Madzharovo massacre

The Madzharovo massacre, the mass killing of more than 1,800 ethnic Bulgarians in 1913, was connected with the aftermath of the Second Balkan War that year.

Under the Treaty of Constantinople of 16 September 1913 between Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria lost territory in the Adrianople region of Thrace. Although a clause allowed Bulgarians to return to Eastern Thrace, implementation was delayed and ultimately overturned by the Adrianople agreement of November 1913. This deprived Eastern Thracian Bulgarians of the right to return to their homes, replacing them with Turkish refugees.

On 4 October 1913, Turkish bashi-bazouks killed more than 1,800 Bulgarians, chiefly women, children and elderly people, near present-day Madzharovo. Academician Lyubomir Miletich compared these events with the Batak massacre, noting mass killings in seventeen Western Thracian villages and particularly horrific events near Madzharovo. The killings occurred just one day after the murder of two hundred infants at nearby Ilieva Niva.