The Balkan pact and its immediate implications for the Balkan states, 1930–34

The present study attempts to analyse the causes, processes and immediate implications of the Balkan Pact, signed on 9 February 1934 by Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia. For the sake of brevity and clarity, it may be appropriate to ascribe ultimate reasons for the quarrels in the Balkans to a period from the Balkan Wars (1912-13) to the mid1930s, though it may be said that the conflicts between the Balkan states go as far back as the Berlin Congress of 1878 or even before. (See Appendix showing disputed lands in the Balkans between the two World Wars.) The Balkan Wars of 1912-13 expelled the Ottoman Empire from the entire Balkan peninsula, except for Eastern Thrace and enlarged Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Romania, and in addition established the new state of Albania. During the First World War Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire sided with the Central Powers, while Greece, Romania and Serbia sided with the Entente. A clear outcome of the First World War was the further expansion of Romania, Greece and Serbia, the latter as the core of the new Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Finally, the Ottoman Empire was dismembered losing a considerable proportion of its territories. The Turkish War of Liberation (1919-22), which resulted in driving the Western Powers and in particular the British-backed Greek armed forces out of Anatolia, led to the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. By 1923, two groups of states in the Balkans were evident with regard to territorial settlements. As a result of territorial expansion, Greece, Romania and Yugoslavia (Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) emerged territorially 'satisfied' states, and as a consequence of territorial losses Bulgaria appeared to be the 'dissatisfied' state. This was not limited to the relatively small and weak Balkan states; the Great Powers Italy, Germany and Soviet Russia also had reason for dissatisfaction with the territorial settlements which materialized in Europe as a consequence of the First World War. Thus, the problem became a general European as well as a Balkan issue and, potentially at least, aligning both Great Powers and Balkan states into two conflicting groups: the revisionist states, which would work for the cause of territorial revisions, and the anti-revisionist