Bulgaria Humiliation
The Treaty of Neuilly, strictly theTreaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, was signed with Bulgaria after World War One had ended. The treaty was signed on November 27th 1919. … Post-Neuilly, the Bulgarian Army was limited to just 20,000 men. Bulgaria was ordered to pay reparations of £100 million.
Land in western Bulgaria was given to the future Yugoslavia – at the time of Neuilly what was to become Yugoslavia was called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Bulgaria also had to recognise the legal existence of the new state and cession of land was seen as recognition that Bulgaria had forcibly occupied parts of Serbia between 1915 and 1918 and this was part of Bulgaria’s punishment.
When the Bulgarian people learned of the terms of the Treaty of Neuilly, they were outraged. However, they were not in a position to do anything about the terms in 1919. When World War Two broke out, Bulgaria sided with Nazi Germany and reclaimed all the land taken from her by the Treaty of Neuilly. By the time World War Two ended, Bulgaria’s effective independence was also ended. Stalin imposed a pro-communist government in power – part of his protective block around the USSR and it was to be many more decades before Bulgaria was to enjoy any form of real independence.
Bulgaria as the ultimate disaster for the Bulgarian nation’s strife for national liberation and unification.
With the Neuilly Treaty Bulgaria’s claims to wide swaths of territories in Macedonia, Thrace, and Dobrudja, largely populated by Bulgarians, suffered a terrible defeat
area of 2563 km² on the western border to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The treaty also forced Bulgaria to return Southern Dobruja, which had been captured during the war and restored the border set by the Treaty of Bucharest (1913). (Southern Dobrudzha was restored to Bulgaria in 1940.)
In Bulgaria, the results of the treaty are popularly known as the Second National Catastrophe.
In Serbia, to which the term generally applies in Bulgaria, the territory ceded is split between the modern Serbian District of Pirot(municipality of Dimitrovgrad and smaller parts of the municipalities of Pirot and Babušnica) and District of Pčinja (municipality of Bosilegrad and a small part of the municipality of Surdulica). It also includes a small section along the Timok River in the municipality and District of Zaječar, composed by eight localities (seven populated by Vlachs and one populated by Bulgarians).
In 1919, the area corresponded to the following parts of the Bulgarian okrugs: Kyustendil, 661 km2 (255 sq mi), Tzaribrod418 km2 (161 sq mi), Tran 278 km2(107 sq mi), Kula 172 km2 (66 sq mi) and Vidin 17 km2 (6.6 sq mi). Bulgarian sources claim that the Bulgarian population made 98% of the population in Bosilegrad and 95% of the population in Tzaribrod at the time. In the Yugoslav census of 1931, all South Slavs were simply counted as Yugoslavs (Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bulgarians) so a comparison could not be made. According to the last Census in Serbia from 2002, Bulgarians made 50% and 71% of population in Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad respectively.
Wikipedia
Radio Bulgaria
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