General Council of the Macedonian Societies in Switzerland

“ 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". ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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.
The first page of the Memorandum
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. ”

“ 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. ”