Greece to roman road

Pasic and Geissouf's eyes met, and they both understood that if the two countries were not weak in strength, they would not be willing to allow Greece to join this alliance.

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

Since the two countries agreed to invite Greece to join the alliance, they were naturally mentally prepared. It was impossible for Greece to gain nothing in Macedonia.

Venizelos also understood in his heart that the reason why the three countries were able to sit together to discuss an alliance was largely because the Ottoman Empire fell into a war with Italy, which allowed the three countries to see an opportunity. Everyone did not mind taking advantage of the Ottoman Empire's unpreparedness. The opportunity was rare and wanted to Recover some interest from Osman.

The 1885 war between the two countries is probably still fresh in the memory of the people on both sides. It is probably nonsense to say that the two countries have now put aside all their past grievances and reconciled.

The Macedonian region is caught between Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece. The moment the three countries finish carving it up, it is probably the time when evil will arise.

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

Venizelos avoided the most important matters and first bypassed the more controversial Macedonia region and said: "Nearly all the people living on the Aegean islands under the Ottoman Empire are Greeks. Therefore, these Aegean islands should belong to Greece."

After he finished speaking, his eyes roamed over the two of them, and he made up his mind. If both of them had objections to this point, then let this alliance go to hell.

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

There are approximately 2,500 islands scattered throughout the Aegean Sea.

It’s unknown what they thought when they heard Venizelos’s territorial claim for the islands of the Ottoman Empire in the Aegean Sea, and they did not openly express their opposition.

As Venizelos said, there are a large Greek population living on those islands; secondly, the two countries do not have navies, and these islands would have needed to be occupied by the Greek navy itself.

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

Seeing the expressions of both of them changing, he continued: "Greece's warriors have been fighting there for many years. It can be said that in most parts of Macedonia, the rural people there have their hearts set on Greece."

"Greece has enough reasons to claim the territorial ownership there."

In recent years, as the Ottoman Empire's control over the Macedonian region has become increasingly weakened after 1897, especially after the Turkish Shabaab uprising, the vast rural areas of Macedonia are almost out of the control of the Ottoman government, except for those large cities and some The Ottoman government still had influence in this important military area where the army was stationed.

Secretly, the three countries have already launched an operation to compete for Macedonia.

Greece took advantage of its economic advantages, and the government, either overtly or covertly, used public opinion to mobilize personnel and funds to support underground guerrillas to compete in the Macedonian countryside.

When it comes to competing for Macedonian territory, Greece also has a geographical advantage. After the last war, Greece obtained all of Albania and part of Macedonia's territory. Among them, Albania's territory runs north-south, allowing Greece's territory to gain a great deal of land in the Balkan Peninsula. Depth.

The entire Greek territory is semi-encircling Macedonia. It is easy to penetrate into Macedonia from Albania to the east or from northern Greece to the north.

The underground order in Macedonia, after more than ten years of overt and covert fighting among the three countries, is mostly under the control of Greece.

It was impossible for Greece to give up Macedonia, which it had spent so much money to control.

Prime Minister Geissouf's face tightened, Greece almost made demands on the entire Macedonia.

This will not only cause Bulgaria to lose Salonika, an important commercial port and transportation hub city in the entire Balkan Peninsula, and lose shipping and trade convenience, but will also interrupt the Bulgarian dream of a greater Bulgaria plan.

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

Under the pressure of the Russian army, the Sultan was forced to sign the League of City and recognized the existence of Greater Bulgaria.

One of the contents of the "Treaty of San Stefano" was the establishment of the Great Bulgarian Principality, whose territory stretched from the Danube River 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 part of the Ottoman Empire and occupied by Russian troops for 2 years.

The establishment of the so-called Great Bulgarian Principality is actually the proposition of Russian Pan-Slavism, which clearly reveals the Russians' intention to control the Balkans through the puppet Bulgaria.

In fact, this so-called Greater Bulgaria only exists on paper and has never been implemented.

During the Berlin Conference in 1878, due to concerns about Russian bears entering the Mediterranean, the major powers directly exerted pressure on Russia and signed the Treaty of Berlin, directly abolishing the Greater Bulgaria Plan.

Not only was Greater Bulgaria not established, in order to dispel the Russian ambitions, this conference also directly dismembered Bulgaria. The province with a majority of Bulgarians - Eastern Rumelia - was still placed under the Ottoman administration.

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

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 council chamber.

"Mr. Tsaveras, I am summoning you this time to inform you that publicity 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 at all between Greece and the two countries. It is just Greece and the two countries acting independently."