Ruse blood wedding

The clashes were caused by the wedding of a Bulgarian man and an ethnic Turkish girl, of which the local Turks disapproved and state authorities violently opposed.

The authorities responded by moving the girl to a police station, but could not cope with the approximately 1000 people, and Saafet eventually married Yordan on the 28th.

Their wedding was celebrated by many on the central square, as this was the first Sunday before Lent (Bulgarian: Сирни заговезни), and a traditional fancy-dress carnival was held.

The wedding posed a difficult problem to Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, who had already planned to have a meeting with Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

The Turkish diplomats in Bulgaria insisted that not returning the girl to her parents would have been an insult to their religion, so that could have been the major factor which influenced the government's orders to guard Saafet "at any cost".