The Terror massacre in Karlovo

In 1877, during the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation, Karlovo in the Ottoman Empire experienced a tragedy known as 'The Terror'. Ottoman regular troops and bashi-bazouks attacked in response to the local population's warm welcome for Russian forces. More than 800 members of Karlovo's leading social groups, including priests, teachers, doctors, merchants and craftspeople, and their families were killed. The massacre remains remembered as 'The Terror', one of the darkest episodes in the region's military history.