Due to the lack of original protocol documentation, and the fact its early organic statutes were not dated, the first statute of the clandestine Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) is uncertain and is a subject to dispute among researchers. The dispute also includes its first name and ethnic character, as well as the authenticity, dating, validity, and authorship of its supposed first statute.[11] Certain contradictions and inconsistencies exist in the testimonies of the founding and other early members of the Organization, which further complicates the solution of the problem. It is not yet clear whether the earliest statutory documents of the Organization have been discovered. Its earliest basic documents discovered for now, became known to the historical community during 1960s.
Excerpt from the statute of BMARC, (1894 or 1896; in Bulgarian language)[1] Statute of the Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees Chapter I. – Goal Art. 1. The goal of BMARC is to secure full political autonomy for the Macedonia and Adrianople regions
. Art. 2. To achieve this goal they [the committees] shall raise the awareness of self-defense in the Bulgarian population in the regions mentioned in Art. 1., disseminate revolutionary ideas – printed or verbal, and prepare and carry on a general uprising. Chapter II. – Structure and Organization Art. 3. A member of BMARC can be any Bulgarian, independent of gender, ...
Excerpt from the draft of the statute of the SMARO made by hand on the statute of the BMARC by Gotse Delchev or Petar Poparsov discovered in Bulgaria.[2] The Organization changed its name and dropped 'Bulgarian' from it, appealing to all dissatisfied elements, regardless of their nationality, to win through a revolution, political autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople regions.[3][4] According to Katardžiev, there is an overlapping of the text of the statutes of BMARC and that of SMARO, i.e. 8 from the 15 articles in the statute of the BMARC are identical to those in the statute of SMARO. Thus it is clear that when drafting one, the other was used.[5]
Excerpt from p. 5 of the article "The Wars and the Macedonian Question", published in 1922 in the magazine "Macedonia" by the IMRO revolutionary Georgi Bazhdarov[bg] (1875-1924). Here, the author insists that the first statute of the Organization, was that of BMARC. Verbatim are quoted Art. 1 and Art. 2 of the statute. The content of Art. 3 is partially quoted too. It is explained also that only after 1900 the Organization was opened to other nationalities besides Bulgarians.[6]
Excerpt from Art. 15 of the RegulatIons of the BMARC containing the oath of the Organization: "I swear by God, my faith and honor that I will fight to the death for the freedom of the Bulgarians in Macedonia and the Adrianople region, that I will submit unconditionally to the leadership and will unprotestingly carry out its orders; that I will betray to no one, neither by word nor by deed the secret to which I wed myself today and all that I shall see, hear and understand concerning the Cause from today on. If I break my oath, let me be killed by one of the comrades with the revolver or the dagger which here I kiss."[7]
Excerpt from page 6 of Spiro Gulabchev's manuscript from 1904 "The causes that gave rise to the revolutionary organization remain unexplored; (Part II "The Organization"). The text discusses the statute and regulations of BMARC. In the excerpt, Art. 19, Art. 14 and Art. 15 of the Regulations are quoted verbatim. Art. 15 describes the oath of the Organization.[8]
Excerpt from page 58 of the book "The Construction of Life" (1927), authored by the IMRO-revolutionary Nikola Zografov[bg] (1869 - 1931). Per Zografov as early as 1895, Gotse Delchev was supplied with a power of attorney and sent to Sofia, from the name of the "Bulgarian Central Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committee".[9] This suggests that at that time the organization already bore the name BMARC and the Adrianopolitan area was in its scope.
Excerpt from p. 14 of Autonomous Macedonia (1919) where Vladislav Kovachev maintains that the first statute of the IMRO allowed the membership only for Bulgarians within a special article. Later this status was changed but only a few Vlachs joined the Organization.
Excerpt from page 69 of the unpublished book "Notes and Reflections on the Macedonian Nation" from 1959. The author is the activist of the left wing of IMRO Dimitar Popevtimov. He insists that the first name of IMRO according to the first statute of the organization from 1894 was BMARC, and only Bulgarians could participate in it.
Excerpt from page 66 of the book "My Participation in the Revolutionary Struggles" from 1954. The author Alekso Martulkov, an activist of the left wing of IMRO claims the first statute which was adopted in Resen (1894) was strictly nationalist and contained a special Article, which permitted the membership only to Bulgarians. A new statute adopted in Salonica (1896) cancelled this restriction.[10]
The revolutionary organization set up in 1893 in OttomanThessaloniki changed its name several times before adopting in 1919 its last and most common name i.e. Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO).[12] The repeated changes of name of the IMRO has led to an ongoing debate between Bulgarian and Macedonian historians, as well as within the Macedonian historiographical community.[13] The crucial question is to which degree the Organization had a Bulgarian ethnic character and when it tried to open itself to the other Balkan nationalities.[14] As a whole, its founders were inspired by the earlier Bulgarian revolutionary traditions.[15] All its basic documents were written in the pre-1945 Bulgarian orthography.[16] The first statute of the IMRO from 1894 was modelled after the statute of the earlier Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee (BRCC).[17] IMRO adopted from BRCC also its symbol: the lion, and its motto: Svoboda ili smart.[18]
On the eve of the 20th century IMRO was often called "the Bulgarian Committee",[19][20] while its members were designated as Comitadjis, i.e. "committee men".[21] In the earliest dated samples of statutes and regulations of the Organization discovered so far, it is called Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Committees (BMARC).[note 1][22][23][24] These documents refer to the then Bulgarian population in the Ottoman Empire, which was to be prepared for a general uprising in Macedonia and Adrianople regions, aiming to achieve political autonomy for them.[25][26] In thе statute of BMARC, that is presumably the first one,[27][28] the membership was reserved exclusively for Bulgarians.[29] This ethnic restriction matches with the memoirs of some founding and ordinary members, where is mentioned such a requirement, set only in the Organization's first statute.[30] The name of BMARC, as well as information about its statute, was mentioned in the foreign press of that time, in Bulgarian diplomatic correspondence, and exists in the memories of some revolutionaries and contemporaries.[31]