_THE STANDARD OF REVOLT_
The situation in Macedonia in July, 1908, when Niazi Bey took to the
mountains, may be summed up thus: The Bulgarian, Greek, Servian,
Wallach, and Albanian bands were murdering, robbing, outraging each
other’s kin all over the country; the Committee of Union and Progress,
having established its branches in Monastir, Ochrida, Resna, Persepe,
and other places, was engaged in steadily spreading its propaganda
through all the countryside, a large proportion of the young officers
of the Macedonian army being initiates or sympathisers with the cause;
and, lastly, the Palace had taken its precautions, and there was not a
town or regiment without its secret Government agents ferreting out the
secrets of the conspiracy and denouncing the suspects.
Niazi Bey, the young officer who was the first to raise the standard of
revolt, was a good example of the men who were forthcoming in numbers
at this period of Turkey’s great danger, men who proved to the world
the stubborn virtues of the old Ottoman stock, intensely patriotic,
brooding over the sorrows of their country, seeking a plan for her
deliverance, and, that plan once found, devoting themselves, with the
passionate zeal of men obsessed by a fixed idea, to the carrying out of
their high aim. They were not self-seeking; if they cherished ambition,
it was for the martyr’s death; they were prepared to sacrifice their
careers, their wives and families, and their property for the cause,
and, as we shall see, when Niazi set out with his little band of
followers on that wonderful forlorn hope of his, each took an oath not
to return to his wife and family until Turkey was freed; before going
they bade last farewells to those they loved; for them it was to be
victory or death. With a Mussulman Turk, love of country is a part
of his religion, and his single-minded devotion has the strength of
fanaticism. When in an oppressed country there is a sufficiency of men
of this stamp, the days of the tyranny are numbered.
This spirit breathes through the published letters and diary of
Niazi Bey, wherein, telling us a good deal in very frank fashion
about his thoughts, aspirations, and emotions, he provides us with
a most interesting human document. That he thus writes so freely
and often with poetical diction concerning his sentiments will
surprise Englishmen, who have always heard that reserve is one of the
characteristics of the Turk. The Turk is reserved in his relations
with the Western European, who so little understands him. But the
Turk, as all his literature proves, is sentimental and emotional with
the sentiment and emotion that are the sources of strength and not
of weakness. The Turk reveals his heart to his friend with a truthful
simplicity that would seem lack of proper reticence to Englishmen,
many of whom appear to be ashamed to let it be supposed that they
have any affection for their wives or parents; but we ourselves, as
the memoirs of the time show, did not take so much care to hide our
emotions when Nelson was gaining victories on the seas. So Niazi,
having no false shame, makes no secret of his brave deeds, his musings,
and his affections, and one likes him the better for it. But Niazi,
though devoted to high ideals, was no dreamer or unpractical and rash
revolutionary. Like most of his countrymen he was endowed with plenty
of cool common sense, and displayed the shrewdness and cunning of the
Homeric Odysseus in the carrying through of his audacious adventure.
Niazi Bey is himself an Albanian, his family belonging to the Mussulman
land-owning class. He was born in Resna, a little town between Monastir
and Ochrida, in a region where fertile valleys studded with orchards
and cornfields, grassy downs, forest-clad mountains, craggy Balkan
peaks and gorges, and broad lakes combine to make as beautiful a
scenery as can be found in Europe. Niazi had known this countryside
from his childhood, and he had friends in all the villages, so when
it was decided to make this the scene of the first outbreak of the
insurrection it was recognised that he was the right man to come
forward as leader. Niazi entered the army as a very young man and
greatly distinguished himself in the Greek war. Then he was sent
to his own country, and for the five years preceding the revolution
he was employed with his battalion of _chasseurs_ in pursuing the
various brigand bands in the mountains. Again he gained distinction,
temporarily crushed the power of the Bulgarian insurrectionary
Committee in the Resna district, and became very popular with the
Moslem section of the population, whose property and lives he zealously
set himself to protect. The Committee of Union and Progress, exercising
its powerful underground influence, obtained for him promotion to the
rank of Major and his appointment to head-quarters at Resna, the place
in which he could serve the cause best. For Niazi had been initiated
into the secret Society by his brother officer, the now famous Enver
Bey, and throughout his operations against the bands was acting as the
instrument of the Committee rather than that of the despotic Government.
The story of Niazi’s work at this time throws an interesting light on
the condition of Macedonia. When he was moved to Resna, Bulgarian and
Albanian bands, acting in conjunction, were terrorising that district.
It was his duty to seize the leaders of the non-Moslem bands and to
scatter the bands themselves. He was successful in doing this, though
his methods were not cruel or vindictive; for, as he tells us, he
was sorry to be hunting down these men who, after all, were fighting
against a despotism which was as detestable to himself as it was to
them. So he used to call together the Christian notables, who had
known him from his childhood and trusted him, and point out to them
that their separatist dreams could never be realised, that it was
better for them to repudiate those bringers of bloodshed, the agitators
in Athens, Sophia, and Belgrade, and join in union and brotherhood with
their Moslem fellow-countrymen, whose grievances against the Government
were as heavy as their own. His words, recognised as sincere, produced
a good effect.
At Niazi’s advice some Moslem inhabitants of the district formed
themselves into a band which was under the direction of the Committee
of Union and Progress. This band used to go about the country,
protecting the villagers without any distinction of race or creed. Thus
at one time it would be defending a village of Bulgarians against the
attack of a Serb band, and at another time a Serb village against a
Bulgarian band. This band was well disciplined, committed no excesses
of any kind, and did not even requisition the necessaries of life in
the villages; conduct so extraordinarily Quixotic for a Macedonian band
that it gained for the Committee the good opinion of the Albanians, who
began to come in numbers to Ochrida and Monastir to take the oath of
allegiance to the revolutionary leaders.
But so fast as the labours of Niazi and the Committee helped on the
pacification of the country, so fast did the evil policy of the
Government, alternating between encouragement of lawlessness and cruel
repression, undo all the good that had been effected. The corrupt
tribunals could be bought. Thus, after the troops under Niazi had
brought in some hundreds of people who had been found in the possession
of bombs and arms, their trial resulted in the condemnation of twenty
poor peasants and the acquittal of all the really dangerous rebels who
happened to be rich townsmen, a miscarriage of justice which held Niazi
and his brother officers up to ridicule and of course encouraged the
Christian bands to redouble their mischievous activity. On the other
hand, the Government sent to Persepe, to put down the insurgents, an
officer of passionate temper who did not know the customs or languages
of the people, and was unable to gain their confidence. He tortured and
beat the peasantry and behaved with such inhumanity that the foreign
Powers made representations to the Porte on the subject. Thus dictated
to, the Government arrested and sent away this officer, again with the
result that the Bulgarian bands were encouraged in their brigandage,
as was always the case when foreign intervention humiliated Turkey.
At this time, too, the Committee found an enemy in the Russian Consul
for this district. He exerted his influence to procure the withdrawal
of Niazi Bey from the scene of his successful labours. So Niazi was
summoned to Salonica and was rebuked by the General in command, but
he was not impeached and, fortunately for his country, he was allowed
to return to his post at Resna. The Government of Russia was then
arranging with that of England its joint intervention in Macedonia,
and any improvement in the state of affairs of that region that might
render such intervention unnecessary would no doubt have been regarded
as a calamity by Russian statesmen.
At about this time Kermanle Metre, once a leader of a rebel band, who
had been pardoned and had since done signal service as a Government
officer, was tried and condemned to death unjustly, as the result of
Russian intrigue. This cowardly betrayal of a valued servant by the
Government aroused profound indignation throughout the Macedonian
army, and was one of the most important of the factors that combined
to effect the moral union between, not only the army, but also the
Moslem civil population, with the Committee of Union and Progress;
for the incident was a proof to the Mussulmans that the Government
was an immoral one, “acting in defiance of the Sacred Law, the Moslem
Religion, and Ottoman ideals.” Niazi Bey himself received orders
to take Kermanle Metre to Monastir and he determined to save his
prisoner’s life at the risk of his own. So, after arresting him, he
connived at his flight, and the agents of the Committee restored the
man to his home. This escape of their compatriot from the gallows
with the assistance of the Committee of Union and Progress produced a
great effect upon the Bulgarian peasants in the district, who said to
themselves that a power that administered justice had at last risen
in the land; and from this time the Bulgarian revolutionaries used to
listen with an increasing respect and sympathy to Niazi when he argued
that Mussulmans and Christians, being all brothers of one fatherland,
should work in union to obtain a Government that would assure justice
and equality for all.
While Bulgarians, Greeks, and Serbs in Macedonia by noise and violence
had been urging their racial claims in anticipation of the break-up
of the Turkish Empire, the Moslem Turks under the direction of the
Committee of Union and Progress had been steadily and patiently working
for the liberation of their country, employing methods so secret that
the outer world knew nothing of the movement and was deceived into
thinking that the Mussulman backbone of the population was regarding
the progress of events with indifference. The European Powers had
ignored the memorandum in which the Committee had protested against
the intervention of England and Russia in Macedonia, and patriots
recognised that the time had arrived to come out in the open and strike
the blow for freedom before that intervention and the increasing
activity of the Palace spies had made it too late to act with any
chance of success. Towards the end of June it was realised that it
needed but a spark to start a general rising, and it was decided that
certain young officers, who were members of the Committee, should
abandon the Government service, form bands in various places, take to
the mountains and organise the insurrection of the united Mussulman and
Christian populations.
Niazi Bey apparently was the first to conceive this idea. He had become
the zealot whose mind is occupied by but one thought; he tells us that
he did not sleep for three nights after learning the result of the
Reval meeting. He formed his plan. The population of the Resna district
was largely Moslem, and in both town and country the organisation of
the Committee of Union and Progress was practically complete. In that
mountainous and wooded region a Moslem band, helped by a sympathetic
peasantry, could, if necessary, hold the Government troops for months
and years. So he broached the matter to his friend Jemal Bey, president
of the municipality of Resna; Tahir Effendi, the Police Commissioner;
and other of the brethren; and it was arranged to hold a secret meeting
of the adherents of the Committee in the house of one Haji Agha, on the
evening of June 28.
About fifty men were present at this meeting. The following is a
summary of the report of the proceedings as published by the Committee.
Niazi Bey, after the usual salutations, thus addressed the brethren:
“Fellow-countrymen and comrades. You have sworn by the Unity of God
to obey the commands of the Committee, and to save the country, which
is being destroyed by traitors, by working together in concord and
giving your lives and property freely. Is it not so?” All cried,
“_Evet! evet!_” (Yes! yes!). “The time has come,” continued Niazi,
“to redeem that sacred vow. The country now needs our devotion. Our
vile Government is regarding with indifference the compact which has
been agreed upon at Reval between the Tsar of Russia and the King of
England, which aims at the division of our fatherland and the delivery
of it into the hands of our enemies. The cruel scheming of Europe can
only be frustrated by the blood of the nation. It is the decision
of the Committee that we should rise as a nation against the vile
Turkish Government which is bowing its head before this humiliating
compact. It was at Resna that the Bulgarians first revolted, and
brought this calamity upon us. So, therefore, at Resna shall our first
standard of revolt be raised—a general revolt, without distinction
of creed or race, against the despotic Government. I have prepared
everything. I can provide all that is needed to equip a band of two
hundred men—money, arms, ammunition, cartridge-belts, sandals. I only
need enthusiastic and devoted men; but I want in them a devotion
that will sacrifice family, the comforts and sweets of life, all
worldly relations, and the love of the world, for the salvation of
the country. If the salvation of the fatherland cannot be gained,
then those who follow me must look upon death with affection as the
greatest boon. I ask your forgiveness for reminding you of what
high-minded self-sacrifice is demanded of those who will advance in
the van of the forces of liberty; for, knowing you as I do, I do not
imagine that there is one among you who will shirk his duty. I will
explain to you our purpose. You know that the intervention of Europe
in our internal affairs was brought about by the complaints of the
Christians, who suffered less than did we Moslems under the Despotism,
and that the Government has opened a road for this intervention by
its despicableness and cowardice, making Turkey a by-word among the
nations for all that is bad. Now, in this revolution we have to
make manifest to the world in a practical fashion that we love the
Christians, as being our brethren under the same fatherland, that we
hold them equal to ourselves, that we recognise the security of their
honour as our honour, of their lives as our lives, of their property as
our property. This revolt is not against individuals, but against the
system of government, which has not only stirred up strife between the
different creeds and races, but has also made us Moslems the enemies
of each other. This is a revolt in the name of liberty, equality,
and brotherhood. To bring justice to the people we will traverse the
mountains until we have sacrificed our lives. I am sending to Monastir
my wife (Niazi had been married but nine months and was very attached
to his wife), and my sister with her fatherless children, for they have
none but me to take care of them; and there my relatives wall protect
them. I will bid an everlasting farewell to these dear ones, and I will
shut up my house. Are there any among you who will follow me heart and
soul?”
Then all those present with one voice replied: “We look to dying with
you in honour and felicity. We are all ready.” The following Friday
was fixed upon as the date of the rising of the people of Resna, and
it was agreed that on that day, at the hour of morning prayer, the
band of two hundred patriots should assemble near the barracks. Jemal
Effendi was sent to Monastir to apprise the central Committee in that
town of Niazi’s plan and to obtain permission to carry it out. Then the
brethren, having embraced one another, with tears of joy and pride in
their eyes, broke up the meeting, departing in twos and threes so as
not to attract the notice of the spies.
Within two days Jemal returned from Monastir with the required
permission from the central Committee, and Niazi made all preparations
for the fateful Friday. As he was thus engaged, an incident occurred
which, in his opinion, to no small extent favoured the fortunes of his
adventure. There came to appeal to him, with lamentations and tears,
the sister of the famous Bulgarian revolutionary leader, Christe. A
Servian band, which had recently killed a member of her family, had
now carried off into the mountains the child of this poor woman, and
demanded impossible ransom. Niazi swore to the woman that he would
rescue the child for her, and he decided to take into the mountains
with him the Servian schoolmaster of Resna as a hostage. Niazi’s
success in recovering the child shortly afterwards went a long way
towards gaining the confidence of the Bulgarians and convincing them
of the good intentions of those who served the Committee of Union and
Progress.
The night that preceded the going forth of the band was spent by
Niazi in writing various manifestos and letters, which it was his
purpose to send out when he was clear of the town and out of the power
of the agents of the Government. In a manifesto which he addressed
to the Chief Secretary of the Imperial Palace; to Hilmi Pasha, the
Inspector-General at Salonica (the present Grand Vizier); and to the
Vali of Monastir, he explained that the Committee of Union and Progress
represented the whole nation and was very powerful; that its aim was
to obtain a just form of government, like that in civilised countries,
and to preserve the integrity of the Empire. He stated that, in view of
the number of spies who had been sent by the Government to Salonica to
destroy those who were silently working for their country’s good, the
Committee had taken measures to protect the patriots; that on that day
two hundred _fedais_ (devoted ones), armed with Mauser rifles, under
three officers, were marching from Resna; that elsewhere other bands
were being formed, representing all the elements of the population, and
that these bands would inflict punishment on the traitorous spies who
disgraced the army to which they belonged. The Committee demanded that
the spying Pashas and their assistants should be at once sent back to
Constantinople by special train. It also demanded that the Fundamental
Law (the Constitution) should be restored immediately and that the
Chamber of Deputies should assemble as soon as it was possible. If
the Government refused to grant these requests, then the nation would
obtain by force what it required, and the responsibility for the
bloodshed would rest with the high dignitaries of the State.
Then he wrote letters to the commander of the regiment of _gendarmes_
at Monastir, to the lieutenant of _gendarmerie_ at Resna, and to
certain other officers who had sold themselves to the Palace, and
solemnly warned them, in the name of the two hundred _fedais_ of the
Committee of Union and Progress, that if they continued to disgrace
their military uniform by acting as spies over their comrades, and by
showing themselves the sycophants of the Government and the foreign
officers, thereby betraying their fatherland which was agonising “like
a sorely wounded lion;” and that if they did not at once reform their
conduct and cease to be the active enemies of the National Union, death
would be the punishment awarded to them by the Committee. Men had
already discovered that the Committee never uttered idle threats, and
the recipient of one of these letters was so terrified that he became
insane.
The momentous day (July 3, 1908) dawned, and Niazi Bey was up betimes
to complete his preparations. For his band to march out of Resna while
the officers, who were not adherents of the cause, and the considerable
garrison remained in it was, of course, out of the question, so he
employed a ruse to empty the town of those who might oppose him. By
pre-arrangement some members of the Committee came into Resna and
reported that a Bulgarian band was moving up the road near Ismilova,
that is, in a direction contrary to the one in which he intended to
lead his own followers; and some rifles were fired in the hills to
support the story. Thanks to this scheme, all the available troops
were hurried off to attack this imaginary band, leaving but a few
officers and men to guard the barracks, which are situated on a height
overlooking the town and about a mile and a half distant from it.
Niazi then walked to the barracks in his uniform, while the members of
his band in twos and threes collected in the neighbourhood. He passed
through the gates of the barracks just after the Moslem officials and
inhabitants of Resna had entered the mosques for the Friday midday
prayer; he made the appointed signal with his sword, and his _fedais_,
to the number of one hundred and fifty, poured into the barracks,
arousing no suspicion among the soldiers on guard, who were led to
understand that Major Niazi Bey was arming a party of Moslem civilians
with the object of proceeding to the scene of action to co-operate with
the troops.
Following Niazi Bey’s instructions, the _fedais_ broke open the rifle
and ammunition cases and armed themselves, many of the men taking
two rifles each, so that those who joined the band later on might be
provided with weapons. Niazi also opened the military chest and took
all the money that was in it, amounting to about £500, making out a
receipt for it in which he explained for what purpose he was about to
use it. Then the band, in perfect order and full of enthusiasm, marched
out of the barracks, and with it went nine private soldiers who, being
still under the impression that Niazi was leading a detachment against
the Bulgarians, had volunteered their services. After marching for two
hours they came to cross-roads on the summit of a grassy down, where
Niazi’s band was joined, as had been arranged, by Lieutenant Osman
Effendi and his detachment of _fedais_ from Persepe, consisting of a
lieutenant, four soldiers, and thirty civilians.
Here a halt was called for rest and food, and before the march was
resumed Niazi called the men around him and addressed them, explaining
his aims and the strict rules of discipline which the Committee had
enjoined him to enforce. He reminded them that they had sworn upon
the Unity of God to devote their lives to the salvation of their
fatherland. “The nation expects you,” he said, “to set a brilliant
example of self-sacrifice and Ottoman chivalry worthy to be imitated.
Are you prepared never to see your homes again until the salvation
of the country has been secured, and willingly to die for her?” His
followers cried out, “Yes, yes; it shall be death or salvation.” Then
Niazi proceeded, “There may be some among you who have not the physical
strength to live the hard life before us, to support the long marches
on foot, thirst, hunger, nakedness, heat, and cold. If there be such I
give them full permission to retire; let them go back to their villages
and pray for us.” As there was no reply to this, he went on to speak
of the very lofty sense of duty and the strict rules of conduct that
should govern the _fedais_, who, having bid farewell to life, were now
ready to sacrifice themselves for the fatherland. Their enemies were
many, and would certainly slander them; but it behooved them so to act
that none could look askance at them with good reason. It was for them
to exemplify by the righteousness of their lives what was meant by “the
exaltation of the glory of Islam and the Ottomans, through obedience to
the Sacred Law of Mohammed which was the basis of the Constitution.”
The Constitution was to bring equality and justice to all Ottomans
without distinction of race and religion. They, as the apostles of the
Constitution, must exemplify this equality and justice. It behooved
them, while the band wandered over the country, to regard the honour
of the inhabitants as their own honour, to be kindly in their dealings
with them, to be guilty of no act of oppression, to thieve nothing,
though urged by the pangs of hunger, and above all things to respect
all the women of the country and to observe chastity. He explained that
he would punish, without exception, any of his followers who in the
above respects was a wrong-doer even in the slightest degree, and that
the one penalty that he would inflict would be that of death; for the
safety of the fatherland necessitated this severity. He told them that
he had taken measures to provide for their immediate needs. He would
give each man three Turkish pounds for the support of his family and
two silver _medjidiehs_ for his tobacco, and he undertook to procure
food and clothes for them. “These are the stringent conditions of
service,” he concluded. “Do you approve of them? If so, swear by the
Unity of God that you accept them from your heart and soul.”
In reply the _fedais_ raised an enthusiastic cry of “_Wallahi,
billahi_” (in the name of God, yes!).
Of the nine private soldiers who had marched from Resna under the
belief that they were being led against the Bulgarians, four now asked
permission to return. Niazi took their arms and sent them back to
the officer commanding the battalion of _chasseurs_ at Resna, with a
letter in which he explained that the men were in no wise to blame, as
they had been deceived by himself. Of the civilians who had joined the
band only one displayed timidity at this last moment, so Niazi allowed
him to return to his home and entrusted the man with the letters and
manifestos which he, Niazi, had written during the previous night,
instructing him to deliver them to the _mudir_ of the district; and
to the _mudir_ he sent a separate letter, ordering him, with threats,
to forward these documents to the various people to whom they were
addressed.
Then the bugle sounded and the little band of zealots marched on again
through the beautiful Balkan countryside, in the glorious summer
weather, to their unknown destiny—a band of sworn ascetics who harmed
no men save the agents of the Despotism who stood in their way, and
these they slew without pity; to all others they were as brothers,
protecting the weak and oppressed of whatsoever race or creed,
preaching the gospel of justice and equality.
The bands of the racial propaganda that had hitherto passed through
the Balkans had terrorised the population with murder, robbery, and
the violation of women, whereas this band gained the confidence of
all and was welcomed in the villages. This was indeed as a company of
knights-errant, but these were no visionaries tilting at wind-mills;
the aim of the _fedais_ was the overthrow of the reign of tyranny and
corruption; Niazi’s bands and the other bands of the Committee of Union
and Progress which followed its example actually succeeded, as we shall
see, not only in winning over the entire Moslem population of this
region to the cause, but in uniting the various races that had been
cutting each other’s throats for years, so that the whole strength of
the Macedonian peoples was brought together to oppose the Despotism.