The Treaty of Craiova

The Treaty of Craiova was signed on September 7, 1940 between the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Romania. Under the terms of this treaty, Romania returned the southern part of the region of Dobruzha (today’s Northeastern Bulgarian) to Bulgaria and agreed to participate in the organization of a population exchange.

Southern Dobruja - Wikipedia

                                         
                                                                                      
    

Photo: dnevnik.bg

https://europeanhistoryandcultures.tumblr.com/post/188335389893/the-treaty-of-craiova-the-treaty-of-craiova-was



The treaty was approved by all major international powers Germany, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Italy, USA, and France.


From the Middle Ages until the late 19thcentury the entire region of Dobrudzha – the narrow piece of land between the Black Sea and the Danube River – was considered part of the territories with predominantly Bulgarian population even though it also included Turkish, Tatar and Gagauz population.

Under the San Stefanov Treaty between the Russian Empire and Ottoman Turkey, which restored the Bulgarian state on March 3, 1878, the northern half of Dobrudzha was granted to Romania in exchange for its participation on the Russian side in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78, and as a compensation for the Russian occupation of the region of Bessarabia (roughly today’s Moldova).


Three months later, the Treaty of Berlin from July 1878 gave Romania an additional section of Dobrudzha setting the Bulgarian-Romanian land border where it is today. Thus, roughly one third of the region remained in Bulgaria (Southern Dobrudzha with an area of 7 656 square km) and two thirds remained in Romania (Northern Dobrudzha with an area of 15 500 square km).

During the Second Balkan War in 1913, Romania intervened against Bulgaria on the side of Serbia and Greece, annexing Southern Dobrudzha under the Treaty of Bucharest. Subsequently, in 1916, after Romania joined the Entente in World War I, Bulgaria, which was an ally of the Central Powers, waged a successful war campaign against the Romanian, Russian, and Serbo-Croatian forces conquering the entire territory of Dobrudzha as well as the Romanian capital Bucharest (together with forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary).