.. Resen (Resana).
Let it be clear: this author harbours no sympathy towards the
Ottoman Empire. The IMRO was fighting for lofty ideals (Balkanian
federation) and worthy goals (liberation from asphyxiating Turkish
rule). But to many outside observers (with the exception of
journalists like John Sonixen or John smith), the IMRO was
indistinguishable in its methods of operation from the general
landscape of mayhem, crime, disintegration of the social fabric,
collapse of authority, social anomie, terror and banditry.
From Steven Sowards' "Twenty Five Lectures on Modern Balkan History,
The Balkans in an Age of Nationalism", 1996 available HERE:
http://www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/lect11.htm
"Meanwhile, the Tanzimat reforms remained unfulfilled under Abdul
Hamid's reactionary regime. How effective had all these reforms been
by the turn of the century? How bad was life for Christian peasants
in the Balkans? In a 1904 book called 'Macedonia: Its Races and
Their Future', H. N. Brailsford, an English relief worker, describes
lawless conditions in Macedonia, the central Balkan district
between Greece, Serbia, Albania and Bulgaria. In the areas
Brailsford knew, the authorities had little power. He writes:
'An Albanian went by night into a Bulgarian village and fired into
the house of a man whom he regarded as an enemy.
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