From Danube to Tigris: The Exiled Bulgarians as a Result of Svishtov Incident

After the Crimean War, especially during the second half of 1860’s, Bulgarians obtaining significant acquirements at language, culture, education, schooling, and periodical publishing subjects have started to go into action at political independence thought. In the mentioned years, the Bulgarian revolution committees established at Romanian settlements near Danube have been frequently sending gangs to the opposite shore. However, the gangs were composed of 20-30 or a couple of hundreds of people and their expectation of Bulgarian support after crossing the river was not satisfied and they fell apart after the first combat against Ottoman law enforcement officers. Those revolutionists and their assistants were exiled to Diyarbakır (or other citadels in Anatolia) by Ottoman government. The prisoners were passed over İstanbul to Samsun by seaway and then followed Amasya, Tokat, Sivas, and Harput route, before arriving to Diyarbakır. (The other route was passing over Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean regions, and then İskenderun, Halep, Urfa, Birecik, Siverek and Diyarbakır). Appearing in a broad social and occupational spectrum, some of those Bulgarian exiles ranging from priests to teachers and handicraftsmen, merchants to painters and innkeepers wrote down their journey and the days, the thoughts and emotions in Diyarbakır. Later on, these notes became the base of some long or short, detailed or cursory memoirs, and also some of the letters exiles wrote to their families and friends have survived until today. This paper is just a slice of a broader study and mentions the Bulgarian exiles sent to Diyarbakır, as a result of the Svishtov Incident in 1867