Пътят до Солунската спогодба и ролята на турската дипломация в междубалканските отношения
The Road to the Thessaloniki Treaty and the Role of Turkish Diplomacy in the Balkans’ International Relations

Summary/Abstract: The article is an analysis of the role of the Turkish diplomacy from the mid 1930s until the signing of the Thessaloniki Treaty in 1938 against the background of inter-Balkan relations and changes in European countries’ foreign affairs in general. It highlights the crucial influence which the Turkish foreign initiatives had on the development of the Balkan’s international relations, as well as the role of Turkish diplomats for reaching an agreement between different governments and emphasizes their impact on Bulgarian foreign interests. This was a period when Turkey set itself the task to attract all Balkan countries to the idea of regional solidarity, having in mind the unstable situation in Western Europe and the danger of a new world military conflict. Ankara’s attempts to attract revisionary Bulgaria to this idea had most unsatisfactory results. However, the Turkish diplomacy succeeded in bringing stability to Bulgarian-Turkish relations. On the eve of the Second World War, Ankara spoke more and more in favor of settling the disputes between Bulgaria and its neighbors, which would give a chance to keep the peace on the Balkans. To this end, Turkey tried to direct the Bulgarian territorial revisionism to Romania, but was not inclined to agree with Bulgaria’s desire for border changes at the expense of Greece, to whom Ankara had undertaken a number of commitments. During the summer of 1938, Turkish diplomacy was one of the most active factors within the negotiations for signing the Thessaloniki Treaty and for joining Bulgaria to the Balkan pact. Even though it failed to keep the peace in the Balkans, Turkey succeeded in settling its relations with the Balkan countries in a way which ensured its neutrality during the war. During the following years, the region’s development would show that Turkey’s priorities, including those with respect to border changes in the Balkans, remained unchanged, and Ankara managed to implement its foreign policy from the second half of 1930s to the maximum possible effect.

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