page_title: Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
section_title: Origins and goals
hierarchical_section_title: Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization / Ottoman era / Origins and goals
caption_attribution_description: Bulgarian IMARO activists - "Comitadjii" Captured by the Ottoman Police
context_page_description: The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization 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, initially, it aimed to gain autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople regions in the Ottoman Empire, however, later it became an agent serving Bulgarian interests in Balkan politics. IMRO group modeled itself after the Internal Revolutionary Organization of Vasil Levski and accepted its motto "Freedom or Death". Starting in 1896 it fought the Ottomans using guerrilla tactics, and in this they were successful, even establishing a state within a state in some regions, including their 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.
context_section_description: The organization was founded in 1893 in Ottoman Thessaloniki by a small band of anti-Ottoman Macedono-Bulgarian revolutionaries, who considered Macedonia an indivisible territory and claimed all of its inhabitants "Macedonians", no matter their religion or ethnicity. In practice, IMRO was established by Bulgarians and most of their followers were Bulgarians. The organization was a secret revolutionary society operating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the goal of autonomous Macedonia and Adrianople regions. Initially, they were against the aspirations of neighboring states in the area and saw the future autonomous Macedonia and Southern Thrace as a multi-ethnic entity. It appears likely that at the early stages of the struggle, a desired outcome of the autonomy was unification with Bulgaria. This aim was changed later with the idea of transforming the Balkans into a federal state, in which Macedonia and Thrace would enter as equal members. The idea of autonomy was strictly political and did not imply a secession from Bulgarian ethnicity. Even those, who advocated for independent Macedonia and Thrace, never doubted the predominantly Bulgarian character of the Slavic population in both areas. The organization was founded by Hristo Tatarchev, Dame Gruev, Petar Pop-Arsov, Andon Dimitrov, Hristo Batandzhiev and Ivan Hadzhinikolov. Most of them (with the exception of Ivan Hadzhinikolov) were closely connected with the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki. According to Hristo Tatarchev's "Memoirs", IMRO was first called simply the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (MRO). Ivan Hadzhinikolov in his memoirs lists the five basic principles of the MRO's foundation:
  The revolutionary organization should be established within Macedonia and should act there so that the Greeks and Serbs couldn't label it as a tool of the Bulgarian government.
  Its founders should be locals and living in Macedonia.
  The political motto of the organization should be the autonomy of Macedonia.
  The organization should be secret and independent, without any links with the governments of the liberated neighbor states, and
  From the Macedonian immigrants in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian society, only moral and material help for the struggle of the Macedonian revolutionaries should be required.
  — 
  According to Dr. Hristo Tatarchev:
  We talked a long time about the goal of this organization and at last we fixed it on the autonomy of Macedonia with the priority of the Bulgarian element. We couldn't accept the position for "direct joining to Bulgaria" because we saw that it would meet big difficulties by reason of confrontation of the Great powers and the aspirations of the neighbouring small countries and Turkey. It passed through our thoughts that one autonomous Macedonia could easier unite with Bulgaria subsequently and if the worst comes to the worst, that it could play a role as a unifying link of a federation of Balkan people. The region of Adrianople, as far as I remember, didn't take part in our program, and I think the idea to add it to autonomous Macedonia came later.
  — 
  In Dame Gruev's memoirs, the MRO's goals are stated as follows:
  We grouped together and jointly worked out a statute. It was based on the same principles: demand for the implementation of the Berlin Treaty. The statute was worked out after the model of the Bulgarian revolutionary organisation before the Liberation. Our motto was "Implementation of the resolutions of the Berlin Treaty". We established a "Central Committee" with branches, membership fees, etc. Swearing in for each member was also envisaged. In the regulations, there was nothing concerning the Serbian propaganda but we intended to counteract it by enlightening the people.
  — 
  The Adrianople Region was the general name given by the Organization to those areas of Thrace which, like Macedonia, had been left under Turkish rule i.e. most of it, where the Bulgarian element predominated in the mixed population, too. The organized revolutionary movement in Thrace dates from 1895, when Dame Gruev recruited Hristo Ko
caption: A convoy of captured Bulgarian IMRO activists.
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