Goce Delchev - Definition and Overview

For other uses, see Goce Delchev (disambiguation).

Goce Delčev (Гоце Делчев, also transliterated Gotze Delchev and Gotse Delchev; 1872-1903) was a Bulgarian revolutionary, leader of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO), the predecessor to the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) (which came to being after WWI).

Born on January 23, 1872 in Kukush (now Kilkis, nothern Greece), Delcev finished the local junior high school and the Bulgarian high school "St Cyril and Methodius" in Thessaloniki. He entered the Military academy in Sofia in 1891 but was expelled because he was a member of a socialist circle. Delchev became a teacher in Bulgarian in Stip in 1894, where he met Dame Gruev, the leader of the local committee of IMARO. As a result of the close friendship between the two, Delchev joined the organization in 1895 becoming before long its leader.

Though considering and declaring himself Bulgarian, Delcev was a champion of Macedonian autonomy. As most of the other leaders of IMARO at the time, Delcev had a vision of a multiethnic and self-governing Macedonia.

Delcev died on May 4, 1903 in a skirmish with the Turkish police near the village of Banitza, Serres region while preparing the Ilinden uprising in Macedonia.

Letter of Goce Delcev to Nikola Maleshevski, an activist of IMARO

Text of a letter of Delcev to Nikola Maleshevski

(2nd, 3rd and 4th sentence)

"Sofia, 01.05.1899, Kolyo, ... May the dissents and cleavages not frighten you. It is really a pity, but what can we possibly do when we ourselves are Bulgarians and all suffer from the same disease! If this disease had not existed in our forefathers who passed it on to us, we wouldn't have fallen under the ugly sceptre of the Turkish sultans..."

Statute of IMARO

Text of the IMARO statute

"...Statute of Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (amended at the general congress in 1906)

Chapter I. - Goal

Art. 1. - The goal of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization is to unite any and all dissatisfied elements in Macedonia and the Adrianople Vilyaet without regard to their nationality so that political autonomy can be gained for these two regions..."

External links

• Original Ottoman documents about the murder of Goce Delchev (http://vmro.150m.com/en/turk/turk_4.html/)
• Excerpt from the memoirs of Enver Pasha referring to the struggle of the Ottoman government with IMARO (http://vmro.150m.com/en/turk/turk_5.html/)