MACEDONIA PARTITIONED
The Bucharest Peace Treaty

The decisions of the treaty, effectuated after the Balkan wars, led to three-partite division of Macedonia and loss of its century-old historical-geographic, economic, political and ethnic entity.

The first decades of the 20th century represent the turning point in the history of the Macedonian people. The feat of the Ilinden rebels, dating from 1903, the defense from the Serbian, Bulgarian and Greek penetration in Macedonia, as well as, the participation of the Macedonian public in the democratic transfiguration of Turkey during the Young Turks Revolution dated 1908/1909, were, by far, highly visible expressions of the Macedonian struggle for Macedonia’s autonomy within the frames of democratized Turkey, and subsequently, an independent sovereigneity as part of one Balkan democratic federation.

Opposed to this trend of events and affairs taking place in Macedonia and Turkey, was the interventionist and aggressive policy of the neighboring countries of Macedonia and Turkey - Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece.

Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece were agricultural capitalist countries, entirely dependent from the developed European capitalist states. Burdened by huge credits and loans which were used, for the most part, on covering the state budget, as well as, on armament, the Balkan bourgeois monarchies of Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece, not only were economically, but also politically subordinated to the great European forces.



With God or with the devil


Making endeavors to break free from the dependence of the great European forces, the Balkan bourgeois classes in Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece, starting from their complete independence with the Berlin Congress in 1878, up to the First Balkan War in 1912-13, persisted in their struggle for expansion of their states on the Balkans on the account of the Ottoman Empire territories. Being inland countries with no access to sea, they could not sell their agricultural products, nor could they import any industrial goods. In order to exit from that isolation, especially Serbia and Bulgaria, they turned their orientation towards the conquest of Macedonia and Albania, over the territory of which they were able to reach the shores of the Aegean and Adriatic Sea and thus, gain way out to the world markets. Macedonia, with the Valley of the Vardar and Solun (Salonica), and that of Struma and Cavalla with the Orphean gulf, became a “living space” for the imperialists in the kingdom of Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. This was unambiguously confirmed by the statement of the famous Serbian nationalist, Aleksandar Belik, who, with regard to the reasons that made Serbia enter the war in 1912-13, said the following:

”At the end, everyone (belonging to the dominant circles in Serbia and Bulgaria-author’s note) was familiarized with the claim the Macedonians made for being equally distant from the Serbs and Bulgarians as well. All of this was forcing their (Serbian and Bulgarian-author’s note) political factors to stray from the previous paths (of quarrels and clashes for spheres of influence in Macedonia-author’s note), which did not lead the Serbs nor the Bulgarians to the goal they desired, and to make efforts to reach and agreement for division of Macedonia.”

The existence of the Serbian hegemonistic politics toward Macedonia is, furthermore, strongly asserted by the protagonist of the partition of Macedonia, the president of the Serbian government at that time, Milan G. Milovanovich, who made a fatal conclusion of Belic’s statement by saying: ”We are by all means ready to do everything, and we will enter any combination, with god or with the devil, should the necessity arises to prevent the solution of the Macedonian issue, to the detriment of our life interests, which, if failed to be satisfied under the present conditions in the Balkans, will make life miserable for Serbia”.



Partition agreements


In their actions for conquering Macedonia, the Bulgarian bourgeoisie followed the same platform, as did the Serbian. The statement of the president of the Bulgarian national Assembly, d-r Stojan Danev, further maintains this fact: “Bulgaria declared war because the Macedonian Bulgarians had been lost for her cause, having taken their own road”. Several other Bulgarian war historians shed their own light on d-r Danev’s statement by performing quite a detailed analysis in their book “Inter-allied warfare in 1913 (The war between the allies in 1913), published in Sophia in 1963, in which they conclude:

“The great Bulgarian chauvinists were striving to annex Macedonia to the Bulgarian state mainly out of economic and strategic military reasons…Who will be the master of the Aegean Sea?… That title belonged to Bulgaria, which considered ruling Thessalonica to be a national must and a permanent principal of the state. In the name of those ideals, the bourgeoisie (Bulgarian-author’s note) was ready to wage war even with yesterday’s allies (from the First Balkan War-author’s note), and with any other country that would hinder the realization of those ideals.”

Taking into account the fact that none of them could separately oppose Turkey and grab its Balkan provinces, Macedonia being in the first place, the rival aspirants, Serbia and Bulgaria, and later Greece, were forced to make compromising agreements regarding the division of Macedonia. In that respect, the Secret Annex to the Serbo-Bulgarian ally agreement, dated March 13, 1912, represents sufficient proof.

Article No.2 of the Secret Annex divides Macedonia in two parts by an almost straight line, from Carev Vrv (north of Kriva Palanka) to the shore of the Lake of Ohrid at the monastery St. Erasmus (between Ohrid and Struga). West of this line, the Macedonian regions were to belong to Serbia and thus be its stronghold in ruling Albania and its Adriatic coast. The remaining Macedonian parts were declared “disputable zone” and left for arbitrage by the Russian tsar to decide whom they would belong to.

Following the slogan for the “liberation of our oppressed Christian brothers”, the armies of the Balkan allies attacked Turkey on October 18, 1912. The first phase of the war witnessed the crucial battles on October 23 and 24 in Kumanovo, and from November 17 to November 19 in Bitola. The defeated Turkish troops retreated from Macedonia.

On December 4, upon the request of Turkey, an armistice was endorsed and thereafter, the Turkish reign ceased to exist.



Disastrous Consequences


The elimination of the Turkish rule on the Balkans led to the establishment of a military-police occupation of Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro in the former Turkish provinces, and thereby:

Serbia occupied the following territories: South Serbia, Kosovo and Metohia, and Sandjak (with Montenegro), North and Central Albania with its Adriatic coastline, and nearly the entire territory of the Vardar Macedonia.

Bulgaria occupied: Belomorska Thrace, Pirin and the eastern part of Aegean Macedonia, as well as a few parts of Vardar Macedonia, east of the river Vardar.

Greece did the same with Northern Greece and Epirus, south Albania and the central and western part of Aegean Macedonia.

The redistribution of certain Macedonian regions took place after the Second Balkan Inter-allied war, when the beaten Bulgaria lost the eastern parts of Vardar and Aegean Macedonia, which were annexed to Serbia, i.e. to Greece. The Bucharest Peace Treaty later sanctioned this redistribution of the Macedonian territories on August 10, 1913.

Thereby, Macedonia has lost its century-old historical, geographic, economic, political and ethnic entity. Partitioned among the four neighboring countries, it has become a periphery of Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Albania.

The consequences of this division have been disastrous: the Macedonian people have become subject to four-fold denationalization, in Aegean Macedonia it was implemented in the form of genocide. Being succumbed to serbization, bulgarization and albanization, the Macedonians, at the same time, have suffered a total economic exploitation, similar to the one in the colonies of the great capitalist countries.



D-r Petar Danev