Ivan Vedar - The Event in Rousse in 1877

The Event in Rousse in 1877

In the end of August, Russian forces fiercely attacked the Turkish quarter in Rousse, which the almost completely razed to the ground. That enraged the Turkish governors and they decided to massacre the whole Bulgarian population in Rousse — all of them were taken out in the field near the Vladikova bahcha (the present Youth's Park), where they spent several days and nights. Vedar managed to slip out of his surrounded house though paying a bag of gold. He dropped in at the Italian counsul Enrique de Gubernatis, together with whom they invited the influential Turk hajji Mehmed Alia to ascend with them to the Leventa hill, in order to lobby with Delaver Pasha, the commander of the Egyptian forces positioned around the city.

When they came in at the pasha's, the three of them made the masonic sign with a hand. Realizing that he was talking to a higher-ranking brother, he promised Ivan brotherly cooperation. When the delegation came down from Leventa, they found the population surrounded by the regular Egyptian army, which guarded them from the Cherkez and bashi-bazouk soldiers. The result was an exodus from a secure death for 4000 Rousse citizens and of setting the city ablaze.