The Present Situation in the Balkan States
By L. R. Conradi
NOTHING is more helpful in order to understand the present difficulties in the Balkan States than a map from which can be readily seen how the different nationalities and creeds are intermingled in this territory. There are large compact areas in all the Balkan States where only Roumanians or Bulgarians or Servians or Greeks live. But whenever you come to the outskirts of these countries, then the map begins to look more like a “crazy quilt.” There are red patches of Greek settlements all along the seacoast of Bulgaria and of European and Asiatic Turkey, and in Albania. There are yellow patches of Turks in Roumania, Bulgaria, and Servia, and in Greece and Albania away up to Bosnia and Herzegovina. We see blue patches of Roumanians still in Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Servia, and Turkey. There are brown patches of Albanians in Montenegro, Servia, Greece, and even in Italy. There are violet patches of Macedonians in Greece, Bulgaria, Servia, and Albania. But the patchwork and the variety of color become still more complicated when we come to their religion. The religious divisions of the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula do by no means correspond to those of race. The Turks are not the only followers of Mohammed, for a large number of the subdued races, chiefly the Bulgarians, Albanians, and Servians, have, in order to escape oppression, turned converts to the creed of their rulers, and have since become fanatical followers of the Prophet. Thus we have Bulgarians and Servians who belong to the Orthodox Church, and a minority who have turned Mohammedans. In Albania the larger portion in the south is Mohammedan; the smaller, in the north, Roman Catholic. The Bulgarians, Greeks, and Servians all belong to the Greek Catholic faith, but each state has its own church; and as the national feeling is strong, they hate one another, because with them church and state are identical. Of the twenty-three millions in the six Balkan States, over twenty millions are adherents of the Greek Catholic Church, probably two millions are Mohammedans, and the rest Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. Thus the Balkan Peninsula presents contrasts not only between the six Balkan nations, or between them and the church, but between Mohammedans, Christians, and Jews; and also among the professed Christians, and between Greek and Roman Catholics; and among the Greeks, between the Roumanian, Bulgarian, Servian, and Greek state churches. In the United States and Canada, one language largely predominates—the English. Freedom is granted to every nationality, and liberty to every belief. These nationalities assimilate of their own free will with the ruling nation, and within one or two generations all are good citizens of the new fatherland. The contrary is true in the Balkan States. Ever since the great migration brought these different nations into the Balkan Peninsula, they have held tenaciously to their nationality and creed where they were a solid mass, and have mostly done so where they were strewn in smaller settlements over the country. From childhood up, they imbibe not only the national hatred, but also the creed hatred. In the territories which Bulgaria, Roumania, Servia, Greece, and Montenegro occupied before this late Turkish war, there was some intermingling. Turkey has constantly had its hands full to keep peace among all the so-called Christian subjects in its territory. But their very division kept them in weakness. The moment Turkey lost this territory and the Balkan States began to divide it, then the real difficulty appeared. There were large Bulgarian and Greek settlements interspersed; the same was true with the part that Servia claimed. The same issue arose also when Albania was set aside. Most of the subjects in these parts professed Christianity, but many had turned Mohammedans and were most fanatical. And yet the very preponderance of Greeks, Bulgarians, Servians, or Albanians in disputed territory would turn the scale one way or the other. In their greed for territory, principles of justice, mercy, and tolerance were utterly disregarded; and wherever settlements of another nationality were found, they were driven out or exterminated. Of the male population no one was spared, from the child in the cradle to the old patriarch, and even many of the women were killed. Thus whole settlements of Bulgarians in Greek territory and Greeks in Bulgarian territory, disappeared. In a little while hundreds of thousands of Turks, who still lived in the Balkan States, had to leave their lands and houses and emigrate to Turkey in utter destitution. The Turks retaliated, and thousands of Greeks who had lived on Turkish soil, were driven out and had to emigrate to Greece. All this only added new fuel. As the great powers wanted to give the Albanians a national existence, the boundary commission had the most difficult task. In order to give the new state any kind of national boundaries, some Greek, Servian, and Macedonian settlements came within the line of Albania, and some Albanians remained in Greece, Servia, and Montenegro. Again, in Albania proper, while the great mass in the south are Mohammedans, quite a number in the north are Roman Catholics. So there was even in this small state abundant fuel for religious conflagrations. Had the Balkan States learned the lesson of civil and religious liberty, all these difficulties would not exist. If religion were not a state affair, many of these difficulties would not have appeared. In some parts of Greece, the remaining Mohammedans were even crucified. Greece itself does not allow the sale of the Bible in modern Greek. Lately, when Greece took possession of Saloniki, it decreed that all foreign firms must employ only Greeks in their offices. As the Bulgarians were driven out, and as there is an intense hatred now between the Greeks and the Bulgarians, the latter recently converted all the Greek churches and schools in Bulgaria into Bulgarian. Thousands of people would assemble in the cities of Sofia, Rustchuk, Varna, etc., take possession of the Greek churches and schools, change everything Greek into Bulgarian; and the Greek churches became Bulgarian property. But while all this is going on and the Balkans seem like a seething volcano, which at any moment may erupt anew, God’s work is to go on. There are at present in the Balkan States about six hundred Sabbath keepers, five hundred of whom live in Roumania and form a self-supporting conference. But should we include the Roumanian and Servian Sabbath keepers in Hungary and Austria, this number would probably not be far from one thousand. They have suffered greatly during the war. In Roumania, every able-bodied man was called to arms, and forty-four of our brethren, including all our workers, were taken. The same was true in Bulgaria and Turkey. Some left these latter countries, never to return. This is a terrible blow, as our force of workers was already so small. Roumania did not entangle itself, and being the strongest before, it has now become the leading Balkan state. It has acquired quite a strip from Bulgaria, and with it one of our churches, which we have lately transferred. Other Protestant denominations have tried in vain to gain a foothold in Roumania. We tried for years, but finally got some good native workers; and in spite of all opposition, a prosperous conference has grown up. But the more we grow, the more the priests become enraged. They even appealed to the state attorney. He told them that as the constitution guaranteed religious liberty, he could not do any- anything, and their only weapon would be to use kind persuasion. But a new ministry came, more favorable to the clergy. The clergy renewed its attempts, and is being heard. Priests, accompanied by armed policemen, have gone to the houses of our people in full ornate, forced the people to kneel before them, and demanded them to renounce their heresy. In case they refused, the priests struck them with the crosses which they carried in their hands, and the policemen with their swords. Thus the cross of liberty becomes the sign of religious thralldom, being joined with the fleshly sword. Quite a number of government employees had accepted present truth, and had succeeded in obtaining the Sabbath free. But the priests learned of this, and now a decree has gone forth that all such must be dismissed. The priests tried to hire false witnesses to testify that we teach insubordination to the government. The matter is before the court. Ought we not to remember our struggling workers and brethren and sisters in the Balkans in this time of crisis? In spite of persecution, they remain of good courage, and press the battle to the very gate of the enemy. Political and religious difficulties in almost any part of the world today involve us as a peculiar, united people. The more we spread and the more we increase, the more all these difficulties, wars, and strifes cause suffering to some dear members of the great family of Christ, which is walking in the commandments of God. Troublous times are before us; some of our people feel it keenly. What we need to do is to work more diligently than ever that the God-given task may soon be accomplished.