Royal Serbian Consulate, Conf. No. 12.
Priština
Priština, December 20, 1889
To Mr. General Sava Grujić, Minister President1 and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Belgrade
Mr. Ministerial President,
Last night, I learned that a Serbian school in the vicinity of Lipljan has been closed. Bulgarian propaganda does not leave Serbian schools in the Old Serbia region2 in peace. It achieves its goal through the vilayet3 mearifat (education department) in Skopje. The teacher Zorka in Gnjilane had to go to Skopje, and from there, as she informed me, to Belgrade. In Priština, the teachers Trajko Marković and Josif Studić, along with the teacher Mrs. Drobnjak, are not working (for two months) because they were ordered to verify their certificates at the mearifat. As far as I understand, this difficulty for Serbian schoolteachers is the same everywhere.
Does it have to be this way, that the mearifat creates these difficulties for Serbian schools and the Serbian people here? I think not. As evidence of this, I will mention to Mr. Ministerial President that Metropolitan Melentije of Raška and Prizren, in response to the report of the local school inspector about the closed school in Priština, stated that the school should be opened and function, unless something has been done against the Sultan and the homeland because this does not concern the mearifat. He appointed the teacher, and the school is his responsibility.
From this, it is clear that there is no order from the Imperial Ottoman Ministry of Education in Constantinople or any recent iradé.4 Instead, a greedy Turkish official in Skopje, bribed by Bulgarian propaganda, is causing this. In my opinion, this can be resolved if in Constantinople efforts are made to open the closed schools and punish those responsible in the mearifat, as an example to others.
Today, the municipality officials, both for the school school and the church, sent a request to Metropolitan Melentije to work on the reopening of local schools.
I heard that the former vali5 of Kosovo, now of Bitola, Faik Pasha, is not well-regarded among the people and officials in that vilayet. Moreover, the author of the letter informing a local friend says that the consular body is against him and has already accused him. I do not guarantee the truth of this news, but I can believe that there might be something to it. The people there are dissatisfied and will become more dissatisfied, as this man’s governing system has always been espionage, theft, and banditry. That is how the uncertainty in his vilayet should be interpreted since he was appointed vali in Bitola.
Today, police Bimbashi6 Circassian Devlet Mrza Komuk returned my visit. In a lengthy conversation about various events in the Kosovo vilayet, he told me: The savagery of this people is more of an illusion. Not only are the people in the Kosovo vilayet, whether Serbian, Turkish, or Albanian, not savage, but they do things because they can. They can do this, he says, because there is not only disharmony among imperial officials in the same department but also among elders in correspondence between the departments. He does not exclude the vali or the commander of the vilayet. For example, Bimbashi told me that ten days ago he went to Skopje because the mutasarrif7 here accused him, saying that he did not return weapons taken from some Albanians when he arrested them, and these were released in Skopje. I, as the Bimbashi, catch and arrest brigands and take their weapons, and they release them in Skopje. When his guards approach to help him, they find them drunk, as reported by the Bimbashi. Mutassarif from here accuses them of disobedience and disagreements. The result was that Bimbashi upheld the law, refused all reproaches, based on the imperial order to ban the carrying of weapons without permission to all, regardless of faith and nationality.
On my question about whether the Albanians are as frightening as they are said to be, Bimbashi told me: An Albanian, like any other ordinary person, is nothing like what is said about them. As for weapons, which they have, it can be collected soon, and the same order as it is in Serbia can be established everywhere. All evil comes from disharmony, which comes from Skopje. I send all the guilty Albanians to Skopje, but from there, they are quickly released home with weapons. So, how can there be order and peace? Never, as long as the commander of the army Etem Pasha on the one side, and the vali on the other, support this multiplication of evils.
Besides, the Albanians are allowed to carry weapons, the authorities facilitate the entry of cartridges for Martin rifles8 and allow the free sale of these, helping arm this tribe. Furthermore, they allow local gunsmiths to convert old rifles into revolvers.9
Discharged soldiers are mostly released here. Most of them travel home on foot. I heard that there are up to 500 people here today, who have come to draw lots for the army recruitment. I will report later on the army.
As Bimbashi tells me based on the testimony of the Albanians, from whom he brought 30 people from the border, the forrest-cutting incident at Prepolac happened due to treachery and agreement between the Albanians and the bolu-bashi,10 who lured them to the border. This bolu-bashi, in agreement with the Albanians, is also involved in smuggling. According to the Binbashi, three Albanians were wounded, and three or four draft animals remained in Serbia.
On the first day of the meeting with the mutasarrif, he complained to me about the disorder caused by Serbian bolu-bashis because, according to the reports received, the bolu-bashis often get drunk, fire their rifles, and cause alarm. When their guards approach to help them, they find them drunk, and the statement of the Bimbashi and the mutasarrif oblige me draw your attention to this, so as to avoid for the bolu-bashis to be the cause of complaints about the maintenance of order or against mutual smuggling with the Albanians.
I received your confidential act on November 25, Conf. No. 1580, December 8, Conf. No. 1659, and Conf. No. 1686 on December 15.
Accept, Mr. Minister President, on this occasion, the assurance of my special respect.
Yours sincerely,
Luka K. Marinković
Royal Serbian Consulate Ref. No. 12.
Priština
Priština, January 7, 1890
To Mr. General Sava Grujić, Minister President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Belgrade
Mr. Minister President,
In response to your letter dated December 21 of the previous year, Ref. No. 1730, it is my honor to inform you that, starting from the new year, I have opened a protocol for confidential correspondence for propaganda, and I will act according to the orders I receive from you.
Regarding my confidential letter dated December 20 of the previous year, Conf. No. 12, concerning the closure of Serbian schools in the Kosovo vilayet, under the pretext that no teacher can work in school without verifying their school certificate at the mearifat in the vilayet, I am pleased to provide, Mr. Minister President, for the clarification of my previous opinion, copies of two letters from Metropolitan Melentije addressed to the local protopope Father Stefan Kostić. I have no doubt that you, Mr. Minister President, will agree with me that Bulgarian propaganda, with powerful capital, is bribing the Turkish officials in Skopje, which, without having received orders from Constantinople, voluntarily invents ways to obstruct Serbian teachers and close Serbian schools. This is confirmed by the words of the brother-in-law of the local teacher Josif, who returned the day before yesterday from Skopje and informed me what the clerk of the muarif in Valiluk said: that every Serbian teacher will have to fail the exam, no matter how well they do, because that’s what they want, as the Bulgarians reward them well for this. If any teacher rewards them with 5 gold liras,11 they will be able to pass the exam.
At the same time, I am of the humble opinion that, based on these attached information from Mr. Melentije, this evil can be stopped if our esteemed ambassador in Constantinople, on the one hand, approaches the Patriarchate to urge them to work with the Sublime Porte to ensure that the mearifat does not interfere in the rights that have long been given to it with regards to churches and schools in any vilayet, and on the other hand, personally complains to the Imperial Ottoman Minister of Education, based on the information from the Royal Serbian Consulate with regards to the mearifat in Skopje and get strict orders from him with regards to the same.
Accept, Mr. Minister President, on this occasion, the assurance of my special respect.
Yours sincerely,
Luka K. Marinković12
- Tran. note: President of the Council of Ministers or Prime Minister ↩︎
- Tran. note: For more details on the term “Old Serbia”, Jevto Dedijer’s work is quite instructive. ↩︎
- Tran. note: First-order administrative unit in the late 19th century Ottoman Empire. ↩︎
- Tran. note: Irade-i seniyye, a kind of routine decrees issued by the Ottoman Sultans in person. Usually a handwritten-note as a response to a document. Previously known as hatt-i humayun or a hatt-i sharif. ↩︎
- Tran. note: Vali is the title of the governor of the vilayet. ↩︎
- Tran. note: Rank originating in the Ottoman military, equivalent to a major. ↩︎
- Tran. note: Ottoman title for a the governor of an administrative district. ↩︎
- Tran. note: Martini-Henry rifles. ↩︎
- Tran. note: Although the author says “revolver”, he most likely meant a general form of sidearm. ↩︎
- Tran. note: Old Ottoman army rank, equivalent to a captain. ↩︎
- Tran. note: Ottoman currency 1844-1927, a lira being approximately 6.16 grams of gold. ↩︎
- Tran. note: Marinković would be killed on 19.06.1890. in front of the Serbian Consulate in Priština while on duty. ↩︎
