IMRO

Statute of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees

Chapter I. – Goal
Art. 1. The goal of BMARC is to secure full political autonomy for the Macedonia and Adrianople regions.
Art. 2. To achieve this goal they [the committees] shall raise the awareness of self-defense in the Bulgarian population in the regions mentioned in Art. 1., disseminate revolutionary ideas – printed or verbal, and prepare and carry on a general uprising.

Chapter II. – Structure and Organization

Art. 2. To achieve this goal the organization fights to throw over the chauvinist propagandas and nationalist quarrels that are splintering and discouraging the Macedonian and Adrianople populations in his struggle against the common enemy; acts to bring in a revolutionary spirit and consciousness among the population, and uses all the means and efforts for the forthcoming and timely armament of the population with all that is needed for a general and universal uprising.

Chapter II. – Structure and Organization
Art. 3. The Secret Macedonon-Adrianoplitan revolutionary organization consists of local revolutionary organizations (bands) consisting of the members of local towns or villages.

Art. 2. The Organization opposes any other country's intentions to divide and conquer these two regions.

Chapter II. – Means

The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; Bulgarian: Вътрешна Македонска Революционна Организация (ВМРО), Vatreshna Makedonska Revolyutsionna Organizatsiya (VMRO), Macedonian: Внатрешна Македонска Револуционерна Организација, Vnatrešna Makedonska Revolucionerna Organizacija) was a revolutionary national liberation movement in the Ottoman territories in Europe, that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Founded in 1893 in Salonica, its aim was to gain autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople regions in the Ottoman Empire. According to some authors later it became an agent serving Bulgarian interests in Balkan politics in struggles against the Ottoman Empire. Starting in 1896 it fought the Ottomans using guerrilla tactics, and in this they were successful, even establishing a state within state in some regions, including their own tax collectors. This effort escalated in 1903 into the Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising. The fighting involved about 15,000 IMRO irregulars and 40,000 Ottoman soldiers. After the uprising failed, and the Ottomans destroyed some 100 villages, the IMRO resorted to more systematic forms of terrorism targeting civilians. During the Balkan Wars and the First World War the organization supported the Bulgarian army and joined to Bulgarian war-time authorities when they temporarily took control over parts of Thrace and Macedonia. In this period autonomism as a political tactic was abandoned and annexationist positions were supported, aiming eventual incorporation of occupied areas into Bulgaria.

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