Terrorists and Freedom Fighters | Page 8

train robberies (which

won handsome world media coverage) and kidnapping for ransom (like
the kidnapping of the American Protestant Missionary Ellen Stone -
quite a mysterious affair). The IMRO developed along predictable lines
into an authoritarian and secretive organization - a necessity if it were
to fight the Turks effectively. It had its own tribunals which exercised -
often fatal - authority over civilians who were deemed collaborators
with the Turkish enemy. It must be emphasized that this was NOT
unusual or unique at that time. This was the modus operandi of all
military- organized ideological and political groups. And, taking
everything into account, the IMRO was fighting a just war against an
abhorrent enemy. Moreover, to some extent, its war was effective and
resulted in reforms imposed on the Sublime Port (the Turkish
authorities) by the Great Powers of the day. We mentioned the
peacekeeping force which replaced the local gendarmerie. But reforms
were also enacted in education, religious rights and tolerance,
construction, farm policy and other areas. The intractable and
resource-consuming Macedonian question led directly to the reform of
Turkey itself by the Macedonia-born officer Ataturk. And it facilitated
the disintegration of the Ottoman empire - thus, ironically, leading to
the independence of almost everyone except its originators. The
radicalization of IMRO and its transformation into the infamous
organization it has come to be known as, started after the Second
Balkan war (1913) and, more so, after the First World War (1918). It
was then that disillusionment with Big Power politics replaced the
naive trust in the inevitable triumph of a just claim. The Macedonians
were never worse off politically, having contributed no less - if not
more - than any other nation to the re-distribution of the Ottoman
Empire. The cynicism, the hypocrisy, the off-handedness, the ignorance,
the vile interests, the ulterior motives - all conspired to transform the
IMRO from a goal-orientated association to a power hungry mostrosity.
In 1912 Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece - former bitter foes - formed the
Balkan League to confront an even more bitter foe, the Ottoman
Empire on the thin pretext of an Albanian uprising. The brotherhood
strained in the Treaty of London (May 1913) promptly deteriorated into
internecine warfare over the spoils of a successful campaign - namely,
over Macedonia. Serbs, Greeks, Montenegrins and Romanians subdued
Bulgaria sufficiently to force it to sign a treaty in August 1913 in

Bucharest. "Aegean Macedonia" went to Greece and "Vardar
Macedonia" (today's Republic of Macedonia) went to Serbia. The
smaller "Pirin Macedonia" remained Bulgarian. The Bulgarian gamble
in World War I went well for a while, as it occupied all three parts of
Macedonia. But the ensuing defeat and dismemberment of its allies, led
to a re-definition of even "Pirin Macedonia" so as to minimize
Bulgaria's share. Vardar Macedonia became part of a new Kingdom of
the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later renamed Yugoslavia). These
political Lego games led to enormous population shifts - the politically
correct term for refugees brutally deprived of their land and livelihood.
All of them were enshrined in solemn treaties. The Treaty of Lausanne
(1923) led to the expulsion of 375,000 Turks from Aegean Macedonia.
640,000 Greek refugees from Turkey replaced them. Each of the actual
occupiers and each of the potential ones opened its own schools to
indoctrinate the future generations of the populace. Conflicts erupted
over ecclesiastical matters, the construction of railways and railway
stations. Guerilla fighters soon realized that being pawns on this mad
hatter's chessboard could be a profitable vocation. The transformation
from freedom fighters to mercenaries with no agenda was swift. And
pecuniary considerations bred even more terror and terrorists where
there were none before. In the meantime, Greece enacted a land reform
legislation in "Aegean Macedonia" - in effect, the confiscation of arable
land by thousands of Greek settlers, refugees from Turkey. Much of the
land thus "re- distributed" was owned by Turkish absentees, now
refugees themselves. But a lot of land was simply impounded from its
rightful, very much present and very Macedonian owners. The Serb
authorities coerced the population to speak the Serb language, changed
Macedonian names to Serb ones in brutally carried campaigns and
imposed a corrupt and incompetent bureaucracy upon the suffering
multitudes.

IMRO never gave up its proclaimed goal to liberate both occupied parts
of Macedonia - the Aegean and the Vardar ones. But, as time passed
and as the nature of its organization and operation evolved, the
perfunctoriness of its proclamations became more and more evident.
The old idealists - the intellectuals and ideologues, the Goce Delcev
types - were removed, died in battle, or left this mutation of their dream.

The IMRO insignia - skull and crossbones - linked it firmly to the
Italian Balckshirts and the Nazi brown ones. The IMRO has developed
into a