Terrorists and Freedom Fighters | Page 6

all three regions. He was shot to death by the Turks in Banitsa, then a
Bulgarian village, today, a Greek one. It was in a spring day in May
1903. The death of this sad but steely eyed, heavily moustached youth
was sufficient to ignite the Illinden uprising three months later. It
erupted on the feast of Saint Illiya (Sveti Ilija). Peasants sold their

sacrificial bulls - the fruits of months of labour - and bought guns with
the proceeds. It started rather innocuously in the hotbed of ethnic unrest,
Western Macedonia - telegraph wires were cut, some tax registers
incinerated. The IMRO collaborated in this with the pro-Bulgarian
organization Vzhovits. In Krusevo (Krushevo) a republic was
proclaimed, replete with "Rules of the Macedonian Uprising
Committee" (aka the "Constitution of the Uprising").

This document dealt with the liberation of Macedonia and the
establishment of a Macedonian State. A special chapter was dedicated
to foreign affairs and neighbourly relationships. It was all heart-
achingly naive and it lasted 10 bloody days. Crushed by 2000 trained
soldiers and horse bound artillery, the outnumbered 1200 rebels
surrendered. Forty of them kissed each other goodbye and blew their
brains out. The usual raping and blood thick massacres ensued.
According to Turkish records, these ill-planned and irresponsible
moments of glory and freedom cost the lives of 4,694 civilians, 994
"terrorists". The rape of 3,000 women was not documented. In
Northwestern Macedonia, an adolescent girl was raped by 50 soldiers
and murdered afterwards. In another village, they cut a girl's arm to
secure her bracelets. The more one is exposed to these atrocities, the
more one is prone to subscribe to the view that the Ottoman Empire -
its halting and half hearted efforts at reform notwithstanding - was the
single most important agent of retardation and putrid stagnation in its
colonies, a stifling influence of traumatic proportions, the cause of
mass mental sickness amongst its subjects. As is usually the case in the
bloodied geopolitical sandbox known as the Balkans, an international
peacekeeping force intervened. Yet it was - again, habitually - too late,
too little.

What made Delcev, rather his death, the trigger of such an outpouring
of emotions was the IMRO (VMRO in Macedonian and in Bulgarian).
The Illinden uprising was the funeral of a man who was a hope. It was
the ululating grieving of a collective deprived of vengeance or recourse.
It was a spasmodic breath taken in the most suffocating of
environments. This is not to say that IMRO was monolithic or that
Delcev was an Apostle (as some of his hagiographers would have him).

It was not and he was far from it. But he and his two comrades, Jane
(Yane) Sandanski and Damyan (Dame) Gruev had a vision. They had a
dream. The IMRO is the story of a dream turned nightmare, of the
absolute corruption of absolute power and of the dangers of inviting the
fox to fight the wolf. The original "Macedonian Revolutionary
Organization" (MRO) was established in Sofia. The distinction
between being a Macedonian and being a Macedonian-Bulgarian was
not sharp, to use a polite understatement. The Bulgarians "proper"
regarded the Macedonians as second class, primitive and uncultured
Bulgarian relatives who inhabit a part of Bulgaria to the east. The
Macedonians themselves were divided. Some wished to be
incorporated in Bulgaria, the civilized and advanced society and culture.
Others wanted an independent state - though they, too, believed that the
salvation of such an entity - both demographic and financial - lies
abroad, with the diaspora and benevolent foreign powers. A third group
(and Delcev was, for a time, among them) wanted a federation of all
states Balkan with an equal standing for a Macedonian polity
(autonomy).

The original MRO opted for the Bulgarian option and restricted its
aims to the liberation and immediate annexation of what they solemnly
considered to be a Turkish-occupied Bulgarian territory. To distinguish
themselves from this MRO, the 6 founders of the Macedonian version -
all members of the intelligentsia - added the word "Internal" to their
name. Thus, they became, in November 1893, IMRO. A measure of the
disputatiousness of all matters Balkanian can be found in the widely
and wildly differing versions about the circumstances of the
establishment of IMRO. Some say it was established in Thessaloniki
(this is the official version, thus supporting its "Macedonian"-ness).
Others - like Robert Kaplan - say it was in Stip (Shtip) and the
Encyclopaedia Britannica claims it was in ... Resen (Resana). Let it be
clear: this author harbours no sympathy towards the Ottoman Empire.
The IMRO was fighting for lofty ideals (Balkanian federation) and
worthy goals (liberation from asphyxiating Turkish rule). But to many
outside observers (with the exception of journalists like John Sonixen
or John smith), the IMRO