In 1876, during the suppression of the April Uprising, the Batak Massacre was committed. It was committed by an Ottoman bashibozuk from neighboring villages under the direct command of Ahmed aga Barutanliyata. After the massacre, he received awards and a promotion from the Sultan.
After the beginning of the April Uprising on April 20, 1876, part of the armed able-bodied men from the population of the village of Batak, led by the voivode Petar Goranov, Voivode Stefan Trendafilov Kerelov-petstotnik, rebelled against the Turkish authorities. As planned, the rebels removed part of the Turkish authorities when a 5,000-strong army of Bashi-Bazuks led by Ahmed aga Barutanliyata was sent against them. The leader of the uprising in Batak, Petar Goranov, was a delegate of the local revolutionary committee at the meeting in Oborishte.
The village leaders and the chorbadjii decided to save the lives of the people in the town and therefore called on Barutanliyata to hand over their weapons to him, and he swore that he would leave as soon as he received the rebels' ammunition.
The Batak massacre continued from May 1 to 5, and for the massacre of 5,000 civilians, Ahmed aga Barutanliyata received decorations and a promotion from the Sultan.
On May 1, 1876 The enemy was summoned by the village's chorbadjis to surrender their weapons. After the rebels surrendered their weapons, the bashibazouks attacked them and cut off their heads. During the "surrender" of weapons, however, some of the people in the village managed to escape, after which the village was surrounded so that no one could leave. The bashibazouks spread out among the houses and began to rob them. Many of the more remote homes in the village were burned down, the bashibazouks fired indiscriminately at everything that moved or did not move. People began to hide in the more solidly constructed buildings in the village that would withstand a fire, such as the church and the school, but also some of the chorbadjis' houses.
On May 2, those hiding in Bogdan's house surrendered, believing the aga that if they surrendered their weapons, they would receive mercy from his army. More than 200 men, women, children and old people were taken out of the house, searched for valuables, stripped so that they would not stain their clothes with their blood, and finally killed.
The gunsmith asked the more prominent people from the village to go to him at the bashibazouk camp, to hand over all the weapons to the people of Batak and to calm the population. The mayor of Batak - Trendafil Toshev Kerelov, together with Vranko Dimitrov Paunov, Georgi Serafin, Petar Trandafilov Kerelov, Petar Kakhvedzhiyski and Georgi Vuluv were sent to the camp. They agreed that if they handed over the weapons to the village, the bashibazouk would leave it, and all the prominent people who went for peace were taken hostage - their weapons or their lives. The ammunition was loaded on horses and carried to the camp. After which, however, all the hostages were impaled and either roasted alive or beheaded. The people again took cover in the church and the school.
But considering the survivors - less than 2,000, the number of those killed in Batak is between 3 and 5 thousand.
Memories from Batak
Ivan Vazov
I'm from Batak, uncle. Do you know Batak?
Hey, there behind the forests... it's very far away,
I don't have a father, a mother: I'm an orphan,
and I'm shivering a little, winter has already come.
You Batak haven't heard, but I'm from there:
I remember the massacre and the terrible weather.
We were nine brothers, and I was left alone.
If I tell you, fear will seize you.
When they slaughtered them, uncle, I saw...
They chopped them down with an axe, like that... on the woodcutter;
and I was crying, so I was scared.
Only Uncle Penyu with a loud voice shouted...
And the old man died... And a haiduk
My grandmother slaughtered her under the old roof
and the blood flowed from our neck...
And I was little and they didn't slaughter me.
My father came out of the house then
with the axe in his hands and said something...
But there were many of them: they immediately fired
and he fell backwards, the bullet killed him.
And my mother jumped out, from where; I don't know,
and the fan shouted and cried over dad...
But they chopped her up with a big knife,
that's why, uncle, I'm an orphan now.
And it was very scary to be there.
I don't know why they wouldn't slaughter me too:
but the barn caught fire and started to crackle,
and the cow and the ox were mooing terribly.
Then I ran outside crying.
But then, when the scary thing was gone -
they said that in that big fire
my uncle, grandfather, and aunt also burned.
And our church, uncle, burned down,
and the school burned down, and two hundred girls
were burned to the ground - someone stopped them...
And many more children and brides
And my aunt and other women
They tortured them for two days, then they wiped them out.
I can still hear them screaming, uncle!
and they beat the children with a stick.
They wiped out the whole world! How was it not a sin for them?
Only Grandfather Angel came to life, he was playing the surmacha.
He was collecting money for them with the cauldron;
but they were hammering pop Trendafila with nails!
And it was supposedly scary, but I wasn't afraid,
I was just shaking, but I didn't cry for ages.
They took me and other children with them
and they wrapped everyone in a bunch of clothes.
In a Pomak village, I don't know which one it was,
they stopped me somewhere underground.
I looked at the blue sky through a hole
and every day I cried for mom, for dad.
I would rather die, but not become a Turk!
When they let us go, I lived in Batak again...
After two years, we met Gurka!
Then Bad times have come for them too:
We slaughtered them, just as they slaughtered us;
But our village, uncle, is deserted,
And father and mother are no more.
You, uncle, haven't heard about Batak?
And I'm from there... it's very far...
I've been starving here for two days, because I'm an orphan,
and I'm shivering a little: winter has already come.