BULGARIA. 



85 



officially recognizing the Prince, the headstrong 

 minister would proclaim the independence of the 

 principality and would precipitate the Macedo- 

 nian question. The question having been pre- 

 sented in an informal but unmistakable shape, 

 the matter was held in abeyance for some months, 

 except that the Bulgarian Government declined 

 to hold further communication with the secretary 

 of the Commissioner of Vakufs, who was the 

 only representative of the Turkish Government 

 at Sofia, or to discuss through the Bulgarian rep- 

 resentative at Constantinople the affairs of the 

 Oriental railroads and the subject of Mussulman 

 emigration on the ground that they could only 

 be properly regulated with reference to the re- 

 quirements and circumstances that arise in con- 

 sultation with a regular diplomatic representa- 

 tive of Turkey at the Bulgarian capital. 



The Bulgarian demands were formally pre- 

 sented to the Porte in a long note addressed to 

 Dr. Vulkovich, bearing the date of June 26, and 

 signed by Dr. Stransky, who had already left 

 office. It set forth that the principality had 

 striven to fulfill its international obligations 

 and its duties toward its suzerain and to defend 

 its independence, which is of importance to the 

 security of the Ottoman Empire. Despite the 

 scrupulous care shown to merit the confidence 

 and friendly support of the suzerain court, the 

 Sublime Porte, after a Prince had been elected 

 freely in accordance with the Treaty of Berlin, 

 by its declaration of March 5, 1888, that the 

 election was illegal and contrary to the treaty 

 had shaken the position attained by the princi- 

 pality at the cost of many efforts and sacrifices. 

 Although the Princely Government had paid 

 the sums due to the Imperial Government and 

 discharged its other obligations, the Porte re- 

 fused to enter into direct relations with the 

 Bulgarian Government while other powers, not 

 united to the principality by the same political 

 ties, maintain closer and more direct relations. 

 The attitude of the suzerain court has disturbed 

 the public mind, tended to check the material 

 development of the country, and encouraged po- 

 litical agitators, paid by the enemies of Bulgaria, 

 to organize plots and attempt adventures, which, 

 had they succeeded, would have caused the ruin 

 of Bulgaria. The Imperial Government, by 

 withholding its concurrence and thus alienating 

 the people of the vassal state, had confronted 

 the Bulgarian Government with other difficul- 

 ties relating to the Bulgarians inhabiting the 

 provinces under the rule of the Sultan, as the 

 sad position of these Bulgarians had reacted on 

 the public mind, and caused the question to 

 arise whether the policy of the Government was 

 national, or was contrary to the interests of the 

 Bulgarian nation. In Bulgaria Mussulman com- 

 munities are treated more favorably than other 

 nationalities. Muftis are paid by the state ; 

 the Turks elect deputies to the National As- 

 sembly; although they enjoy a special exemp- 

 tion from military service, some Mussulmans are 

 serving as officers in the army; and the Gov- 

 ernment grants them subsidies for the support 

 of their mosques and schools. The 2,000,000 

 Bulgarians living under the rule of the Sultan, 

 on the other hand, are not placed on an equality 

 with other nationalities, and do not enjoy the 

 religious toleration that is characteristic of Otto- 



man government in general. The Bulgarian 

 exarch, who, according to the imperial firman 

 of 1870, is the head of the Bulgarian Church, no 

 longer has the place that he formerly enjoyed. 

 The Greek patriarchate, which opposes the ad- 

 ministration of Bulgarian churches and schools 

 by the exarch, has no claim to jurisdiction over 

 the Bulgarians, because it excommunicated all 

 who recognized the exarchate. In Bulgaria 

 00,000 Greeks have three metropolitans, though 

 none of the Balkan states permit bishops de- 

 pendent on the exarch to minister to Bulga- 

 rians, and in Turkey the patriarchate throws 

 every obstacle in the way of execution of the 

 firman of 1870 and of establishment of Bulga- 

 rian schools and newspapers. The note com- 

 plains also of the display of military force and 

 the increase of fortified posts along the Ottoman 

 frontier. The demands formulated in the note 

 are that the Porte shall enter into direct rela- 

 tions with the Bulgarian Government and afford 

 it the moral support to which it is entitled and 

 which is necessary for its existence ; and that 

 Bulgarians in Turkey shall enjoy the rights and 

 immunities guaranteed by imperial laws and 

 international treaties, which are granted to all 

 other nationalities. If after this appeal the 

 Porte refuses the legitimate demands for the rec- 

 ognition of the Prince and his Government and 

 the recognition of the rights of the Bulgarian 

 Church, " it will afford evidence that the suzer- 

 ain court . has henceforward withdrawn all pro- 

 tection from the vassal principality in abandon- 

 ing it to its fate, and the Princely Government 

 will, to its deep regret, find itself obliged to seek 

 in its own resources the means of escaping from 

 a position full of uncertainty and danger." 



In urging the rights of the Bulgarian Church 

 that were guaranteed in the Treaty of Berlin, 

 Stambuloff placed the Russian Foreign Office in 

 the dilemma of either offending the Servians 

 and Greeks by supporting the claims, or of re- 

 nouncing the role of protectress of the Christians 

 in Turkey and forfeiting the confidence of the 

 Russian adherents in Bulgaria by opposing their 

 demands. The Russian minister, relying on the 

 habitual inactivity of the Sultan's Government, 

 at first thought it safe to remain silent, and the 

 Austrian and British ministers seized the oppor- 

 tunity to urge strongly the granting of the legiti- 

 mate claims for religious equality brought for- 

 ward in behalf of the Macedonian Bulgars. The 

 Porte had prepared the way for the reopening of 

 the Macedonian question some time before ,by 

 yielding to the pressure of the Greek patriarch- 

 ate and the influence of the Russian ambassa- 

 dor in abruptly revoking the permission given 

 to a Bulgarian bishop to consecrate churches 

 and ordain priests. Fearful of losing its in- 

 fluence over the Servians, who clamorously ap- 

 pealed to the Czar to prevent the indignity 

 of allowing a Bulgarian exarch to exercise ec- 

 clesiastical jurisdiction in Old Servia, the Rus- 

 sian Government was at last driven to exert 

 pressure on the Porte. Its opposition was inti- 

 mated covertly in the customary way of demand- 

 ing the payment of the arrears of the war in- 

 demnity. The note was made more emphatic 

 than previous ones by a threat of taking steps to 

 enforce payment. The Russian ambassador no 

 longer received the helpful support that German 



