A Final Factor: The Treaty of Berlin

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One of the most important and accursed documents in the history of the modern Balkans is the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. It was meant to be a comprehensive settlement to the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78 that had resulted in the liberation of Bulgaria and, very nearly, Constantinople itself. The treaty however sharply reduced the Bulgarian territorial gains that had been promised in the Treaty of San Stefano, which had immediately preceded it.

This “revision,” along with many other elements of the treaty, would lead to seething resentment among a variety of Balkan peoples and ethnic groups for many reasons. The full story of the treaties and their impact must be told elsewhere; for current purposes, it is sufficient to note where the Treaty of Berlin would have impact on the upcoming Mürzsteg Reforms in Macedonia. In several sections, the treaty overseen by the Great Powers ordered Turkey to impose reforms and restructuring in Crete and Macedonia, also referred to as “Turkey in Europe” and “Eastern Roumelia.” A commission was to be set up, and Turkey was required to give Macedonians a greater voice in the government to establish political stability. These reforms, however, seem to have been fairly open-ended.

The fact that by 1903 very little progress had been made in this regard did not mean the Great Powers had forgotten about the 25 year-old treaty. They saw the Macedonian insurgency, in its very existence, as evidence that Turkey had not carried out Article XXIII of the treaty, which called on the Ottomans to reform and create special commissions, “…in which the native element shall be largely represented, to settle the details of the new laws in each province,” both in Crete and Macedonia.

However, this provision of the treaty was respected about as much as the one affirming that the Ottomans could not use discriminate against their subjects on account of their religion. By 1880, a Macedonian revolutionary proto-committee had sprung up. Their complaint was that the treaty was not being honored. It was Article XXIII that became used as the legal and diplomatic basis for the Great Powers’ intervention in Macedonia in 1903.

It was the great insurrection of Djoumaia Bala in October-November 1902 that convinced the Great Powers to intervene in Macedonia on behalf of the Orthodox Christians. The revolt began in the northern part of the Salonika vilayet, where Ottoman troops came under attack from Macedonian guerrillas. Sultan Abdul Hamid sent 14 Turkish battalions equipped with 30 cannons. The districts or cazas of Djoumaia Bala, Petric, Melnik, and Razlog, comprising seventeen villages, had revolted against the Turkish forces, and an Ottoman Turkish tax collector and a credit agent had been killed.

Punishment was quick and severe. In the engagements between the insurgents and Turkish troops under Ibrahim Pasha, 80 of the former were killed, while 40 were taken prisoner.

The Ottoman Turkish forces then carried out reprisals against the Macedonian civilian population, burning 28 villages. Atrocities were alleged to have been committed; the Turks were accused of torturing and murdering civilians, and raping women before the eyes of helpless children and elderly people. There were an estimated 3,000 refugees following the crackdown in what is today southwestern Bulgaria, or Pirin Macedonia.