers gave us bread. I found my daughter at Samakov. My one consolation is that I saved her honor. (Page 304, 305)

ATHANAS IVANOV, of Kirtchevo, near Demir-Hissar.

Our village is purely Bulgarian [Macedonian belonging to the Exarchate Church] and consists of 190 houses. I am a shepherd and look after the sheep of the village. When the Greek army approached, most of the other villagers fled, but I was late in going and remained behind to see that my family had all got safely away. On July 16, while my wife was gathering her belongings, the Greek soldiers arrived. Some of them told a young woman, a relative of ours, who was in front of the house, to go and find bread for them. Her husband had already been seized. I went to look for her. I found a sentinel with a fixed bayonet in front of her house. I rushed past him, and found that she had just been violated by a soldier, while

another stood over her with his bayonet, and then the second soldier also violated her, She had had a baby [given birth] only three days before. I then met Peniu Penev, who said to me, “You can speak Greek. All our wives are being violated; come and talk to the soldiers.” I entered the courtyard of a house and saw three women on the ground who were being violated. One was wounded in the leg and another in the arm. [We took the names, but see no object in publishing them.] This was about three p.m. Many other women were there, crying. I then went out in fear, and when I had gone some distance, saw that the village was burning. I met a woman trying to put out the fire with water. The soldiers came up and violated her. I saw six soldiers trying to violate a young girl. Another soldier protested, but they threatened him with their bayonets. A sergeant then told this man to stop interfering and ordered him to arrest me and take me to the officers, who were at a place some half an hour’s distance from the village. [In reply to questions, the witness stated that two cavalry officers were in the village, but were not in the courtyard, where most of the violations were going on. There were, however, non-commissioned officers among the infantry in the village.] When I got to the camp and was brought before the officers, the officers said, “Take him away and fling him into the flames.” On my way back to the village, I met nine other villagers and saw them all killed with the bayonet. Their names were Ivan Michailov, Angel Dourov, Pavlo Zivantikov, Ilio Piliouv, Peniu Penev, Peniu Christev, Athanas Belcov, Thodor Kandjilov, Gafio Demetrev. I escaped at the moment by saying I was a Greek, when the soldiers asked, “What kind of creatures are these?” I can speak a little Greek. At dusk I managed to run away. They fired but missed me. I know nothing of what happened to my wife, but my children are saved. (Pages 305, 306)

A WOMAN FROM IJILAR, near Kukush, seen, at Salonica. Name suppressed.

Everything in our village was plundered and burnt including the school and the church. All this was done by Greek soldiers of the regular army. The inhabitants mostly disappeared. Soldiers kept sending for peasants to supply them with sheep. Four would go and never return, and so on at short intervals until hardly anyone was

left. “What am I to do now? I have nothing left but the clothes I wear.” (Page 306)

ANTON MICHAILOV AND DEMETRI GHEORGHIEV, of German, near Demir-Hissar.

On July 5 (Saturday), we went to the market at Demir-Hissar. A panic presently took place. Everybody said that the Greek cavalry was coming. We went up to a height from which the plain was visible. We could see no cavalry but a lot of refugees coming from the other direction, from Barakli Djumaia. The Greeks of German, when the town was cleared, began to pillage the Bulgarian [Macedonian belonging to the Exarchate Church] shops. They [Greeks] armed themselves and distributed arms to the Turks. We found the corpses of two Bulgarian soldiers in the garden of Doctor Christoteles. The refugees whom we met from the country all said that the Greeks were everywhere killing and burning; so we returned to our village which was still intact, gathered our things together and fled.

Some of the villagers, however, remained in German. Some days after we had left, Greeks and Turks arrived together and began to pillage, burn and kill. We believe that 180 men, women and children were killed. German had 100 houses, and about half the population remained. We heard of the fate of the others from a young man named Demitri Gheorghiev [not to be confused with our witness of the same name], who told us that the people were gathered together by the Greeks and Turks, the men in the church and the women in the house of Papa Georghi. Some of the men tried to escape from the church, but were all shot at once. This was a signal for the massacre. The men were first searched and robbed, and then killed. Young Demetri jumped from the window of the church and had the good sense to lie down as if he were dead when he was shot at. He told us that some insurgents (andartes) had arrived from Athens and organized everything. There is only one other survivor of the massacre, namely, Papa Georghi.

NOTE. We made a uniform rule of refusing to allow witnesses to give us any information at second hand, but in this instance since the

alleged massacre had been so complete the circumstances seemed exceptional. (Page 306)

ANTON SOTIROV, a Priest from the Village of Kalendra near Serres, stated that Greek regulars and Turks came and burnt the Bulgarian [Macedonian belonging to the Exarchate Church] houses at their village and killed an old man, the only one of the inhabitants who remained behind. This he saw from some little distance. (Page 307)

GEORGHI DIMITRIEV, of Drenovo near Serres, stated that his village was burnt by Greek infantry on a Tuesday about noon. He saw an old women named Helena Temelkova, aged about 80, shot and then beheaded by a Greek soldier. He was hidden behind some stones on rising ground and shortly afterward managed to flee. He saw the village burnt by the Greeks. (Page 307)

MR. V. Seen at Salonica. Name suppressed. Was made prisoner by the Greeks at Pancherovo. He speaks Greek well and pretended to be a Greek and was released. He saw three men of the village killed, apparently for motives of robbery. Their names were Angel Michail, Athanas Bateto, and the latter’s son. Athanas had £T21. The peasants of this village had gone out to meet the troops with a white flag. This occurred on July 23. Eleven prisoners, who were taken at the same time as himself, were all killed on the hillside in the Kresna pass. These were armed men. (Page 307)

NICOLA TEMELKOV, of Melnik, formerly a teacher, now a merchant.

Between July 11 and July 16, last, all the Bulgarian [Macedonian belonging to the Exarchate Church] inhabitants of the Melnik district fled to Old Bulgaria, and he went with them, but had recently visited Melnik. In the village of Sklava, as he passed through it, all the women were gathered by the Greek soldiers in the house of Mito Constantinov, and the women were distributed among thirty soldiers. One girl of eighteen named Matsa Anton Mancheva resisted stoutly and offered money to the amount of £T60. The Greeks took her money and still attempted to violate her. She resisted and was killed. Melnik has not been burnt, with the

exception of the officers’ club, the hotel and the post office. The Greek [Macedonian belonging to the Patriarchate Church] houses are empty and the furniture gone. His father and mother remained in the town and told him their story. The Greeks said to them, “We do not wish to have bears living in our country. We want men.” By “bears” they meant the Bulgarians. The officers took everything belonging to the witness on the pretense that he had fled. They demanded produce belonging to his father to the amount of 18 napoleons. They then took him out to his farm at Orman-Tchiflik and threatened him with death. He paid £T180 for his life and was taken back to Melnik. All this was done by officers. They took quantities of wheat, rice and barley from his father’s farm and also the buffaloes. The order was given that everything and everybody must be cleared out of Melnik and go to Demir-Hissar, and the government put both automobiles and wagons at the disposal of the Greek inhabitants for this journey. Those who were unwilling to go were beaten. This his father related to him. His father, an old man, has since died from exhaustion and mental worry.

NOTE: In the letters that follow, many of the soldiers wrote about “Bulgarians” in Macedonia. I just want to remind the reader that there were no civilian Bulgarians (outside of Bulgarian government officials) living in Macedonia in 1913. The Bulgarian civilians the soldiers referred to were Macedonians who were either parishioners of the exarchate Church or who did not speak Greek. Anyone who could not speak Greek or Turkish was assumed to be Bulgarian.

The following are EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF GREEK SOLDIERS found in the mail of the nineteenth regiment of the Greek seventh division, captured by the Bulgarians [Macedonians associated with the Exarchate Church] in the region of Razlog.

Letter 1

RHODOPE, 11th July, 1913.

This war has been very painful. We have burnt all the villages abandoned by the Bulgarians [Macedonians associated with the Exarchate Church]. They burn the Greek villages [Macedonian villages associated with the Patriarchate Church] and we the

Bulgarian [Macedonian villages associated with the Exarchate Church]. They massacre, we massacre and against all those of that dishonest nation, who fell into our hands, the Mannlicher rifle has done its work. Of the 1,200 prisoners we took at Nigrita, only forty-one remain in the prisons, and everywhere we have been, we have not left a single root of this race.

I embrace you tenderly, also your brother and your wife, SPILIOTOPOULOS PHILIPPOS.

Letter 2

Mr. Panaghi Leventi,

Doctor

Aliverion Euboea.

I also enclose herewith, the letter of congratulation from my commandant, Mr. Contoghiri in which he praises my squadron, which on the occasion of the short stay of a few days of our division, received the order at five o’clock, to march to the north of Serres. During the march, we engaged in a fight with the Bulgarian comitadjis [Macedonian revolutionaries] whom we dispersed, after havil1g killed the greater part. We burnt the two villages of Doutlii and Banitza [Banitsa], the homes of the formidable comitadjis, and passed everything through the fire, sparing only the women, the children, the old people, and the churches. All this was done without pity or mercy, executed with a cruel heart, and with a condemnation still more cruel.

Merocostenitza, 12th July, 1913. The outposts of the Army. Love to you and also the others. (signature unreadable) Sergeant.

Letter 3

Mr. Sotir Panaionnou, in the village of Vitziano, parish lthicou Tricala de Thessalie. River Nesto, 12th July, 1913.

Here at Vrondu (Brodi) I took five Bulgarians [Macedonians associated with the Exarchate Church] and a girl from Serres. We shut them up in a prison and kept them there. The girl was killed and the Bulgarians [Macedonians associated with the Exarchate Church] also suffered. We picked out their eyes while they were still alive.

Yours affectionately: COSTI.

Letter 4

Bulgarian Frontier, 11th July, 1913.