Page 673 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

iii. In the District of Vučitrn
15 days ago, unidentified Turks broke into the store of Stav- ro Nikolić, shoe-maker in Vučitrn, and took his revenues of 2,000 groschen. He complained to the authorities, to no avail.
isa Feratagić, from Mitrovica, passing through Vučitrn with wedding guests, entered the yard of church and its school with bursts of gun fire, so the whole neighbourhood ran away with fear; and Najazi Rušid Čaušević mutilated the wreath on the church door.
iV. In the District of Priština
On the 8th of this month, albanians stole 3 bulls from Nića Stanković in Čaglavica, and that was all he possessed. 15 days ago iba Qaja, a local Turk, hit jovan Tanacković from Pres- jane with his gun in the head, inflicting a serious injury on him. in other villages there are also fights, robberies, bloody heads and blackmails of 700 groschen each; especially in the village of Lipljan, as of late, there has not been a night with- out a robbery attack against a Serbian house. it is the hard- est situation for the Royal Consulate, as they don’t know how to advise, help or comfort the suffering and dismal people. just now, when i was about to put the last full stop as final, Vasa Ristić from the village of Lepinja, Priština district, rushed into the Consulate office, all in sweat, and said, shedding tears: “Here, brother, this morning Rama Omerović, settler from Glinica, came with five armed albanians and by force drove away 1 bull, 1 cow and 1 buffalo (alas, all i had).
We, villagers, chased him but with bare arms, nobody dares come closer to them.
i advised him to complain to Mutesaraf, but he said “if i do that, he will destroy me together with my family and my house. if i manage with the Royal Consulate, that will be good, if not, that’s it”.
all these people, for all the troubles and grievance they have, refer to the Royal [Serbian] Consulate first, asking for justice. They seek advice, instruction and manner to reach the goal; and, understandably, they don’t forget asking for ma- terial assistance. in a word, they do not trust the Turkish au- thorities. The Royal Serbian Consulate is everything to them. archives of Serbia, Ministry of foreign affairs, Belgrade, Legation at Constantinople, 1895 folder 93
MURDeRS aND THeFTS
Vice-consul Ivan Ivanić to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Confidential, No 2915
Skoplje, September 26th/October 8th, 1900
To the Ministry of Foreign affairs,
On the terror of albanians in Peć and the Peć district,
which has been going on without intermission against our unprotected population, i have learned about some more re- cent cases that i have the honour of presenting to you:
On the 16th of this month, the villains killed Beg Simo- nović and Petko Perković, both inn-keepers and grocers by profession. One evening vegetables were stolen from Beg’s garden, so he called Petko to wait for the thief the next eve- ning. Thus, waiting, they were attacked and Beg was mur- dered there, near his store, while they brought Petko to the village of Goraždevac, killed him and threw him into the
Sources and Testimonies
mud there, where he was found on the 19th this month. The murderers are unknown.
On the 18th this month, adem Zajim, a Turk, blocked the road in the village of istinić and stopped Tomče, a merchant from Prizren, released the cart from bars and let the cows and bulls go.
This same adem attacked Vasko Spasić, a merchant from Peć, and meant to kill him. jaća Zdravković came to his res- cue, asking adem for Vasko as a gift, to which he acquiesced on condition that jaća pay 25 lires. Vasko escaped to another quarter, and, in order to redeem his life, jaća announced that Vasko’s house was for sale and now he is declaring it out loud through the village.”
i have also sent a copy of this letter to the Royal embassy in Constantinople.
archives of Serbia, Ministry of foreign affairs, Belgrade, Legation at Constantinople, folder 93.
NeW OUTBReaKS OF ViOLeNCe (SePTeMBeR-OCTOBeR 1900)
Nastas Dj. Nastasijević to Aleksa S. Jovanović, President of the Ministerial Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs Reg. No 205 Priština, October 6th/19th, 1900
esteemed Mr Minister-President,
in accordance with the previous correspondence, i am
honoured to inform you, Minister President, of the follow- ing terrors:
i. In the District of Prizren
On the September 23rd, about 60 albanians—from Luma— attacked the village of Sevce, seized and drove away 140 heads of cattle, 160 goats and 100 sheep; they burnt down the barns of priest Stevan Bogdanović and during the kidnapping of Stojan Milosavljević in the village of ježice, they wounded a 14-year-old girl jovanka, killed Stanko Nikolić, and jefta Djor- djević from the village of Sefce is missing and thought to have been taken hostage by albanians, to be ransomed later.
ii. In the District of Priština
On September 23rd, jašar Bolukbashi (captain) ordered his guard jusuf to beat up a Serb from the village of Brljice, which he did, only because he did not have the remaining 60 paras for his toll. The guard even reached for his revolver against the poor fellow, but he was saved by Stanislav Rakić who grabbed the gun from the guard’s hand.
On September 19th, the guards who were guarding the vil- lage od Babljak, abducted a maid from Petar Basarac’s home to take her somewhere by force. She managed to snap out of the kidnappers and run back home, as her her hand was prom- ised to a boy from the village of Babuš. The guards threat- ened the boy’s father and the bethrothal was broken up.
in the village of Crvene Vodice, Mekit Bajram, albanian, stole two bulls from Zaka Marković on September 30th.
On October 3rd, ibrahim Pajsić, a settler here in the field, 20 minutes from the town of Priština, hit Ćeka, a local, five times with a knife in his breast and he died immediately. The reason was that Ćeka’s cattle, allegedly sick, was near his cat- tle.
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