After the liberation of Belgrade a massacre of Turks took place. Serb historian Stojan Novakovic described the event as a "thorough cleansing of the Turks". According to Archbishop Leontii, after the Serbs finally stormed the fortress of Belgrade, the commandant was killed "as well as all other Muslim inhabitants" and Turkish women and children were baptized. The slaughter was accompanied by widespread destruction of Turkish and Muslim property and mosques. A substantial part of those killed were not of actual Turkish ancestry, but local Slavs who had converted to Islam throughout the centuries. The massacre sparked a debate within the rebel faction. The older generation of rebels considered the massacre to be a sin, but the dominant principle was that all Muslims had to be removed.