In view of the migration of the Tatars in the aftermath of the Crimean War, the Ottoman Central Government in Istanbul, or Bab-i Ali ( or the Sublime Porte)  as it was called then, had developed urgently a set of  policies and mechanisms relevant to rehabilitation of  refugees from the Crimean Peninsula.  The policy envisaged the European sector of the empire as the preferred  zone to rehabilitate the refugees.  Hence the preparatory work concentrated in the same region. 

            In the aftermath of capitulation of Imam Şamil in 1859, yet another process of disintegration and displacement commenced in Caucasia.  Nevertheless no significant movement of population had occurred then in Daghistan and Çeçenistan, where the Caucasian resistance was sustained.  Following the collapse of the Terek Front, however, Kaberdey and the Kuban defense lines were adversely effected in terms if popular morale condition.  A section of the Kaberdey, Besleney and Kenguy tribal peoples moved to migrate to Turkey, via Taman and thence by sea.  The Tatars and Nogays had joined this start-up wave of mass migration.

             The Sublime Porte assessed the surrender of Imam Şamil as an event significant enough to entail the collapse of the Kuban Front also.  They estimated that a mass migration of far greater magnitude would follow.  Hence they felt the urge of taking far reaching solid measures to cope with the upcoming situation.  The Department of Immigration, set up to handle the Tatar migration from Crimea, was enlarged and reinforced. 

            In 1860 A new organization, called the “Central Commission For Management of  Refugees Affairs” was set up. Sadık Paşa was appointed as the Chairman. 

            Nusret Paşa, a member of the same Commission, who had directed to organize the Tatar migration of 1860-1861 in Bulgaria had been reckoned to have had accomplished a successful mission there. 

            Bearing in mind Nusret Paşas reputation in handling the refugees affairs, the Commission assigned him to direct the   management of the latest wave of migration to Bulgaria, which was of much greater dimensions then the earlier ones.    The outskirts of  the cities of Varna and Köstence were full of refugees. 

            Transportation of the refugees to the interior, and allocation of land to them progressed not as expeditiously as required.  The masses, therefore, had to take care of their needs by themselves.  The tended to spread over to the Dobruca Region.  It tuned  virtually to an invasion by the refugees. 

            The restless and irritated Circassians, particularly those who had disembarked at Varna,  had moved in despair towards the Deliorman Region due to the delay in allocation of a place for them to settle down. 

            The area was covered with dense forests, a feature that suited them very well.  There were plentiful raw material for the construction of housing facilities.  The nature there was akin to that in Caucasia. 

            Thus the migration process went out of control.  The plans charted out by the Immigration Commission fizzled out. 

            Nusret Paşa’s plan was for a much limited number of refugees. It was impossible  to rehabilitate a quarter of a million refugees within its framework. 

            The province of Eflak and Buğdan had been merged together to form the Principality of Romania in consequence of the pressure brought to bear upon the Ottoman the Ottoman Government by the European powers. 

            Romania was a territory of  the Ottoman Empire, on paper only. In practice, however, the Principality was under Russia’s hegemony.  Hence it did not promise peace and stability. 

            The Ottoman Government was interested to protect their natural frontiers.  Consolidation of the defense of the territories south to the River Danube constituted their primary objective. 

            The plan to rehabilitate the refugees from Crimea and Caucasia in Bulgaria was a part of the project to consolidate defense of south of Danube.  The idea was to set up a barrier against the  threat of Russian invasion. 

            Therefore, the responsibilities of Nusret Paşa, as a member of the Immigration Commission, was a function of the policy of the Ottoman Government in Eastern Europe.  Neutralization of the threat from Russia and Serbia,  and   suppression of the budding separatist nationalism in Bulgaria were part of the objectives involved.  Demographic preponderance of the Muslims in the area had been also had been another consideration within the scope of the rehabilitation scheme. 

            The plan envisaged rehabilitation of the refugees in concentration in Kula, Lom, Belogradjik, Pirot, Niş, Sviston, Vidin, Silistre, Ruscuk and Plevne.  The designed line extended as far as Kosova.  Eventually in the summer of 1865 the Circassian refugees were to reach Kosova as well as Priştina and Prizrene, further south of Kosova.

            Furthermore;  according to the plan the refugees disembarked at Köstence were to be carried, through Mecidiye,  to the bank of  Danube, and thence further to the hinterland.   The refugees gathered in Varna were to be absorbed likewise.  They were partly to be transported by the waterway, via Şumnu and Ruscuk;  and partly overland. 

            Implementation of the plan had already commenced.  It, however, locked up later due to a sudden surge in the number of refugees beyond the capacity estimated. 

            As a rule throughout the Ottoman domain every refugees from Caucasia was invariably labeled as “Çerkes” (“Circassian” being the corresponding term used in the West.) The same term was soon widely adopted to denote the common Caucasian characteristics. 

            According to a widespread perception in the Ottoman domain  a Çerkes (Circassian) was a courageous and aggressive person;  but was a plunderer and a robber; and that he lacked the notion of family to the extend that he could sell his own women. 

            Before he arrived to the scene, his image n the eyes of local population had been mutilated.  He had been presented to  as an abominable being.  The advocates of slavery and those engaged in  slave trade had spread  rumors to the effect that he was good in trading the women.  They eagerly had began rubbing  their palms in anticipation. 

            Not long after his arrival to the destination, where he was supposed to be rehabilitated, he began manifesting a mode of behavior, which tended to confirm what had been said about him,  by indulged himself in certain acts of theft and robbery. 

            He did so because he had no food and had no shelter.  The Caucasian refugees, Hundreds of  thousands of his kins had been rendered homeless,  , unemployed, and condemned to the meanest living condition in exile. 

            Most importantly; he was a product of an unrelenting and uninterrupted wartime, several generations long .  He was born and had grown up in the wartime.  The Russians had invaded his village, set his crop on fire, and herded away his domestic animals.  He was used to retaliate the enemy in kind.  To kill  not to be killed,  and to steal so as not to be condemned to starvation, had been the unalterable way of life  he had learnt the hard way.

            It seemed that he needed time to adapt himself to a productive sedentary life style. 

                                                               O0O

            The arrival of Basti Osman’s group to Varna coincided with a surge in the influx of refugee.  Thousands of refugees, who had arrived immediately before them, had been placed at the transition camps, on the plains to the west of the port city, to be dispatched to the west in series of groups. 

            Nusret Paşa, the Chief of the Immigration Commission in the European domain of the Ottoman Empire, intended to remove all the refugees accumulated in Varna and its neighborhood before the winter set in.  He was considering to settle the early arrivals in Bulgaria, mainly along Bulgaria’s frontier region close to Serbia. 
            The movement was being conducted according to the plan.  The refugee groups were first moved to Ruscuk via Şumnu, and then through the waterway to the west. 

            Within a few days Osman became familiar with the city of Varna, its inlets and out lets, and its market places.  Being a businessman himself until recently, he had little difficulty in communicating with the local merchants. 

            Before the fall of Tsemez, Turkish ships used to call at the harbor notwithstanding the then ongoing war.  Osman frequently used to mix up with the captains and the crew of the Turkish vessels anchord in the Bay of Tsemez.  He, therefore had a smattering of Turkish language. His knowledge of  Turkish, however meager, proved an asset to him now in Bulgaria.  No matter if he could not construct a sentence in Turkish; individual words if used appropriately did make sense.  So he managed all right.

            To begin with, he purchased two tents.  One was meant for the women and children, and the other was for the males, to sleep in. 

            The open space they occupied, was surrounded by tall trees, which provided a natural shelter for the refugees.  Within two days the area was packed with Caucasian refugees, mostly of the Şapsığ tribe, and a few Abzehs. 

            Osman was farsighted enough to improvise a twin  shelter, surround with a fence of dry branches, at a corner close to the road.  It was to provided the small group protection against the scorching heat of the summer months. 

            Osman made preparations, taking in to consideration the probability of an unexpected longer stay there.  Besides, he would not mind waiting for the arrival of his people left behind.  He did not intend to go anywhere else before his cousin Selim and his group joined him. 

            Towards the end of July there came a group of civil and military officials, who alerted him to get ready to move on.

            The officials had an Adiğe interpreter with them.  Osman told the interpreter that he was expecting his kinsmen to catch them up, and that the group had to wait for them. 

            The interpreter smirked, meaning ,  “Dont be silly!”. He conveyed Osman’s message. The Lieutenant Colonel in command of the group of officials, thundered:  “Nothing doing!” 

            The Şapsığ interpreter came closer to the Officer, talked to him a little while.  The Officer was finally persuaded to concede to Osman’s request.

            Several days later there came more than a hundred horse driven carts to the camp.  The drivers were mostly Bulgarian.  All the refugees at the camp, except Osman’s group, were evacuated.

            Within a week, however, the vacancy at the camp was filled by new arrivals. 

            A sack of wheat floor was issued by the Immigration Commission to every refugee family.  That was all what the authorities could provide.   As destitution grew more widespread by time, so increased incidents of theft at the camp and in the neighborhood. 

            Some amongst the refugees sacked the corn fields, not yet ready to harvest, in the nearby villages and towns; and stealthily butchered and consumed the cattle they could lay their hands on.  Incidence of theft never ceased.

            Osman waited till the end of August.  In the meantime he daily went to the harbor to check the ships newly docking,  hoping to find his kinsmen he had left behind.  He also check through all the refugee camps in the area in vain.

            On the days when no ship arrived at the horror, he would sit by the seaside, and quietly watched the horizon where the blue dome above touched the sea, in anticipation of a miracle. 

            Finally he  lost hope. “It would be better to get settled somewhere before the winter season arrived”, Osman contemplated. 

            He wouldn’t go too far. Unless the authorities compelled them otherwise, he would  to prefer somewhere close to Varna.

            He was aware that he wouldn’t be able to accomplish that with the  small community attached to himself.  There was need to find other comrades-in -fate.  In the land where he was an outright stranger, he had to be strong.  He therefore began contacting the refugee groups around for allies. 
There was a crowded group of refugees, who had newly arrived at the camp.  They be
            Zonged to different tribal affiliations. There were families from the Adgum region and  from the Psıfabe Valley as well.  They had incidentally mixed up with the group. 

            Basti Osman was pleased over the presence in the group of two families from the Psıfabe Valley. He inquired from them about the fate of his relatives. 

            The refugees from Psifabe belonged to the Heşik and Hahu families.  Hahu Netaf, a stout and healthy person in his early forties,  was in a leading person in the group. He was a grandson of the famous Şapsığ, Hahu Bergus. 

            “ I cant tell you much that would please you”, Hahu Netaf said as he set right the skirt of his worn out çerkeska.  He continued

            -  As you may be aware; our people have been restless in the past three years.  They have been continually on the move   as the Russian troops advanced.  Finally the people of the Psıfabe Valley, including the Bastis, were deported, partly to the Kuban and partly to Laba banks.

            Hahu Netaf smiled painfully.

            -  When permitted to depart, we moved on, not mindful of those relatives of us who stayed back. Now I am ashamed for having acted so selfishly.

            Bastiko Osman admitted by himself, “I did the same.”  He avoided coming eye to eye with Netaf.  He turned his eyes far away.

            There was another person in the group, who attracted Osman’s attention.  He was in his fifties, and almost continually smiled.  His friends called him “Ketiğej”.¹  His actual name was Hahurat.  He had his wife, and a son about seven or eight years old, with him.  He had lost his two grown up sons in one of the recent battles. His associates believed that he had lost his mental balance due to the tragedy he suffered. 

            Nevertheless Osman discovered that Hahurat Ketiğej was far from being insane.  On the contrary he was a person with strong will power.  He did not smile out joy.  He knew how to change sorrow to humor.

            To start his narration Ketiğej would say, “Bastikor² ! For God’s sake, listen to me!”.  He spoke gravely in short sentences,

            -  Look at our people! they sit idle and ponder in gloom.  Most of them are crying.  Whose fault is it? We willfully did it.  We ventured doing things that surpassed out capability. We fought the armies of the Czar.  We are defeated. Okay! accept it.  Be realistic.  Stay where you are.  No, nothing doing!   Would Adiğe submit?  Would he listen to reason?  No!  So here we are!

            He smiled and waved his head sideways. Without waiting for Osman’s response, he murmured by himself.

            Osman availed his time in Varna learning about the developments in the Europeans sector of the Ottoman empire. The Bulgarians and Serbians had been in touch with the Russians for independence.  The Serbians in particular had been looking for an opportunity to start a rebellion.  The near future seemed to be eventfull.  Therefore, Osman inferred that it would be unwise to go too far away.  A place closer to Istanbul would be appropriate, he calculated. 

            He confided his idea with reliable persons,  and proposed to move together.  He found a considerable number of supporters. 

            Nusret Paşa’s functionaries were engaged forming a caravan destined to Şumnu and further on.  Osman’s group joined  the caravan.  They set out early in September. 

            Fifteen hundred carriages had been requisitioned from the Turkish and Bulgarian villages in the region to carry the luggage, the women and children.  They reached the town of Şumnu in fifteen days.    The caravan was supposed to go to Rusçuk.  The column broke up as the caravan thrust forward.  A few of the groups lagged behind.  Osman availed the confusion in the caravan  to his advantage. He saw to it that his group, and those committed themselves to follow him,  divert to the west, without a stopover in Şumnu.  In the meantime another group also followed them.

            Osman’s group now exceeded two hundred families.  A group of almost equal strength followed them.  The  route they were on,  led to Tımova via Papova. The terrain was rough and wooded.

            Osman had acquired a Tatar guide.  He had bribed the carriage drivers to take them to a nice area, out of the way.  Ten days later they reached  the bank of the river Yantara, a tributary of Danube. 

            Yantra is a generous stream fed by several creeks, with its source up in the Minor and Greater Balkan Mountains.  It runs to the north in torrents, gradually expanding and slowing down as it enteres the plains. 

            It was late in the autumn.  The refugees led by Osman had no means to cross the river.  They did not consider it advisable to proceed further downstream; for there were numerous Turkish and Bulgarian villages on the plains.  They divided up in three sub-groups, each to settle down in one of the valleys irrigated by a tributary of Yantra. 

            The environment was plentiful in raw material for construction of housing.  The hills and the flat surface were all covered with forests.  As such the area resembled Caucasia.  More importantly; it  was equally rich in fauna as well.  On the way they noticed herds of dear, and wild sheep and goats.  Local and migratory birds were plenty.    The  sky was virtually overcast  when they flew in flocks over the area rich in  water and vegetation. 

            Each of the groups immediately got busy in building shelters.  In no time three villages, each with a specific name of its own, emerged. 

            Osman’s village was named “Bastihabl”.  The other two also were named after  the most prominent of the residents. 

            “Bastihabl”³  was located in middle.   “Sinanhable” and   “Havudukohabl” were situated to its north and south respectively.  The valleys hosting the villages opened up to the west, and gradually widened downstream.   The basins were fit for cultivation.  The earth, however needed some labor, and time of course, before being inseminated.

            Havudukohabl  was named after the Havuduko family,     descendants of the once celebrated Adiğe leader Havuduko Mansur. 

            Osman did not approve of an unlawful existence.  He picked up three person from each of the three villages.  Accompanied by his Tatar guide  and village representatives, Osman called on  the government authorities in Tirnova.  He told the County Officer that they were refugees, had built three villages side by side, and were  in need of  government support. 

            The County Officer favorably  received Osman and his companions, and  listened to them carefully.  With the help of his assistants, he  plotted the area where the villages had been built, and entered the names of the villages on the map. 

            The sober and responsible posture of Basti Osman impressed the County Officer. He tried to convey to Osman, through the Tatar interpreter, that he would  help them, that the Sultan and the State were powerful, and that if they were patient for a little while they would necessarily witness the same fact. 

                                                              O0O

            The Ottoman Empire had been ruled for a long time in the form of  very expansive system of administrative divisions, called Beylerbeyi.  Subsequent to the Tanzimat or Reformations, the administrative divisions were cut down in size, and new Provinces were introduced. 

            Accordingly Bulgaria was divided in to a number of Provinces.  The region laying between the Balkan Mountains and the River Danube was declared as a new province called the “Dona Vilayeti”⁴.  Mithat Paşa was appointed as its Governor.  The refugees issue formed the major problem to be handled by him. Throughout the summer steamers, sailboats, and  Ottoman battle ships had been continually carrying refugees  to the ports of Köstence, Varna and Burgaz.  The number of refugees disembarked at the Bulgarian ports in September-October, 1864 exceeded half a million. 

            Peripherial areas of the port cities were ceturated with refugees, whose transportation to the interior regions was hampered  for want of adequate number of convayance.

            There was a short railway line between Köstence and Cerna Voda  The routes leading to the west were nothing but narrow trails.  To reach the Danube waterway one had to travel through one of the primitive trails. 

            The newly designated Governor accused Nuri Paşa  of incompetence on account of the setback in transportation and rehabilitation of the refugees.  Mithat Paşa had disregard the fact that Nuri Paşa had successfully accomplished the rehabilitation of the refugees  from Crimea earlier.  The present setback was not due to the latter’s incompetence; but was due to the magnitude of the job itself. 

            The Central Government authorities recalled Nuri Paşa in compliance with the new Governor’s recommendation.  He was replace by Ahmet Şakir, a less experienced and less resourceful person than his predecessor. 

            The confusion experienced at the early phase of the sudden surge in influx of  refugees having been overcome in due course of time, the Headquarters of the Immigration Commission in Istanbul began employing the authority and resources of the State, placed at their disposal.  Hundreds of officials went in to work to support the efforts  for   rehabilitation of the refugees, partly in the allocation land, and partly in the construction of housing facility. 

            Through legal and administrative arrangements, the Turkish and Bulgarian villages were involved in the process. The local inhabitants at each rehabilitation zone were mobilized in the housing construction labor.  Their contribution in feeding the refugees was made obligatory by law. 

            The initial phase of the support, which the County Officer of Tirnova had promised to Osman, was provided through the local resources at the rate of one sack of wheat or wheat flour to each refugee family, plus a pair of oxen to eavery two families.

            The winter of 1864-65 was  a disastrous period to the refugees.  Many of them perished due to disease and starvation.  In several cases the oxen given to plow the earth was slaughtered to feed the families. 

            Now Osman was in charge of a district, Bastihabl,  as he had been in Kutak, Caucasia.  It covered a vast area surround by a timber fence.  He plotted the spaces to build the houses.  He allotted the section to the east for himself, the one to the north for Yeftale Hamz and Bjafe Mustafa, and the one to the south for Koce Neov and Serkuse Husayin.  As in Kutak, here too the five families decided to live together, once again sharing a common destiny. 

            Yaftale Hamız and Bjafe Musa were good in the building work.  The youth cut trees in the forests and brought  them to the construction site, while the elders labored at the courtyard-to-be.  The skeleton of an independent house for each of the five families was thus built.  The paraphernalia of the houses were to be completed in due course, according to individual taste.  A stable, a bakery and a hays-shed, common for all, were also built.

            By the time of the first snowfall, each family had been warmly sheltered.

            Osman did not allow waste and disorder at Bastihabl.   He did his best to see to it that the incoming assistance was used  specifically for the purpose for which they were meant to.  He continually warned his people to the same effect.

            The neighborhood was rich in wild life.  Osman formed a hunters-team comprised of the ones good at shooting, organized hunting parties, and thus provided the families with sufficient supply of meat. 

            The two neighboring villages, Sinanhabl and Havudukohabl, were built after the pattern of Bastihabl. The people there too passed the winter with not much difficulty. 

            Skurun and the rest of the women in Bastihabl were relieved of the shock of  migration, and were used to the misery and distress of   refugee-life.  However difficult it may be , they adapted themselves with the circumstances. 

            Indeed the women were the actual architects of the new order.  They did the interior decoration of the dwellings, which   entirely comprised of timber, except the fireplace and the chimneys.  They plastered the walls and installed the essential improvised utilities,  using whatever they could lay hand upon.  They satisfied the crave for a warm and sweet home.  Everything around spoke for itself the dexterous female touch.  They did not sit idle when they were confined under the roof by the first snowfall.  They attended to the laundry, mended the dresses, and did the knitting.   They also set up small improvised looms and  produced course woolen cloth.

            While at work they did not ignore the usual womanly habits.  They gossiped, laughed and cried, as the occasion demanded.  They never forget their loved ones left behind in the homeland.  They were homesick.  They wailed and mourned for their relatives died recently. 

            To have survived the first winter season in Bulgaria was a major accomplishment by itself to the refugees.  It was indeed a miracle under the circumstances, fraught with deprivations.  It was an incredible experiment of  human endurance.  They had just been out of the fire called  the “war”, where  they had lived through the worst form of destitution.  But then they had at least the satisfaction and pride of being in their homeland.

            To what did they now owe their stamina for survival in a foreign environment?  How they had been able to endure all those sufferings?  Was it a natural instinct or a rational resistance that lent them the stamina?

            It was indeed difficult to explain the phenomenon.  Notwithstanding the starvation, the sickness and other adversities, they survived to see the spring season setting in, enjoyed the pleasant and invigorating climate.

            Osman assembled all the male population of the Bastihabl.  He got the area of the cultivable land at their disposal measured  by number of steps, divided it to plots of equal unit measurements, and distributed the plats to the families residing in  Bastihabl by drawing of lots.  The,  he himself gave a start for plowing. 

            The five families of Bastihable had two pairs of oxen.  Osman assigned a team of men to prepare the ground for seeding, to be supervised by Yeftale Hamiz.  Accompanied by a few of his neighbors, he went to the Bulgarian villages to the right side of the Yantra Stream to procure corn seed. 

            Generally the Turks and Bulgarians were not happy with the arrival of the Circassians.  Because  the uninvited guests had  become  self-styled partners of their cultivable land and pastures.

            At the first village Osman and his companions visited, they were given a cold reception.  The villagers were justified in being  inhospitable.  During the winter  they had lost some of their domestic animals.  The search made by following  foot-steps suggested the animals had been carried to the Circassian villages. 

            It meant that the animals were not missing, but had been stolen.

            Osman was aware of what had been going on.  He had been informed that there had been a few instances of theft.  He had warned his people and those of the neighboring villages against committing such misdeeds.  He had told them that “We have to co-exist with the people of this country, and have to maintain good neighborly relations with them.  How could we achieve it if feelings of enmity were to germinate?”  It appeared that he had not been quite successful on this respect.

            The Tatar guide Osman had employed in Varna was still at his service.  He had built a hut for him in the courtyard of his house.  He shared the same room with Pşılı Hakul.  He was now a member of the community. 

            Sülemiş, the Tatar guide, was happy with his lot, and grew fond of Osman.  Having no surviving relatives of himself, Sülemiş developed a firm attachment to him. 

            Through   interpretation by Sülemiş, Osman had talks with elders of the Bulgarian village.  He tried to woo them promising good relations.  If he failed to obtain the corn seed he needed, his people could attempt the share there crop, he told the Bulgarians.

            He did not mean to threaten the Bulgarians; but they construed so:  If the Circassians did not become productive, they would have no alternative but stealing. 

            The Bulgarians gave in to Osman’s serious arguement.  They hosted him and his companions overnight.  Next day a basket full of seed was collected from each family.  Basti Osman returned to Bastihobl with two carts load of corn seeds.  The Bulgarian villagers provided for   transportation.

            Osman did the same for the residents of Sinanhable and Havudukohabl.  Together with the representatives of each of the villages he went some other Bulgarian villages in turn, from where he procured corn seeds. 

            He made firm commitment to the contributors to the effect that: “We aren’t beggars.  We take the seeds on loan.  Soonest we improve our condition, we would return it, more than received.”

            Osman did not suffice with that.  What he had procured so far were seeds to be sowed.  They were in need of foodstuff.  He formed another deputation, and went to Tirnova.  He approached the County Officer for help once more.

            The authorities of the Immigration Commission had not been idle during the winter. They had supplied food grain and clothes to the villages and camps with transportation facility.  They had built up stocks of wheat and corn seeds at certain stations.  Tirnova was situated on the junction of the roads leading to the northern regions.  Hence a significant quantity of supplies had been stocked there. 

            The County Officer issued Osman wheat, both seed and food, for each of the three villages according to their respective population, and arranged for the transportation of the supplies by means of carts drawn by draft animals. 

            Thus depravity was to some extend remedied.  From then onwards it depended on their own endeavor.  They had to become productive through cultivating the land. 

            And indeed they did that.  They enthusiastically labored at the fields, sowed wheat for the summer.  On the watery downstream sections they cultivated corn. 

            The wheat plant appeared by mid-May.  The corn field were weeded in June. 

            Osman strolled on the fields daily, his face gleamed at the sight of the green stems. “By Providence, we shall manage it”, he murmured by himself. 

            Notwithstanding all the adversities, by virtue of their experience of life and their knowledge of the nature, they did not yield..  Within a short time they had discovered where and how they could find things they needed to sustain.

            During the winter, the males had been hunting most of the time, to provide the community with meat supply. The females searched for fruit and vegetable in the woods and meadows nearby, during the spring season. 

            The area was very rich in fauna and flora both.  The varieties of edible plants, mushroom, strawberry, mountain apple, plum and walnut were available in abundance.  These served as the staple food of the refugees in deprivity.

            Osman, occasionally would sit and recollect his past.  He was born to a prosperous family, and had grown up in comfort.  And now he was running here and there soliciting help, and laboring like a vassal. 

            On such occasions he was overwhelmed by an indescribable gloom.

                                                              O0O

            The Black Sea was stormy in the winter.  The giant waves often inhibited lighter boats to navigate.  As such; navigation in the Black Sea practically ceased in the winter. 

            With the arrival of the spring season the migration process resumed.  The Russian steamers and Ottoman battle ships began calling at the Caucasian shore.  Occasionally a British or French vessel could be sighted amongst them.  They carried the refugees amassed around the harbors to whichever direction considered fit.  Some were dumped at the Anatolian coast, and some at  the Rumelian⁵  harbors.  The refugees had virtually no right to choose which way to go.  Even if in theory they had the right, they were not able to exercise it; for most of them had no idea where they were headed to.  It sufficed to be on the “land of the Sultan”. 

            Their destination was determined by the captain of the ship they boarded.  Their destiny depended on the pointer of the Captain’ compass.  This instance of plundering of human being has no parallel in history. 

            The refugees disembarked at Varna, Köstence and Burgaz were transferred to the interior parts soonest possible.  The vessels, which opted to navigate through the Danube waterway, carried their passengers as far as the town of Lom.  There the refugees branched out to different directions; for instance, while some went to the south towards Sofia, other proceeded  to the east. 

            The southern basin of the River Danube was already saturated with refugees.  Now it was the turn of western Serbia to receive the immigrants.  The outskirts of the towns of Niş, Pirot, Kosova, Priştina and Prizren were occupied by the refugees.  There were repeated incidents of violence over utilization of the fields and pastures. 

            The refugees, who had disembarked at the Port of Burgaz, spread over southern Bulgaria and Thrace.  A part of them  extended as far as Tsalonika and Kavala on the Aegean coast. 

            The Caucasian refugees who landed on the Anatolian coast of the Black Sea were not as lucky as those who went to the European side.   In Anatolia Immigration Commission was not organized as efficiently.  Too many of the refugees fell victim of destitution and diseases. Scores of Caucasian graveyards emerged between Trabzon and Istanbul along the sea shore. 

            Those who were too impatient to wait  for being evacuated by sea, migrated to the land of the Caliph Sultan overland  through the coastal strip of Georgia, with prolonged stop over on numerous places.  It took them several months to reach Anatolia.  It was indeed a tiresome but  a safer adventure; for loss of life in this case was not as high as in the case of those who had taken other options.  They had their riding horses, carts and carriages, and herds livestock.  They had the chance of moving independently. 

            Influx of refugees from Caucasia to the Ottoman territories was over by the end of the summer of 1865.  The north-eastern part of Caucasia was virtually deserted,  excepting the marshy land along the river Kuban, where to the Russians had exiled a handful Adiğes.  The highlands, where once neighing  of horses and the explosion of guns resounded, were in dead silence.  The expansive plains between the river Laba and the Adegum Stream laid desolate. 

            The Adiğes dispersed all over the vast domain of the Ottoman Empire faced complex problems depending on the specific condition of new environment,  entirely strange to them.  The once proud and recalcitrant people, now were so helpless and destitute that most of them lost hope to exist.  A part of them defied their fate, and indulged in actions to the brink  of insanity.  To exist, they did not mind committing theft and robbery in the towns and villages. 

            The established order in the European sector was disrupted due to recurrence of such incidents.  Theft and robbery were widespread.  The Turkish and Bulgarian villages were in panic.  The people retreated to the confines of their  towns and villages, and avoided dealing with the “Circassians”.   In most places the local people took up armed, and appealed   the Government to take measures against the unlawful activities. 

            A large refugee population had accumulated in the area between Lom and Ruscuk, south of the river Danube.  In addition to the acute problems relevant to rehabilitation, starvation and misery had reached to extreme  proportions.  The officials of the Immigration Commission were helpless.  They were at a loss what to do. 

            Troops were deployed at the areas with concentration of the refugees.  Deterrent measures were taken.

            The hungry and miserable refugees diverted their attention to the territories of Romania.  They began to raid the prosperous villages to the north of the river Danube. 

            The younger generation was born and had grown up in wartime.  Each grown up person was a genius in the art of fighting.  For decades they had been staging raids against the Russian fortifications and settlements across the river Kuban.  They were highly experienced in the act.

            The Danube, though a major river, wide and deep, posed no serious problem to the Adiğes to cross it.  They made life buoys out of inflated sheep and goat skins, which they tied to either side of the saddle, and  forged across the river on horseback.  At opportune times they pillaged the rich Roman villages, and carried away the oxen and buffaloes.

            The incidents persisted for a long time despite protestations of the Romanian Principality. 

            The adversity was not unilateral.  It was not solely due to the fault of the Caucasian refugees.  Much negative publicity had been made about them before their arrival.  They were presented as plunderers, thieves and a mean community who exchanged their wives and daughters for money.  The local population had been prejudiced against the refugees.  These unfounded and undeserved allegations caused serious incidents of violence. 

            Thousands died in the course of migration due to misery and sickness, women were widowed and children were orphaned in thousands; and  families were disjointed.  The government authorities could offer no remedy to such social tragedies. 

            Certain benevolent individuals in the host country approached the problem from humanitarian angle.  They tried to be helpful to the victims of the migration.  They tended to adopt the orphan children and to employ the widows in decent jobs..  The malevolent ones, however,  sought their own selfish interests only.  They enticed and seduced the helpless widows and orphans, and sold them into slavery in the open markets. 

            That was how the Caucasian person was redused to an object of transaction, a capital good that changed hands for money. 

            Even those like Basti Osman, a prestigious person of sedentary background with moral values, were victims of such a mentality.  The extent of his sorrow and outrage hardly needs to be mentioned. 

            Osman improved his Turkish with the help of Sülemiş, the Tatar boy at his service, and the local Turks with whom he has been  in touch.  He was now capable of conveying his ideas in Turkish language.

            He made a number of  friends from among the artisans and traders at the Tirnova market place.  Whenever in Tirnova, he would call on those friends, would make shopping at their place, and would chat with them.

            From among them, one called Kara Ahmet, was his favorite.  He manufactured saddles and horse accessories. At the same time he was a good shoeing-smith.  Together with his two grown up sons he endeavored to satisfy his clients. 

            It was Osman’s second year in Bulgaria.  He and the other refugees, who  formed a community of interest with him, had by now built their homes and villages;  had cultivated their land, and had acquired a few domestic animals.  Some of them owned riding horses as well. The miserable condition they sustained during their early days in Bulgaria, no more existed. 

            It was the first week of September of 1865, when Osman and Yeftale Hamız, accompanied by a few neighbors from the Bastihabl went to the town.  They drove straight to the workshop of Kara Ahmet. 

            Kara Ahmet had a spacious workshop.  At the front there was a courtyard surrounded by a wall.  To the right there was a large stable, where the clients could leave their horses. 

            Kara Ahmet was out.  Osman and his companions were received by his sons.  One led the horses to the stable, while the other showed in the visitors, and said that his father was at the mosque, and would be coming back any moment.

            It was late afternoon,  the weather was slightly cool.  There were too many customers at the courtyard.  Akamet’s younger son was busy   shoeing  a restless stallion. 

            Osman was watching the animal with admiring eyes.  It reminded him of his own horse he had left back at home in Caucasia.  He turned to Yeftale Hamız and said, 

            -  Look at the stallion the boy is trying to shoe. It is beautiful isn’t ir?  It seems seems to be of good breed.

            The animal he rode now was an ordinary one.  He could not afford for a better one.  The heydays were far away in the past.  He sadly smiled.

            n about half an hour Kara Ahmet returned.  With him there were two persons, whose attire were distinctly different from that of the local people. 

            Kara Ahamet was delighted at the sight of Osman, and warmly welcomed his visitors. 

            He was a cheerful person with of a thick voice.  He was righteous and respectful towards the clients.  He had been helpful to Osman and to many other Adiğe refugees like him.   He served them on loan, to be paid for whenever they could afford. 

            For a while they conversed casually.  Kara Ahmet inquired about the situation at   Bastihabl.  “May God bless our Sultan”, replied Osman   with his usual pleasant smile, and continued,

            -  As you know, we now possess our own home and land.  The crop is fine.  Thanks to good friends like you that we hopefully look forward to be able solve all our remaining problems in due course of time.