Gyorche Petrov was the representative of the Foreign Committee of the IMRO in Sofia in 1897–1901. He did not approve of the untimely outbreak of the Uprising on Ilinden,[3] August 2, 1903, but he participated as the leader of a cheta (armed band),[9] of which Aromanian revolutionary Ioryi Mucitano was part.[11] After the unsuccessful uprising, Petrov continued his participation in the IMRO. The failure of the Uprising reignited the rivalries between the varying factions of the Macedonian revolutionary movement. The left-wing faction, including Petrov, opposed Bulgarian nationalism but the Centralist's faction of the IMRO, drifted more and more towards it. Petrov was again included in the Emigrant representation in Sofia in 1905–1908. After the Young Turks Revolution of 1908, Petrov together with writer Anton Strashimirov edited the "Kulturno Edinstvo" magazine ("Cultural Unity"), published in Thessaloniki (Solun).[12] In 1911 a new Central Committee of IMARO was formed and the Centralists faction gained full control over the Organization.
He kept close ties with the new government of Bulgarian Agrarian National Union (BANU), especially with war minister Aleksandar Dimitrov and some other prominent Agrarian leaders. BANU rejected territorial expansion and aimed at forming a Balkan federation of agrarian states, a policy which began with a détente with Yugoslavia. As a result, Petrov became a Chief of the Bulgarian Refugees Agency by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Then Petrov had to deal with the problem of Bulgarian refugees who had to leave Yugoslavia and Greece, thus incurring IMRO Centralist faction leaders' hatred upon himself.[14] One of the reasons for this was the open struggle of the IMRO with the government of the BANU, and on the other hand, the interplay between the various refugee organizations and the attempt of IMRO to acquire them.
He was eventually killed by an IMRO assassin in June 1921 in Sofia, on the order of right-wing IMRO leader Todor Aleksandrov.[8][15] The assassination of Gyorche Petrov complicated relations between IMRO and the Bulgarian government and produced significant dissensions in the Macedonian movement.[16]
To honor his name a suburb of Skopje was named Ǵorče Petrov, or usually shortly referred to only as Ǵorče. The suburb is one of the ten municipalities of Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia.
^ abAlexis Heraclides (2021). The Macedonian Question and the Macedonians: A History. Routledge. pp. 41–43. ISBN9780429266362.
^Angelos Chotzidis, Anna Panagiōtopoulou, Vasilis Gounaris, The events of 1903 in Macedonia as presented in European diplomatic correspondence. Volume 3 of Museum of the Macedonian Struggle, 1993; ISBN9608530334, p. 60.
^From 1899 to 1901, the supreme committee provided subsidies to IMRO's central committee, allowances for Delchev and Petrov in Sofia, and weapons for bands sent to the interior. Delchev and Petrov were elected full members of the supreme committee. For more see: Laura Beth Sherman, Fires on the Mountain: The Macedonian Revolutionary Movement and the Kidnapping of Ellen Stone, East European monographs, 1980, ISBN0914710559, p. 18.
^Duncan M. Perry, The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893-1903; Duke University Press, 1988, ISBN0822308134, pp. 82-83.
^Ǵurčinov, Milan (1996). Нова македонска книжевност 1945-1980. Студентски збор. p. 163.
^ abDimitar Bechev (2009). Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia. Scarecrow Press. p. 173. ISBN9780810862951.
^Gyorche Petrov (1896). Материали по изучванието на Македония (Materials on the study of Macedonia) (in Bulgarian). Печатница Вълков. pp. 724–725, 731.
^Николов, Борис Й. Вътрешна Македоно-Одринска революционна организация. Войводи и ръководители. биографично-библиографски справочник. София 2001, с. 128 (Nikolov, Boris. Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Organization. Voivodes and Leaders. Biographical and Bibliographical Reference Book. Sofia 2001, p. 128).
^Василев, Васил. Правителството на БЗНС, ВМРО и българо-югославските отношения, София 1991, с.77 (Vasilev, Vasil. The Government of BANU, IMRO and the Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations, Sofia 1991, p. 77)
^Ivo Banac (1984). The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Cornell University Press. p. 324. ISBN9780801494932.
^Василев, Васил. Правителството на БЗНС, ВМРО и българо-югославските отношения, София 1991, с. 101-104. (Vasilev, Vasil. The Government of BANU, IMRO and the Bulgarian-Yugoslav relations, Sofia 1991, p. 101-104)