According to the report “Die grausamkeiten des russisch-türkischen krieges Neue von der englischen regierung published denkschrift”, published by the Foreign Office of Great Britain, dated 1878, we can read about Russian and Cossack atrocities against Muslims of the regions in Balvan, Malkotch, Tirnova, Drenovo, Glena, Yeni Mahalla, Eshekji Hamar Atik, Kyzanlik, Yeni Zaghra, Hain Kiöi.
Cited:
“Telegraphic Attachment 3 to No. 6 Consul Blunt to Mr. Layard, Kyzanlik, July 14, 1877.
I arrived here yesterday, Friday, at 2 p.m. and found public feeling agitated because of the Turkish refugees from the other side of the Balkans who reported details of the cruelties perpetrated at Balvan Malkotch and other villages destroyed by the Russians between Tirnova Drenovo Glena and the Balkans.
Today, Saturday, at 2 p.m., fugitive peasants from the villages of Yeni Mahalla and Eshekji Hamar Atik arrived in the Casas of Kyzanlik and Yeni Zaghra, inhabited exclusively by Muslims, and reported to the authorities that the vanguard of a Russian column had crossed the Balkans this morning in the defile of Hain Kiöi and that they had burned the villages in question and killed the inhabitants.
These villages are only four hours from the telegraph line and the railway station of Yeni Zaghra. Up to now, the Kaymekam of the Cadi and all the Turkish and Christian notables successfully cooperated to maintain order and calm the mood of the people. 24
My Lord Therapia, July 21, 1877.
His highly respected Armenian merchant visited me this morning, having come directly from Kyzanlik, where he conducts his business. He arrived yesterday evening with dispatches for me from Mr. Blunt. He is well acquainted with the districts on both sides of the Balkans and has seen some refugees from the Muslim villages destroyed by the Russians and has received information about what has happened.
He describes these villages, whose names he gives, as among the most prosperous in that part of Turkey. According to the reports he received, the Cossacks, after entering the villages without resistance, disarmed the inhabitants and handed them over to the Bulgarians accompanying the Russian forces. These Bulgarians then set fire to the village and slaughtered the men, women, and children.
They raped the women and threw the children into the flames. The Cossacks stabbed those who tried to escape with spears. In mixed villages, Christian houses remained unmolested, but in some cases, some seem to have burned down by chance. The Bulgarians who participated in these horrific atrocities have their leaders, of whom a Hadji Dimitri from Drenova played a major role.
An Armenian merchant who was apprehended in a village in the north of the Balkans was instantly killed, along with an Albanian accompanying him. The news of the destruction of those villages and their inhabitants has caused the greatest consternation among the gun-deprived Muslim population, and Muslim families are fleeing in all directions. The information provided by my informant is so detailed and so accurately confirmed by reports from other sources that I considered it my duty to communicate it to Your Excellency.”
Reference
Balkan Academia 