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.
Balkan Entente
| |
|---|---|
| 1934-1941 | |
 Members of the Balkan Pact
Balkan Pact:
| |
| Status | Military alliance |
| Historical era | Interwar |
• Formation | 9 February 1934 |
| 6 April 1941 | |
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the pact was designed against Bulgaria, on 31 July 1938, its members signed the Salonika Agreement with Bulgaria, which repealed the clauses of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine and Treaty of Lausanne that had mandated demilitarised zones at Bulgaria's borders with Greece and Turkey, which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.
With the 1940 Treaty of Craiova signed by Romania under Nazi Germany's pressure, and after the 1941 Axis invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece, the pact effectively ceased to exist and Turkey remained as its only signatory that had avoided any conflict during WWII, even after joining the Allies in 1945.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Pact of Balkan Agreement Between Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania and Turkey Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ 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.
- ^ League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 153, pp. 154-159.