Stara Zagora massacre

[1][2][3][4][5][6] The relative obscurity of what is arguably the biggest war crime in modern Bulgarian history is owing to the series of grave tactical errors committed by Süleyman Pasha's Russian counterpart, General Iosif Gurko and his command staff, which make them largely complicit in what occurred.

10 July ] 1877, Stara Zagora's population quickly swelled to nearly 40,000 people, as refugees from nearby villages came to the city looking for protection, in their fear of reprisals from the Ottoman army and irregular Circassian bashi-bazouk units.

Their flight was cut off by bashi-bazouk on the road to Kazanlak, leaving them the choice to head back into the fire, meet a sword, become a slave or try to run up the mountain dodging bullets.

By mid-August, the English press was already reporting "a complete massacre of all the male Bulgarians who have been found in Eski Zagra, Kazanlak and other places".

[14] In particular, Mitev, sees a correlation between the provocative conduct of the Russian army and the wave of violence observed by the civilian Bulgarian population in a number of Sub-Balkan towns and villages in the summer of 1877.

A good example of the latter is the Brief History of the War of Liberation, published in 1958, whose main purpose is to cement the myth of the valour and nobility of the "Russian liberators", largely at the expense of either objectivity or truth (here, in particular, referring to the "rescue" of a great deal of Stara Zagora's population by Count Gurko's units, which is a fiction):"A great part of the Bulgarian population of Stara Zagora left with the Russian forces.

At dusk, stars shone brightly against the dark vault of the heavens, while there, above the capricious contours of the mountain, the glow of fire lit a crimson red.

Süleyman Pasha's victory made the Advance Squad leave Southern Bulgaria and withdraw to the Balkan Mountain Passes..."[16]An enormous monument called The Defenders of Stara Zagora has been erected near the city in honour of the Bulgarian Voluntary Corps militiamen, who fought until they ran out of ammunition.