“Let us not allow the splits and splintering to frighten us. It is, indeed, a pity, but what can we do, since we are Bulgarians and all suffer from one common disease. If this disease had not been present in our ancestors, from whom we inherited it, they would have never fallen under the sceptre of the Turkish Sultan… “
– “Macedonian” Goce Delchev, IMRO leader, Letter to Nikola Malashevski, Jan. 5 1899