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Chapter IX
The Tragedy of 1914
When the war between the Balkan States and the Turkish Empire
was brought to a close for the time being by an armistice signed on
the battlefield of Chatalja, to which Bulgaria, Servia, and Turkey
were parties, and by the summoning of the Conference of London,
to which Greece also was a party, the prospects for Bulgaria’s future
were singularly bright. As a power in the Balkans Turkey had ceased
to exist. She had been driven out of all Albania, Macedonia, Epirus,
and Thrace, except that beleaguered garrisons held the fortresses
of Scutari, Janina, and Adrianople and the Dardanelles forts, whilst
behind the lines of Chatalja a small area of Turkish territory remained
under the Crescent. The area held by the Bulgarian armies was
greater at this time than the territory assigned to her by the Treaty of
San Stefano, and promised to be extended as the result of the peace
negotiations. In the war which had just been waged the exploits of
Bulgarian arms had attracted the widest attention in Europe. Public
opinion in most of the capitals of the world assigned the future
hegemony of the Balkan Peninsula to the Bulgarian nation. But all
this fair-seeming prospect was the prelude to one of the greatest
national tragedies in history.
I cannot better preface a relation of the facts of that tragedy than
by giving a summary of the position early in 1914, as it was given
anonymously by a noted Bulgarian diplomat to the National Review.
He wrote:
It is too late for pretending that all is well with the Balkan League.
Even in official quarters, where pessimism is generally discouraged,
it is no longer denied that relations between the Allies have reached a
critical stage.... It would form a sad epilogue to a noble story if what
began as a crusade of liberation were to end in fratricidal strife....
Nominally, the quarrel turns on the interpretation of treaties and their
bearing on the situation created by the war. But underneath all these
arguments there lurk preoccupations far transcending the scope of
written or oral agreements. The question at stake is nothing less than
the future balance of power in the Balkans. The map of the Balkans has
been transformed beyond recognition, and Turkey has practically ceased
to exist as a European power; but those who expected it to inaugurate
an era of tranquillity have been disappointed. The failure of the war as
an instrument of pacification is largely due to the very magnitude of
its military success. Had the victories of the Allies been less decisive,
conditions might have arisen more favourable to the cause of Balkan
union. The sudden collapse of Turkey left a void which has upset the
entire scheme of things existing....
A Bagpiper