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into two provinces; the Eastern Province, with Tirnovo as capital,
was to include the Sandjaks of Roustchouk, Tirnovo, Toultcha, Varna,
Sliven, Philippopolis (not including Sultan-Eri and Ahi-Tchélebi),
the kazas of Kirk Kilisse, Mustapha Pasha and Kasilagatch; and the
Western Province, with Sofia as capital, the Sandjaks of Sofia, Vidin,
Nisch, Uskub, Monastir, the three kazas of the north of Sérès, and the
kazas of Stroumitza, Tikvesch, Velès, and Kastoria. Districts of from
five to ten thousand inhabitants were to stand as the administrative
unit. Christian and Mohammedans were to be settled homogeneously
in these districts. Each district was to have at its head a mayor and
a district council, elected by universal suffrage, and was to enjoy
entire autonomy as regards local affairs. Several districts would
form a Sandjak with a prefect at its head who was to be Christian
or Mohammedan, according to the majority of the population of
the Sandjak. He would be proposed by the Governor-General, and
nominated by the Porte for four years.
“Mystery”—a Study in the Roustchouk District
Finally, every two Sandjaks were to be administered by a
Christian Governor-General nominated by the Porte for five years,
with consent of the Powers. He would govern the province with the
help of a provincial assembly, composed of representatives chosen
by the district councils for a term of four years, at the rate of one
deputy to thirty or forty thousand inhabitants. This assembly would
nominate an administrative council of ten members. The provincial
assembly would be summoned every year to decide the budget and
the taxes. The armed force was to be concentrated in the towns and
there would be local militia beside. The language of the predominant
nationality was to be employed, as well as Turkish. Finally, a
Commission of International Control was to supervise the working of
these proposals.
The Porte promised reforms on these lines, but did not go beyond
promising. The task of forcing her to end a cruel tyranny was one for
the battlefield.
The Russo-Turkish War broke out on April 12, 1877, and what
Turkey had refused to yield of her own accord was wrested from
her by force of arms, in the preliminary treaty of San Stefano. By
this treaty, Bulgaria was made an autonomous principality subject
to Turkey, with a Christian government and national militia. The
Prince of Bulgaria was to be freely chosen by the Bulgarian people
and accepted by the Sublime Porte, with the consent of the Powers.
It was agreed that an assembly of notables, presided over by a
Russian Commissioner and attended by a Turkish Commissioner,
should meet at Philippopolis or Tirnovo before the election of the
Prince to draw up a constitutional statute similar to those of the other
Danubian principalities agreed to after the Treaty of Adrianople in
1830.
The Treaty of San Stefano brought into being on paper a Bulgaria
greater in area than the Bulgaria of 1912, and greater even than the
Bulgaria of 1914. But the Treaty was not ratified. Other European
Powers, alarmed at the prospect of Russia becoming supreme in the
Balkans through the aid of a Bulgarian vassal state, interfered, and
the Congress of Berlin substituted for the Treaty of San Stefano the
Treaty of Berlin.
The Treaty of Berlin provided:
Bulgaria is to be an independent Principality, subject to the Sultan,
with a Christian government and a national militia; the Prince of
Bulgaria will be freely chosen by the Bulgarian nation and accepted by
the Sublime Porte, with the approval of the Great Powers; no member
of a reigning European family can be elected Prince of Bulgaria; in case
of a vacancy of the throne the election will be repeated under the same
conditions and with the same forms; before the election of the Prince,
an assembly of notables will decide on the constitutional statute of the
Principality at Tirnovo. The laws will be based on principles of civil and
religious liberty.
By the Treaty of Berlin the boundaries of Bulgaria were very