The burning of the village of Zagorichane (Kostur district) and the massacre of its inhabitants was done by 7 Greek andart bands (lead by the so-called "kapetans" Vardas [Lt Georgios Tsontos from Crete as chief commander], Kaudis, Karavitis, Makris, Kukulakis, Pulanas, and Melios) on 25th of March 1905.

It is also important to state that at the time of the Greek attack on Zagorichane, there were no Bulgarian revolutionaries in the village. Also, just a few days before the attack, the Turkish asker (commander) came to the village to search for arms. Before he entered, the asker had his troops blow military horns, an act which frightened the village population. However, the Turkish officer explained to the peasants, that this sounding of horns was simply a military protocol, and whenever they heard it they should remain calm and realise it meant no danger.

Not uncoincidently the Greek attack on Zagorichane began with the same blowing of military horns as used by the Turks. If we consult the account given by the Greek historian Stamatis Raptis in "O kapetan Poulakas - Captain Pulakas. All Macedonian Struggle. Heroic Battles. Avengers Bulgarian-Killers. Most Patriotical Reading. With the True Images of the Heroes." (Athens, 1910, 2520p) on page 990 he writes

"When Bulgarians hear the horn, they will think, that it is an asker, and will hurry to hide their weapons, where they can. So that we shall have time."

The massacre at Zagorichane was documented afterwards by the Italian gendarme officers Manera, Gastoldi and Albera, Russian consul Kol, Austro-Hungarian consul Prohaska, and many others. In his report the Bulgarian diplomat A. Toshev (No. 447, from 30th of March, 1905) wrote

"They - Russian and Austrian consuls, and Italian officers Albera, Gastoldi and Manera - were horrified at all that they saw and found. The streets, and around the church, was strewn with corpses, many of which had been sadistically mutilated. There were 5-year-old children with their stomachs cut-open and their intestines ripped out; murdered women with their arms hacked off. Some of the dead had their skulls smashed and their brains removed, others had eyes gouged out, many had severed limbs. The body of the 60 year old priest was covered with wounds. An entire family had been killed by bombs thrown through the chimney, and from two holes in the roof. The bodies of the father, mother, and two children were appalling disfigured by the bombs. The youngest child, a 5 year old girl, had tried to escape through the door, but was killed by Greek bayonets. Russian consul Mr Kol was weeping. Austrian consul Mr Prohaska also had tears in his eyes. They both claimed that they had not witnessed such horrors and barbarities even in the time of the rebellion (1903)."

The Sadistic Murder of Lazar Pop Traykoff
just "Normal Cleric Duties" for the
Greek Archbishop Germanos Karavangelis

a personal account by
Dr HN Brailsford
in Macedonia: Its Races and their Future
Methuen & Co., London, 1906, p193-194

I remember well our first meeting. We began our conversation in Greek, but in a few minutes we discovered that we had been at a German University together and the man I had taken for a Byzantine assumed the guise of a Berliner. Education is rare among the Greek bishops and I had never met a man among them who spoke a western tongue. His Beatitude seemed a modern of the moderns. Could this be the fanatic who persecuted Bulgarian peasants to force them into his church? Could this be the raging partisan who massed his people to drive the schismatic Bulgarian bishop from the town? In five minutes he had professed himself a philosopher. In ten minutes he had avowed himself a free-thinker.

But there, above my head, on the wall, in a conspicuous place hung the photograph of a ghastly head, severed at the neck, with a bullet through the jaw, dripping blood. And then I remember the tale. That head belonged to a Bulgarian chief. A band of bravoes in the Archbishop's pay had murdered him as he lay wounded in hiding. And the tale went on to tell how the murderers carried the bleeding trophy to the Palace and how the Archbishop had had it photographed and paid its price of fifty pieces of gold. And there, over my head, hung the photograph. Somehow, we stopped talking moral philosophy.



We met once again, and this time in the Konak of the Turkish Kaimakam and once more a photograph caught my eye. It showed the Turkish authorities standing in full-dress round a Turkish cannon and in their midst, handsome and conspicuous with an air of mastery and command, was the Archbishop himself. And then I remembered another tale which told how his Grace had sent his bravoes to guide the Turkish troops in their work of massacre and blessed the cannon that was to batter the Bulgarian villages to dust.
 

Bishop Germanos Karavangelis
 

The Devil's Disciple
The leaders of the Greek Orthodox Church were the most crazed supporters of the Greek state's plan to eliminate the Bulgarian element from Macedonia. This allegiance to a program of human genocide is typified by the actions of the Metropolitan Bishop Germanos Karavangelis.

Information on Karavangelis's psychotic behaviour is available directly from his very own autobiography "Pinelopa Delta", published in 1959 by the Salonica Institute for Studies. In that work we note the following (and many more) admissions and comments by Karavangelis

He was the first and most fervent champion of the emergence of the andarts' (Greek cut-throats, murderers etc) movement in Macedonia.

For seven years (1900-1907), as Metropolitan Bishop of Kostur, he maintained the slogan "let no Bulgarian remain alive".

Together with Vardas, a Greek army officer, he inspired and helped organise the massacres at Zeleniche (Lerin) and Zagorichane (Kostur). Massacres which shocked the international community by the level of depravity and sadism which occurred.

Karavangelis regularly used assassins to eliminate people he had pre-selected. These killers were paid 5 pounds by Karavangelis, on delivery of the person's severed head. So proud was Karavangelis of his actions, that he had one of these "trophies" photographed and displayed in his office.

As the level of andart activity increased, he writes in his autobiography
"I kept regular contact with them through the consulate in Bitola and the Metropolitan bishops. I personally met them and instructed them to kill all priests and Bulgarian teachers."
It is surprising that the Greek Church has not sought to canonise Karavangelis for his unswerving duty to God and country. But then perhaps they already have.

---

PICTURES FOR ETHNOSIDE AGAINTS THE BULGARIANS IN AEGEAN MACEDONIA FROM GREEK PROPAGANDA

---

 

VASIL CHEKALAROV-KILLED  FROM GREEK PROPAGANDA IN AEGEAN MACEDONIA,  1914.