Chapter 207 War Warming Up

Pasic and Gesuf looked at each other, and they both knew that if the two countries were not weak, they would not want Greece to join the alliance.

Pasic asked, "So, Prime Minister Venizelos, what are Greece's territorial demands?"

Since Bulgaria and Serbia agreed to invite Greece to join the alliance, they were naturally prepared and could not let Greece gain nothing in Macedonia.

Venizelos also knew that the three countries were able to sit together to discuss the alliance, largely because the Ottoman Empire was caught in a war with Italy, which gave the three countries an opportunity. Everyone did not mind taking advantage of the Ottoman Empire's unpreparedness and wanted to recover some interest from the Ottoman Empire.

The people of both sides probably still remember the war between Bulgaria and Serbia in 1885. It is probably nonsense to say that the two countries have now abandoned their past grudges and reconciled.

The Macedonia region is sandwiched between Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece. The moment the three countries divide it up, it is probably the time when filth arises.

Therefore, the three countries all had the same idea at this time, and all wanted to cut the fattest piece of cake from Macedonia.

Venizelos avoided the main point and first bypassed the controversial Macedonia region and said: "The Aegean islands under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the people living on them are almost all Greeks, so these Aegean islands should belong to Greece"

After the voice fell, his eyes patrolled the two people, and he made up his mind that if both of them disagreed with this, then let this alliance go to hell.

The Aegean Sea covers an area of ​​40,000 square kilometers and is the only sea area connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It has very high strategic value.

There are about 2,500 islands scattered across the Aegean Sea.

When the two heard that Venizelos's territorial claim was the islands distributed by the Ottoman Empire in the Aegean Sea, it was unknown what they felt in their hearts, and they did not express their opposition openly.

As Venizelos said, there are a large number of Greek people living on those islands; secondly, the two countries have no navy, and these islands originally needed the Greek navy to occupy them themselves.

Seeing that the two did not express their opinions, Venizelos continued: "The whole of Macedonia, including Thessaloniki"

Seeing that the two people's faces changed, he continued: "Greek warriors have been fighting there for many years. It can be said that in most parts of Macedonia, the rural people there are oriented to Greece"

"Greece has enough reasons to make demands for the ownership of the territory there"

In recent years, as the Ottoman Empire's control over the Macedonian region has become increasingly weak after 1897, especially after the Turkish Youth Party launched an uprising, the vast rural areas in Macedonia have almost escaped the control of the Ottoman government. Except for those large cities and military strongholds where troops are stationed, the Ottoman government still has influence.

The three countries have already started the fight for Macedonia in secret.

Greece took advantage of its economic advantages, and the government, either openly or secretly, used public opinion to mobilize personnel and funds to support underground guerrillas to fight in the countryside of Macedonia.

In terms of the fight for Macedonia's territory, Greece also has a geographical advantage. After the last war, Greece obtained the entire Albania and part of Macedonia's territory. The territory of Albania is oriented north-south, which gives Greece's territory a great depth in the Balkan Peninsula.

The entire Greek territory is in a state of semi-encirclement of Macedonia. It is easy to infiltrate Macedonia from Albania to the east or from northern Greece to the north.

After more than ten years of open and secret struggles among the three countries, most of the underground order in Macedonia is under the control of Greece.

It took so much to control Macedonia, and Greece could not give it up.

Prime Minister Gesuf's face tightened. Greece almost made a request for the entire Macedonia.

In addition to making Bulgaria lose Thessaloniki, an important commercial port and transportation hub city in the entire Balkan Peninsula, and losing shipping and trade convenience, it will also interrupt the Bulgarian dream of the Greater Bulgaria plan.

The 10th Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) ended with the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano, which caused the Ottoman Empire to lose a large amount of territory.

Under the pressure of the Russian army, the Sultan was forced to sign a humiliating treaty and recognized the existence of Greater Bulgaria.

One of the contents of the Treaty of San Stefano was the establishment of the Principality of Greater Bulgaria, whose territory stretched from the Danube in the north to the Aegean Sea in the south; from the Black Sea in the east to Lake Ohrid in the west, and included almost all of Macedonia.

It was nominally under the Ottoman Sultan and was occupied by the Russian army for 2 years.

The establishment of this so-called Principality of Greater Bulgaria was actually the proposition of Russian Pan-Slavism, and behind it was clearly the Russians' intention to control the Balkan Peninsula through Bulgaria as a puppet.

In fact, this so-called Greater Bulgaria only existed on paper and was never implemented.

During the Berlin Conference in 1878, due to concerns that the Russian bear would enter the Mediterranean, the major powers directly put pressure on Russia and signed the Berlin Treaty, directly abolishing the Greater Bulgaria plan.

Not only was Greater Bulgaria not established, but in order to dispel the Russian ambitions, this conference also directly dismembered Bulgaria, and the province with a Bulgarian majority - Eastern Rumelia was still assigned to the Ottoman Empire.

(In 1885, Eastern Rumelia launched an uprising and announced its merger with Bulgaria again)

Although this Greater Bulgaria plan only existed on paper in the Treaty of San Stefano for a few months, it was obvious that Bulgaria took it seriously.

It would be fine if Bulgaria had never owned the Macedonian region; but it had once owned it. Faced with the current situation in which the Ottoman Empire was mired in the North African War, Bulgaria naturally had the ambition to regain Macedonia and realize the dream of a greater Bulgaria.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Geissouf and Greek Prime Minister Venizelos are at loggerheads over the ownership of Macedonia. They are competing for each other, and neither is willing to show weakness.

Serbian Prime Minister Phase Pasic, who was watching coldly from the sidelines, was naturally interested in competing for Macedonia, even though among the three countries, Serbia was the weakest in terms of various indicators.

But in the hearts of Serbians, there is also a plan to build a Greater Serbia.

This plan includes the Skopje region in Macedonia, which was historically the capital of the ancient Serbian Kingdom.

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Soon, Constantine, who was in Athens, received news that the negotiations between Venizelos's diplomatic team in Bodrigocha and the Pausades were not going well. The three countries had serious disputes over the ownership of Macedonia. There are disagreements, and it has been difficult to reach a consensus.

On May 19, 1912, Constantine, together with King George, summoned the Director of the Military Intelligence Department, Decaveras, in the chamber.

"Mr. Tsaveras, I have summoned you this time to inform you that the publicity campaign about the war can already begin." Constantine did not hide his purpose.

"The Intelligence Department notified those influential newspapers as soon as possible to start warm-up for war."

Tsaveras was surprised: "But the Prime Minister is still conducting diplomatic negotiations!"

Constantine responded in a cold tone: "No matter what results are reached in the negotiations between the Prime Minister and the Pausades, Greece's war against the Ottoman Empire is imminent."

"In the worst case scenario, there is no agreement between Greece and the two countries at all. It is just Greece and the two countries acting independently."