Page 662 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

From the 13th to the 20th century
Besides these murders, albanians who are overt oulaws (Shaban Kopriva, jusen Deliq from Košutovo, Kučica etc.) and the rest of the albanians (“citizens”) in the meantime have stolen 142 oxen and cows; 84 horses; 295 goats and sheep; and in addition to all this, a couple of carriages, count- less amount of quilts, džamadans [sleeveless embroidered jackets, vests], fisheks blackmailing and extorting money from the Serbs in the amount of more than 50 liras! Rade Korpirović from Zubin Potok paid them 16 liras as a single amount. The outlaws killed two zaptiahs and captured a girl from Vasova Knežina [Knežina—knezlik, a settlement cor- responding to a village or District].
archives of Serbia, Belgrade, Legation at Constantinople, 1895 fold- er 50
THe PeTiTiON OF THe SeRBS FROM THe DiSTRiCT OF PeĆ
To his Eminency Mr. V. Djordjević, Royal-Serbian Minister to Constantinople Undergoing utter tribulation and persecution, we are forced to address You once again via this humble request, asking of You, who are our representative and the greatest protector of all Serbian people, protection and entreating You to save us, by all available means, from these evil, enraged and extra- judicial albanians to whose mercy we are being left, having no one to take care of us, hence some time ago they began to exterminate us in such a way that we have become their
victim.
in spite of our best hopes that we shall also, at the end of
the 19th century, enjoy at least a little freedom and the mini- mum of human rights granted by our gracious Sultan, then quite to the contrary of our expectations, evil and unruly albanians in most of the cases: take away our lives, perse- cute our faith, attack our honor, capture our wives and chil- dren, seize our movable and immovable property etc.etc. So, to summarize: they intend to exterminate us.
Of all of the above You can assure Yourself and ask con- firmation from Your representative in Priština and in Skop- lje as well as from Your envoy Mr. Živko Šantrić, who will deliver this appeal to You.
What atrocities and violence and suffering local alba- nians here have been inflicting on us, especially upon the Serbs in the District, it is simply impossible to describe; for if we should describe it, then an entire history will be ex- posed which would horrify and shake every man who is even remotely capable of emotions and it would serve as a sharp- est rebuke administered to the contemporary enlightened and educated europe—that in a time when all nations in the world are free to enjoy the rights granted by their states— we are undergoing an ultimate disaster.
Therefore, being also the sons of our gracious Sultan and Serb brothers of the same blood with You, we entreat You most humbly and ask You to swear to God that You will not leave us in this position anymore; for we have been left no other choice but either to convert and renounce our faith or drown ourselves in muddy water as we have nowhere to flee to; so, we have to choose between these two evils as it is ab- solutely impossible to survive and endure this anymore.
We also addressed the honorable Vali pasha [governer of the vilayet of Kosovo] in Skoplje in our appeal dated april 29th of the current year but, unfortunately, so far it remained unanswered.
Harboring high hopes that You will respond to the ap- peal herein, we are the humblest sons of Your excellency:
November 5th, 1895 in Peć.
Abbot Sofronije, Efrem G. Šantrić, Sima Nastić, Dima Maksić, Jovan T. Andjelković, Andjelko [...], Mateja Filipović
a list of few major and recent facts as regards atrocities per-
petrated here:
1. it has been a year since Duc aliq, from the village of
Drenovac in the District of Djakovica, prohibited the Serbs from using the path to the church; the same prohibition was reiterated by asan ajri Sejfiq and Zec, Tafa’s son, from the village of Dečani, thus the same prohibition is still valid and the Serbs of this region are forbidden to use the road lead- ing to Visoki Dečani, which is their place of worship (parish church) being half an hour’s walking distance from the vil- lage.
2. Kadrija Ferizoviq from the village of Crnce abducted the wife of Živan Vošić forcing her to turn Turk and convert to islam while coercing Živan into promising that he will not sue him. His brother Redzhep abducted and imposed con- version on a ten-year-old child, son of Milosav Djuković, from the village of Šumice, the child being stepson of Nika T. Bior- kić, a local taylor, who demanded the child’s return before the court but, unfortunately, his appeal was rejected.
3. in the village of Podgradje, on july 2nd, Nik ilja, a Latin, slew Vučko jovanic’s two children; Vuchko being an ethnic Serb from the same village.
4. Sulja Redzhep Topalović Šabović, on july 4th, wound- ed Filip Brandić, a local merchant, and on September 13th he wounded Lazar a. Panović as well.—it is impossible to pres- ent here all the cases of abuse and murder that evil albanians perpetrate against the Serbs in the District but the most re- cent case from the District is as follows:
5. jusuf isljamović from the village of Učka, on Septem- ber 12th of the current year, attacked the reapers working for Djordje Batanović from the village of Džakovo, abducted his daughter and forced her to turn Turk and convert to islam. On the same day, the albanians from the same village ab- ducted the daughter of Stevan Bolarić from the village of Shtupelj who was engaged to marry the nephew of Sava Ri- stić in the village of Drenovac but she was also forced to turn Turk. On Novemeber 7th, Djema Kabash from the village of Djurakovac wounded Živko Hamanin from the village of Mojstir, who has been forced to pay large amounts of mon- ey until now only to have his life spared.
6. Besides numerous other abductors and malefactors, the most insufferable are the sons of ali-aga Kuchuk alic and Sulj Kurtulj, a chaush, with brothers, who extort money from almost every well-off Serb; e.g. from jovche Djakovche whose winery they burnt down causing 70,000 groschen damage; from Toma Popadić, Spiro Savić, Milija Lovomanin, the Ga- rić brothers etc., Veselj and Tahir Lapteroviq from Rugova,
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