1908.01.20_The New York Times – Outrage by Greeks

1908.01.20_The New York Times - Outrage by Greeks

Sofia, Bulgaria, Januar 10 – News has reached here of a terrible tragedy at the village of Dragosch, near Monastir, a town in Macedonia, several days ago.

While a festival was in progress and the villagers were dancing upon the lawns in the public park, a large band of Greeks suddenly swooped down upon them and after driving them into their houses, set fire to the buildings and burned them to death.

The victims included women and children, and numbered, it is said, between twenty-five and forty-five.

According to the Macedonian Archives*, the Dragosh massacre happened on December 26, 1907:

All residents in these houses were killed: 10 children, 8 women and 7 men. Three women who tried to escape were captured, slaughtered and thrown into the fire.

An incident occurred in Dragosh four days earlier. A Bulgarian Vrhovist propaganda force entered the village and the next day they killed two prominent patriarchs to intimidate the peasants, most of them patriarchists (supporters of the Greek Orthodox Church) and only a few houses in the village were exarchists (supporters of the Bulgarian Church).

*Source: “Austrian Documents” Vol. I, Krste Bitoski, Page 226 – The New York Times, January 20, 1908