The targeting of the civilian population was a frequent occurrence during the conflicts between the Balkan peoples for the rule of Ottoman territories in Europe. Atrocities against civilians occurred on several occasions during the period of the armed struggle in Macedonia (1904-1908). During the Second Balkan War, however, this phenomenon acquired much greater dimensions. All the Balkan armies took such actions. However, the systematic destruction of cities, towns and villages specifically characterized the Bulgarian army.
The Bulgarian army did not carry out these actions as part of a tactic (e.g. scorched earth), but systematically destroyed towns and villages during its withdrawal, a practice that suggests a process of revenge against the Greek – and in some cases Muslim – civilian – population rather than some military necessity. The Bulgarian army did not gain any military advantage by carrying out such acts. The use of violence against civilians on the part of the Bulgarian side was an element noted as early as 1913 by foreign observers who were close to the battlefields of the Balkan Wars. Characteristic examples of the brutal violence exercised by the Bulgarian army in 1913 in Macedonia were the massacres and arson in Nigrita with around 400 dead, in Sidirokastro (Demir Hisar) with over 100 dead (including Metropolitan Melenikos Konstantinos), in Serres with 57 also dead in Chrysoupolis Kavala (Sari Saban).
One of the attacks of the Bulgarian soldiers against civilians was the destruction of Doxato Drama on June 30, 1913. The number of victims in proportion to the population of the Macedonian town was extremely high: about 400-600 people. Almost one in three Greeks of Doxatos was murdered! Compared to the disaster of September 1941, when a few hundred male residents of Doxato were mass-executed, in 1913 Bulgarian soldiers beat residents regardless of gender and age in an open field. Apart from the loss of human life, the town was almost leveled after being looted.
The next day, July 1, 1913, the Greek army liberated the damaged Doxato. Forces of the VIII Division started from Kavala in the direction of Drama. Outside the town of Doxatos, which is located 10 kilometers southeast of Drama, the Greek forces engaged Bulgarian infantry and cavalry units, which they later pushed back. At the same time, the battle of the VII Division with the Bulgarian forces was raging west of Drama. When they forced their opponents to retreat, the soldiers of the VII Division captured seventy cartloads of items from the looting of Doxatus.
The Balkan Wars created a very bad image for the Balkan peoples in the West. According to the Carnegie commission, the atrocities that took place in the Balkan Wars were due to the eternal hatred of the Balkan peoples against the Turks and their immaturity. Of course, even the “civilized” and adult Europeans did not show mature behavior in the following years. Austrian forces repeatedly bombarded Serbian refugees in the Adriatic in 1915 and then carried out a genocide of Serbs during World War I.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
