CONSTITUTION - Part 02

After a rally was held in Skopje on February 20, 1990 in support of the national rights of the Macedonian people in Pirin Macedonia, many Bulgarian Party senior officials and government representatives from the People’s Republic of Bulgaria said that there were no Parties in Bulgaria with Macedonian platforms and that there was not even a single person pretending to be Macedonian. After VMRO “Ilinden” independent delivered a petition to the National Assembly of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, the newspaper “Rabotnichesko delo” published a scathing article entitled “Thirty separatists before NDK”, in which it called the people delivering the petition “traitors”. On April 21, 1990 an article entitled “Screen for the misinformed and naïve” was published in the newspaper “Duma”. The article was signed by Professor Dr. Dobrin Michev, by Assistant Professor Stoian Germanov and by their older and more learned co-worker Anton Parvanov. Among other things here is what was written: “What new things is this fictional “Ilinden” Organization introducing? What are its “true” objectives? What are its “true” activities and who are its “actual” supporters?” On April 23, 1990 another article was published by “Duma” entitled “Anti-Bulgarian provocation against the name and work of Yane Sandanski” in which, among other things, the following was written: “The servants of Macedonia-nizm turned the people’s gathering into their own pre-election rally.” The article ended with the following words: “As for those responsible for organizing this anti-Bulgarian rally, the full extent of the law should be applied against them!” These types of reaction and calls were not exclusive to the newspapers, many Bulgarian television stations also called for the full extent of the law to be applied against us. We, the organizers of the (75th – Anniversary after Yane Sandanski’s tragic death) event, deem these unprovoked and unwarranted attacks against us and against our Organization as unworthy of a pluralistic and legal state such as Bulgaria which, after November 10, 1990 aspired to be the People's Republic of Bulgaria. In this respect, we assess Bulgaria’s actions as the hallmark of totalitarianism! To “the others” who were calling on the “Prosecutors to do their duty” we say we are not intimidated but we do feel like the clouds are growing thick over Pirin just like before a violent storm. It is not clear to us exactly what harm we have done in paying our respect to Yane Sandanki? Ours is a democratic Organization and we want to achieve our human and national rights in this country as Macedonians by

peaceful means. We have never attempted nor do we plan at any time to partition territory from the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. We want to be recognized as Macedonians in this country with full rights the same way the rights of the Turks and Pomaks are recognized. Macedonians have absolutely no rights in this country. The Bulgarian state has given permission to the Gypsies to register themselves under the Democratic Union of “Roma” and we the Macedonians are not even allowed to register a single cultural organization. As a proud Macedonian people belonging to one Macedonian nation, we are truly insulted and hurt when you call us Bulgarians here in Bulgaria and Greeks in Greece. We, the organizers of these events are not “servants” of Macedonia-nizm, whatever that may mean! We are the descendents and followers of Gotse Delchev, Yane Sandanski, Nikola Karev, Giorche Petrov and the thousands of other known and unknown fallen Macedonian soldiers who fought in the struggle for the liberation of Macedonia. Were Gotse Delchev, Yane Sandanski, Nikola Karev, Giorche Petrov and all the others, servants of Macedonia-nizm? No! No they were not! They fought faithfully for freedom; for the freedom of the Macedonian people, but never were they servants! Not to the Bulgarians, not to the Greeks and not to the Serbians! They led a struggle of life and death against their eternal oppressors and against foreign propaganda! Today we too are faithfully fighting for the same Macedonian cause and for the same Macedonian people as our forefathers did! If you think that Macedonians don’t exist, that is your problem. For us, Macedonians do exist and they are alive and well living in the three divided parts of Macedonia and beyond. How is it a “desecration” for us, the Macedonian sons, to be the followers of Jane Sandanski and to gather at his grave?! And how do you describe what the vrhovists were doing at Sandanski’s grave? How do you describe this manifestation where the descendants of those, who 75 years ago brutally killed Sandanski, now pay homage to him with crocodile tears? Is that not “desecration”? And you, the others, the professors, the lecturers, the scholars, are you any different than those vrhovists? Was it not the associates of your idols Ivan Garvanov, Boris Sarafov, Todor Alexandrov and General Tsonched who killed Yane Sandanski, Dimo Hadzi Dimov, Taskata Serski and hundreds of other worthy sons of the Macedonian people?! Finally, why are you so disturbed by the activities of those so-called “thirty separatists”? And why do you assume that there are only thirty? Free transportation from Sofia, Blagoevgrad, Sandanski, Petrich etc, to Rozhen Monastery was provided by the BSP (vrhovist) organizers for the participants of the April 21, 1990 celebration and

only 1,000 people participated. But, on the other hand, even though our event was banned, our transportation obstructed and a number of other obstacles place before us we still managed to draw a bigger following. In Petrich, one week before our celebration, ninety people paid 3.50 leva each bus fare at the bus station in order to be driven to the Rozhen Monastery on April 22, 1990. Unfortunately, by order of the City Mayor, the bus station could not make the buses available and many of our Petrich supporters and citizens were left without transportation and disappointed with the city leadership. Disappointment soon turned to anger and a large number of our stranded supporters decided to protest by blocking the bus station from 8 until 11 o’clock on April 22, 1990, not allowing buses in or out of the facility. But despite all the bans, the gathering still took place and drew over 10 thousand citizens and supporters who gave our Organization their support. The OMO “Ilinden” Coordinating Council regrets that one of its speakers went beyond the boundary of what was appropriate, which sparked protests from the Bulgarian public. The OMO “Ilinden” Coordinating Council would like to express its displeasure against the unfounded media attacks which targeted our organizers and our events. For us, the way we see it, our role as Macedonians in the Balkans is to unify all Balkan people. We no longer want a border at the village Barakovo like the one we have at the village Zlatoreno. We believe in a new European borderless society where all peoples, all nations and all minorities will be afforded their rights. This is what we have been striving and struggling for, for so many years.” The Bulgarian mediums have been reporting that OMO “Ilinden” is a separatist organization. If that is true, why then have they not published our Organization’s Constitution and the Program? Are they afraid that the people might find out what we truly stand for? What we truly are fighting for? Why haven’t they released the footage from the April 22, 1990 Rozhen Monastery event on Bulgarian television so that the Bulgarian people can see for themselves what really took place there? It was all recorded on video tape by the Bulgarian and Macedonian television crews. The Bulgarians have the footage and all the recordings made by both the Macedonian and Bulgarian film crews that attended the event. OMO “Ilinden” has asked many questions and to this day it has received no answers, not from the media, not from the official Bulgarian government and not from any political party in Bulgaria. And they call this democracy? I say: “Congratulations to you and to your democracy!”

The following is one of the documents we handed out to the various delegations and participants in the CSCE Conference in Copenhagen on June 11, 1990.