Memorandum of the General Council of the Macedonian Societies in Switzerland
GENERAL COUNCIL of the MACEDONIAN SOCIETIES IN SWITZERLAND
Lausanne, 11th January 1919
MEMORANDUM.
After the world cataclysm which is destroying he political foundations of old Europe, the Powers composing the Entente are undertaking the heavy responsibility of introducing a new order of things based on right, justice, and the principle of self-determination.
In the new extinct Empire of the Tsars - without mentioning the case of Poland - every province is reclaiming its freedom and independence. In Austria-Hungary new states have sprung up and have been recognized. In the Ottoman Empire, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Arabia, etc. are in the way of becoming full autonomous states.
One country, whose history during the last fifty years has been continuous struggle for human rights and liberty, and which has made far greater sacrifices at the altar of freedom than some other states that have just been emancipated, - Macedonia is today anxiously awaiting an equitable solution of her fate.
Article 23 of the Berlin Treaty of 1878 provided a series of administrative measures for the amelioration of the lot of the Macedonians. The reforms, however, stipulated therein where never realized.
In October 1878 bloody revolts broke out at Kresna and Razlog, in 1880 at Ochrida, Prilep, Demir-Hissar, Kroushevo, Ressen and Dibra. These outbreaks were put down by the Turkish authorities and soldiery in the most cruel and sanguinary manner, and thousands Macedonians met a most wretched death or were deported to various fortresses in Asia Minor.
These repressions on the part of the tyrannical Turkish regime had no other effect than to intensify in the Macedonian population the determination to win a free and honorable existence even at the cost of terrible sacrifices and untold misery. The Macedonians, therefore, resumed their noble cause with redoubled force and did all in their power to compel the realization of the promises for reform stipulated in the art.23 of the Berlin Treaty. But all their effort was in vain. Their masters proved as hard and inhuman as ever, and the Powers signatories to that Treaty did little or nothing toward compelling the Turkish Government to execute the program of reforms agree to.
Seeing that they could obtain no redress for their wrongs either from the Ottoman Government, or from the Concert of Europe, the Macedonians thereby set themselves at work to find means of their own for putting a stop to a most shameful and cruel yoke. In 1893, therefore, there came into existence the powerful Interior Revolutionary Organization which welcomed into it all Macedonians without distinction of race or faith, men and women, children, and old men, all united in one purpose to prepare for the day of a general uprising against the Common Oppressor. The motto of the Interior Organization was: "Liberty or Death".
The revolution long planned by this popular movement broke out in July 1903. After a stubborn resistance it, too, was crushed and the Macedonian inhabitants were anew exposed to new massacres, imprisonment, exile, torture and death, their homes were burned down and destroyed, and their property pillaged, carried away or confiscated. The terrible consequences from that insurrection were 198 villages completely destroyed, hundreds of others sacked and pillaged, 13,221 houses burned, 170,000 people left without a shelter in the full blast of winter.
What deserves to be noted in this insurrectionary action is the character of the proclamation issued for the occasion by the Revolutionary Organization. "We resort to arms", the proclamation ran, "against the tyranny and inhuman bondage. We rise in the name of liberty and justice; our cause, consequently, stands above the narrow conception of nationality and religion. What we demand is liberty and independence for all".
The Revolutionary Committee at the same time had spread abroad a second manifest in which were set forth the demands of the Macedonian people, which were: 1) The nomination, with the ascent of the Great Powers, of a Christian Governor-General, completely independent of the Sublime Porte, 2) The establishment of a collective and permanent international Control over the administration of Macedonia.
With this proclamation addressed to the world the leaders of the Revolutionary movement emphasized the fact that the chief aim of their struggle was the realization of the principle of "Macedonia for the Macedonians".
The Macedonian insurrection of 1903, through barren of any beneficial result for the unhappy country, at least frightened the emperors of Russia and Austria, who soon, on September 30th following, met and drew the famous "Mursteg Reform Plan" for Macedonia, which was simply intended to deceive the world and retard the liquidation of the eastern Question until a moment favoring their political designs. The Macedonian finding their hopes frustrated again, had no other alternative left, but to renew their struggle against the Turk.
The situation in the Balkans after the so-called Ilinden Insurrection grew worse and worse. England, in the meanwhile, stepped in and at the royal interview between king Edward VII and Emperor Nicholas at Reval in 1908, was drawn the "Reval Program of Reforms". Germany, however, finding such a scheme not to her liking, took the side of Abdul Hamid and encouraged him in his decision to resist the introduction of any reforms in his domains.
The enthusiasm created by the inauguration of the young Turk Regime and its constitution was of very short duration. All Christian peoples in the Ottoman Empire soon perceived that the Huriet was a sham and that the leaders of the young Turk Party had no sincere desire to see the Empire regenerated. The traditional system of discrimination, repression, persecution and extermination were now employed with more refined and concerted methods. Local revolts occurred in various parts of Macedonia, which were suppressed in the usual Turkish way.
We may here remark that the failure of the insurrectionary actions undertaken by the Macedonians was mainly due to the rivalry between Russia and Austria-Hungary, which later on manifested itself in the conflicts between the Balkan states. The policy of Russia and Austria-Hungary was that by sowing discord among the small Balkan states to further their own selfish designs in the Near East.
Austria by virtue of secret treaty concluded between her and Serbia in 1880 succeeded in exacting the promise from the latter to renounce her interest in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in return for which Austria engaged herself to support her claims in Macedonia. The echo of this transaction was the fatal Bucharest Treaty of 1913. The greatest blunder and even crime committed by the diplomatists of the Balkan states was their division of Macedonia without consulting the wish of its population itself.
This is in a nutshell the lamentable history of Macedonia during the last half hundred years. It is a period fraught with bitter conflicts, persecution, wholesale butchery, tears, and devastation. What other land has shown more stubbornness, dogged tenacity, and fought more desperately for human rights and freedom? Even the frightful experiences and suffering of the Armenian people, in the course of the last decades, fade before the martyrdom the Macedonians were fated to go through.
In pointing to the above record of trials and sufferings in their struggle for liberty, it is not evident that the Macedonians have showed themselves worthy of being accorded the right of deciding their own fate - a privilege granted to Dalmatians, Croats, Slovenes, Tchecks, Armenians, Arabs, etc.? Must the Macedonian people be handled as chattels by their neighbors? We the Macedonians are firmly convinced that the great Democracies of the XX century, will come to our aid in our struggle for self-determination.
What we ask for is not only our right, but also our imperative duty; it is the demand of the Macedonians that their voice may be heard before their future destiny is decided.
We, the general Council of the Macedonian Societies in Switzerland, are fully convinced that a proper, just and lasting solution of the Macedonian Question may be found by giving the Macedonian people, too, the opportunity to freely declare its will a to its future form of government, which may be effected:
1. By the occupation of the Country by only American, French, English, and Italian troops;
2. By permitting all Macedonian refugees abroad, without distinction of race and religion, to return to their homes unmolested, and to be allowed to participate in the organization and management of their Country's state affairs;
3. By entrusting the local administration of Macedonia in the hands of the native inhabitants, under the control of the Army of Occupation.
Firmly believing that the decisions taken in the future Peace Conference will be guided by actual facts, equity and impartiality, we gladly and unreservedly entrust our fate in the hands of it members, and avail ourselves of the present opportunity to wish the Peace Congress full success in its grand and epochal undertaking.
President, Stoyan Citkoff, Former Ottoman Senator.
Secretary, Constantine Stephanove (MA) (University Professor)
Stamp reads: DES SOCIETES MACEDONIENNE, LAUSANNE
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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