Balkan Pact

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For the 1953 pact, see Balkan Pact (1953).
Balkan Entente
  • Βαλκανικό Σύμφωνο  (Greek)
  • Balkan Antantı  (Turkish)
  • Înțelegerea Balcanică  (Romanian)
  • Балкански пакт / Balkanski pakt  (Serbo-Croatian)
1934-1941
Members of the Balkan Pact Balkan Pact: *  Greece *  Turkey *  Romania *  Yugoslavia
Members of the Balkan Pact
Balkan Pact:
StatusMilitary alliance
Historical eraInterwar
• Formation
9 February 1934
• Axis invasion of Yugoslavia
6 April 1941
Atatürk, Stojadinović, Metaxas and Comnen at a meeting in Ankara, March 1938

The Balkan Pact, or Balkan Entente, was a treaty signed by Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia on 9 February 1934[1] in Athens,[2] aimed at maintaining the geopolitical status quo in the region after the end of World War I. To present a united front against Bulgarian designs on their territories, the signatories agreed to suspend all disputed territorial claims against one another and their immediate neighbours following the aftermath of the war and a rise in various regional irredentist tensions.

Other nations in the region that had been involved in related diplomacy refused to sign the document, including Italy, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Soviet Union. The pact became effective on the day that it was signed and was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on 1 October 1934.[3]

The Balkan Pact helped to ensure peace between the signatory nations but failed to end regional intrigues. Although the pact was designed against Bulgaria, on 31 July 1938, its members signed the Salonika Agreement with Bulgaria, which repealed the clauses of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine and Treaty of Lausanne that had mandated demilitarised zones at Bulgaria's borders with Greece and Turkey, which allowed Bulgaria to rearm.

After the 1940 Treaty of Craiova, signed under Nazi Germany's pressure and with the 1941 Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, the pact effectively ceased to exist.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Pact of Balkan Agreement Between Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania and Turkey Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Army History Directorate, An Abridged History of the Greek-Italian and Greek-German War, 1940–1941: Land Operations, Hellenic Army General Staff, Army History Directorate, 1997, p. 2.
  3. ^ League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 153, pp. 154-159.

External links[]

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