Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (in Macedonian: Vnatrešna Makedonska Revolucionerna Organizacija (Внатрешна Македонска Револуционерна Организација, in Bulgarian: Vatreshna Makedonska Revolyucionna Organizaciya, Вътрешна Македонска Революционна Организация, VMRO), commonly known in English as IMRO, was the name of a revolutionary political organization in the Macedonia region of the Ottoman Empire, and later in Bulgaria and the Macedonian regions of Greece and Yugoslavia. In the 1990s it was revived as a nationalist political party in both the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria.
Origins
IMRO was founded in 1895 in Thessaloniki by a group of Slav nationalists (today regarded by the Republic of Macedonia as Macedonian Slavs and by Bulgaria as Bulgarians). The group was led by Goce Delcev and Damjan Gruev, to agitate for the independence of the Macedonian region from the Ottomans. Macedonia was at that time inhabited by a mixed population of Slavs, Greeks, Turks, Albanians, Vlachs, Jews and Roma. The surrounding states, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, were all planning to annex some or all of Macedonia from the Ottomans. IMRO, however, aimed at an independent Macedonian state for all Macedonians regardless of their race and language.
As a result of Bulgarian subsidies, in 1902 IMRO split into pro- and anti-Bulgarian factions. The pro-Bulgarian faction, known as the Supremists, resorted to terrorism against the Ottomans and the kidnapping of foreigners in the hope of provoking a war and thus Bulgarian annexation of Macedonia. In August 1903 they organised a rising against the Ottomans in the Bitola area, which was crushed with much loss of life, including the life of Delcev, who had actually opposed the rising as premature.
The failure of the 1903 rising resulted in the dispersal of the anti-Bulgarian, left-wing faction of IMRO and its becoming largely an agent of Bulgarian expansionism. Armed groups sponsored by all three neighboring states fought the Ottomans and each other, and the Ottomans took reprisals. The resulting turmoil played a large part in provoking the Balkan Wars which broke out in 1912.
The result of the Balkan Wars was that Macedonia was partitioned between Bulgaria, Greece and the new state of Yugoslavia, with Bulgaria getting the smallest share. IMRO, now led by Todor Alexandrov, was largely driven out of the Greek and Yugoslav sections of Macedonia, but it maintained its existence in Bulgaria, where it played a role in politics as an extreme right-wing nationalist party, urging a renewed war to "liberate" Macedonia. This was one factor in Bulgaria allying itself with Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I.
Decline
The postwar Treaty of Neuilly again denied Bulgaria what it felt was its share of Macedonia, and IMRO began sending armed bands called comitadjis into Greek and Yugoslav Macedonia to assassinate officials and stir up Macedonian nationalism. In 1923 IMRO agents assassinated the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Alexander Stamboliski, who favoured a peace treaty with Greece and Yugoslavia so that Bulgaria could concentrate on its internal problems.
In 1924 IMRO came under the leadership of Ivan Mihailov, who became a powerful figure in Bulgarian politics and favoured the "internationalisation" of the Macedonian question. Numerous assassinations (over 1,000 by one account) were carried out by IMRO agents in many countries, the majority in Yugoslavia. The most spectacular of these was the assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia and the French Foreign Minister, Louis Barthou, in Marseille in 1934.
This action finally provoked the Bulgarian military to take control and break the power of IMRO, which had come to be seen as a fascist gangster organisation inside Bulgaria and a band of assassins outside it. In 1935 Mihailov was forced to escape to Turkey. IMRO kept its organisation alive in exile in various countries, but ceased to be an active force in Macedonian politics. Mihailov ended his career as a Nazi collaborator in German-occupied Yugoslavia. In 1945 the Slav Macedonian area became part of Communist Yugoslavia and all non-Communist political activity was suppressed.
The modern IMRO
With both Bulgaria and Yugoslavia under Communist rule, there was no scope for IMRO's revival. After the death of Josip Broz Tito in 1980 Yugoslavia began to disintegrate and democratic politics in Macedonia revived. Many exiles returned to Macedonia from abroad, and a new generation of young Macedonian intellectuals rediscovered the history of Macedonian nationalism. In these circumstances it was not surprising that the IMRO name should be revived. A new IMRO was founded on June 17 1990 in Skopje. Although IMRO claims a line descent from the old IMRO, there is no real connection between the old IMRO and the new one.
The Republic of Macedonia became independent in November 1991, and IMRO emerged as the leading nationalist party. The country's first presidential elections in 1994, however, were won by a moderate former Communist, Kiro Gligorov. IMRO's appeal to Macedonian nationalism was helped by the refusal of Greece to recognise the new state. But IMRO was kept out of power until 1998 by the combination of President Gligorov and Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski, of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM).
By the later 1990s the main issue in Macedonian politics was relations with the large Albanian minority, and in 1998 IMRO came to power under Ljubco Georgievski on a platform of resistance to Albanian demands. In 1999 the IMRO candidate Boris Trajkovski was elected President, completing IMRO's takeover. Once in office Trajkovski pursued a more moderate policy. In 2002 Georgievski's government was defeated at legislative elections. In 2004 Trajkovski was killed in a plane crash and Crvenkovski was elected President, defeating the IMRO candidate Sashko Kedev.
The party is now officially called the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (In Macedonian: Vnatrešno-Makedonska Revoluciona Organizacija-Demokratska Partija za Makedonsko Nacionalno Edintsvo, or VMRO-DPMNE). It describes itself as a Christian Democratic party which supports the admission of Macedonia to NATO and the European Union.
A distinct IMRO organisation has also been revived in Bulgaria. This group continues to maintain that Slav Macedonians are in fact Bulgarians. The group's objectives include: "affirmation and complete international recognition of the Republic [of Macedonia]'s independence, preservation of its territorial integrity." The group also says that: "Despite its traditional naming after the 19th century formation, the present VMRO is a modern social and political organization." The group is not a significant force in Bulgarian politics.
External link
- website of Bulgarian IMRO (in Bulgarian)
- website of Bulgarian IMRO (in English)
- website of Macedonian VMRO-DPMNE (in Macedonian)
- website of Macedonian VMRO-DPMNE (in English)
- elections in Macedonia (Adam Carr's Electoral Archive)