Proclamation of the "Macedonia to the Macedonians" society

15th April 1891

To the Macedonian peoples!

Our homeland of Macedonia was once one of the most glorious countries. The Macedonian people laid the first foundations of the art of war. Alexander the Great with his victorious phalanxes spread Aristotle's enlightenment into the Asian continent and thus civilized humanity. Yet our homeland so glorious in the past is now in danger of being dismembered and even obliterated, for we, the Macedonians, have neglected our nationality, and the other nations are demanding our country as theirs, seeking to subject our great nation which in the past shone so brightly in her independence.

True Macedonians!

Our homeland has become an orphan. Her victorious banner, in front of which the whole world once trembled, today exists no more as a banner of a separate nation. The name of Macedonia is today written on the maps as some memory, and her victorious graves lie in the great graveyards of oblivion, thanks to the pernicious intrigues of those who have been cruising through our land for several years imbuing our people with discord and open hatred. These bodies are gravediggers of our once glorious Macedonia. They work on her being, dismembered and prepare the ground by local disputes concerning the penetration of foreign armies into our homeland. These are critical days for the existence of Macedonia. The question of her life or death is being decided. Macedonian heroes! Will you allow your beautiful homeland to be buried while you are still alive? Look at her wounds inflicted by the poisoned arrows of the surrounding peoples who want to split her up! In such a desperate position our dear motherland of Macedonia is looking at us with her eyes full of tears, calling:

If you are really my children, if Macedonian blood is still flowing in your veins, then it will be better to die for me than to remain living witnesses of the disappearance of the Macedonian nationality. Do not believe any more the intrigues of the neighboring peoples who only desire my downfall. You are the children of my womb, regardless of whether you speak Turkish, Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian, Romanian, Wallachian or Hebrew. All of you are my babies, regardless of whether you believe in Mohammed, Moses or Jesus. Although some of you may recognize the Pope as your leader, others the Sheikh-Islam, a third group the Exarch, a fourth the Patriarch, a fifth the Rabbi, you are nevertheless the children of your only mother of Macedonia who weeps day and night, imploring you to be reconciled and agree among yourselves and become brothers. Will you not be ashamed if you were split up and divided by your neighbors who speak in their respective languages but who are my enemies? Will you moreover allow them to bury me in the grave together with the glorious Macedonian name? If you do not desire it, but, on the contrary, if you want to heal my wounds and decide as real Macedonians to write "Macedonia to the Macedonians" upon the banner I have raised today, then banish from the land of your great-grandfathers all the conspirators that inculcate discord and national hatred among you, my children and brothers in blood, and disunite you into various alien nationalities. Acknowledging this banner of mine as your only true banner, call out:

Long live the indivisible Macedonian people!

From the protocol of the latest meeting of the Central "Macedonia to the Macedonians" Society, at which it was decided to print this proclamation in all the languages of Macedonia.

In Constantinople, 15th April 1891 The Central Society