Macedonian Patriotic Organization

The first Macedonian Bulgarian emigrant associations in the United States date back to 1899, with the foundation of the "Macedonian-Bulgarian Society Vasil Levski".[11] Other associations include "Bulgarian-Macedonian American Committee" founded in 1904, "Nadezhda" founded in 1908, etc. In September 1913, delegates from Macedonian organizations in the United States and Canada gathered in Chicago, Illinois to form a Macedonian-Bulgarian National Union. The union published the newspaper "Svoboda", and had as its objective the autonomy for Macedonia and Adrianople. Some members of these organizations participated in the Balkan Wars as volunteers in the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps.[12] When World War I was over, a "Bulgarian National Congress" was held in Chicago in December 1918, where the delegates voted for a resolution which was sent to the Paris Peace Conference and to the governments of the Great Powers. In this document, the Macedonian Bulgarians insisted that the Macedonian issue would be resolved by turning the area into an independent state. However, the peace treaty in 1919, divided the Macedonian area mostly by Serbia and Greece where the domestic policies of state-sponsored Serbianizaton and Hellenization of the Slavic-speaking Macedonians began.[13] Thousands of emigres left their homes and moved to the States and Canada. For the next five years, these countries took the first places, after Bulgaria, in their numbers of Macedonian emigrants.[14]

The organization was formed in 1922.[15] Fort Wayne, Indiana and Steelton, PA were large centers of Macedonian immigration at the time, followed by Indianapolis, Gary, Indiana, Lansing, Detroit, Dayton, Springfield, Ohio, Cincinnati and New York City. Fort Wayne was chosen as the site for the first formative convention, which took place on October 2, 1922, with a handful of delegates, most of whom were Ilinden veterans. The first convention charted a framework within which to build the structure of the new organization. It was founded as an overseas branch of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), to lobby for the solution of the Macedonian Question in the League of Nations and with the US government.[16][17] The name selected for the organization was the "Macedonian Political Organization" which remained its name until 1952. Its adopted slogan was 'Macedonia for the Macedonians'.[16]

MPO's Articles of Incorporation from 1925 defined its purpose as follows: "For the mutual assistance and protection of people of Macedonian race - and for the liberation of Macedonia from political entities - and to foster the ancient right of Macedonia as a state and nation - all as more fully set out in its bylaws[.]"[18] Throughout the next several annual conventions, the delegates finalized the organization's by-laws.[16] The membership to the MPO per its by-laws was open to all people from the Macedonian region "regardless of nationality, religion, sex or convictions".[16]

Telegram from the Macedonian Brotherhood "Kastoria" (later named MPO "Kostur") to the League of Nations advocating for an autonomous Macedonia, 1922

MPO parade float in the 1937 Labor Day Parade in Indianapolis, Indiana

Since its inception, the MPO has advocated to organize and educate the emigrants in civil values, and to prepare them for fighting in favor of Macedonian liberation. Over the next seven decades, the MPO directed its activities toward the establishment of an independent and united Macedonian state that would "guarantee constitutional, ethnic, religious, cultural and political rights and freedoms of all of its citizens."[19]

To fulfill the stipulations of the MPO by-laws, the delegates to the 4th annual MPO Convention in 1925 in Indianapolis, decided to establish a newspaper that was to become an official organ of the organization. The newspaper was founded under the name Macedonian Tribune, and its publication began under the guidance and leadership of the MPO Central Committee's Secretary Jordan Tchkatroff on February 10, 1927. There is an Indiana state historical marker at the newspaper's original location from 1927 to 1949 in Indianapolis.[20] Tchkatroff's activities raised the attention of Yugoslav diplomatic and consular services in the US, which already had a watchful eye over the MPO.[21] When Bulgaria annexed parts of Vardar Macedonia and Greek Macedonia in April 1941, the MPO initially congratulated Bulgaria's actions and supported the policy of re-introducing the Bulgarian language and clergy. However, MPO changed its stance on this matter when Bulgaria declared war on the United States in December 1941, and henceforth fully supported the US war effort.

After World War II, the MPO had 30 to 40 active members in Fort Wayne.[22] While living in exile in Italy, the last leader of the IMRO, Ivan Mihailov, managed to re-organize the MPO into a legal successor organization of the IMRO in the United States and Canada.[23] This was acknowledged by a CIA analyst report from 1953, which dubbed the MPO as "the US branch of the IMRO", and asserted that through its then secretary Luben Dimitroff, it acted as a money-raising organ to support Mihailov's activities.[24] Through its newspaper Macedonian Tribune, the MPO criticized SFR Yugoslavia and PR Bulgaria, as well as Greece's anti-Slav Macedonian policies.[15] In the case of Socialist Yugoslavia, the MPO initially sent a letter to President Josip Broz Tito congratulating him on the establishment of an autonomous Macedonia within the federation,[25] however, the organization soon raised its voice against the historiographic revisionism that was taking place in Yugoslavia, which aimed at diminishing the Bulgarian cultural and historic heritage in Macedonia. In the 1970s, the Macedonian Tribune regularly printed articles and appeals by Mihailov. His memoirs (written in Bulgarian) were advertised by the paper and were avidly read.[26] His influence in the MPO was eventually diminished, when a younger generation of leaders, led by Ivan Lebamoff and Christo Nizamoff, confronted Mihailov's authoritarianism, and removed his supporters from leadership positions.[27]

The official response from the United Nations to a petition sent by the 32nd Annual MPO convention.

Throughout the period of the Cold War, the MPO continuously advocated with the United States and Canadian governments, the United Nations, and other relevant international factors for a solution to the Macedonian Question that would involve self-government for Macedonians under a United Nations protectorate. The organization also worked on raising international awareness regarding violations of human rights in all three parts of Macedonia.[3]

Over the years, a number of the Americans born of Macedonian Bulgarian descent began having less and less knowledge of Bulgaria and started identifying themselves often simply as Macedonians.[15] In 1956, the MPO defined the terms "Macedonian" and "Macedonian immigrants" in its by-laws as applying equally to all nationalities in Macedonia - Bulgarians, Aromanians, Turks, Albanians and others.[16] In the 1990s, MPO began openly accepting and embracing the ethnic Macedonian identity, alongside the Macedono-Bulgarian identity of the organization's founders. Prior to Macedonian independence, the MPO advocated for a "Free and Independent Macedonia – a Switzerland of the Balkans," comprising Vardar, Aegean and Pirin Macedonia, where all ethnic groups would co-exist in peace.[28] On February 22, 1990, the Macedonian Tribune published an article by then President Ivan Lebamoff, where he stated that MPO is responding to change in Macedonia, throughout the world, and in the organization itself by recognizing the reality of ethnic Macedonians, and by inviting them to join the ranks of the MPO as equals.[29]

President Bill Clinton's official greeting letter to the 76th annual MPO Convention.

Macedonia seceded from Yugoslavia on September 8, 1991, amending its constitutional name from Socialist Republic of Macedonia to Republic of Macedonia. Only days after the parliament of the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) declared its independence, a delegation of the MPO visited Washington, D.C., in an attempt to lobby with the US government to recognize the former as an independent state.[28] The delegation was received by U.S. senators from Indiana - Dan Coats and Richard Lugar, as well as by members of the House of Representatives from Indiana. Throughout the 1990s, the MPO was lobbying for the recognition of Macedonia's independence.[17]

To exert pressure for Macedonia's international recognition, MPO President Ivan Lebamoff sent a resolution prepared at the Detroit MPO Convention to many heads of state around the world.[30] In September 1992, the MPO organized the "Forum on Macedonian Unity", which brought together the leaders of the MPO, the United Macedonians of Toronto and the representatives from the VMRO-DPMNE. The delegates agreed on a common goal – a free and independent Macedonia, and the result of the forum was a resolution in which they demanded the international recognition of the country.[31]

"Order of the IMRO Banner", the most prestigious award presented by the Macedonian Patriotic Organization.

Throughout 1992, the Greek diaspora in the United States and Canada demonstrated against the recognition of the independence of Republic of Macedonia, above all against the name of the new state containing the word "Macedonia." They claimed that Macedonia was an ancient Greek name and that the newly declared independent state was stealing this name from them.[32] The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America also demanded that the Republic of Macedonia's independence not be recognized by the United States. In reaction to this, Lebamoff sent protest letters against this position to the patriarchs and bishops of Eastern Orthodox Churches worldwide as well as to numerous newspapers.[28] He also demanded from Macedonian Americans to enhance their propaganda activities towards getting Republic of Macedonia internationally recognized as soon as possible. Macedonian Americans responded to his call with a mass campaign of writing numerous articles in American newspapers and making phone calls to U.S. senators.[33] As a result of MPO's activism, in addition to political activities by officials from Republic of Macedonia, the country was admitted to the UN.[28]

MPO also used its influence in the US Senate to assist Macedonia's stabilization efforts. Lebamoff asked Indiana Senator Lugar to propose that the United States send US troops to the Republic of Macedonia. Lebamoff also informed Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov about his proposal. MPO proposal was also supported by the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rep. Fascell. In November 1992, the MPO asked Macedonian Americans to call the White House Hotline directly to ask President Bush to immediately recognize the Republic of Macedonia.[34] In 1994, members of the MPO Central Committee visited Washington, D.C., several times in order to promote Macedonian American interests.[35]

In an unofficial interview for a Macedonian newspaper in 2005, former MPO President George Lebamoff sharply criticized the lack of democracy in the Republic of Macedonia, as well as the official misinterpretations of Macedonian history, with an emphasis on the Bulgarian historic heritage in country.[36] At the 2009 MPO Convention, past Central Committee President Andrea Alusheff was said to have illegally expelled the Toronto MPO chapter "Switzerland of the Balkans", because of the latter's alleged pro-Bulgarian bias.[37] Once Alusheff's mandate expired, the new Central Committee reinstated the MPO "Switzerland of the Balkans" into the organization. On the other hand, a former chapter of MPO from Toronto called MPO "Luben Dimitroff",[38] splintered from the Canadian MPO and started publishing a parallel Macedonian Tribune[39] in the pre-World War II Bulgarian orthography, espousing pro-Bulgarian views. This publication has been dismissed as unauthorized by the Macedonian Patriotic Organization.[40]