Turkey’s foreign policy towards Bulgaria and the Turkish minority (1923–1934)

Abstract

This article sets out to study relations between Turkey and Bulgaria during the Inter-war period of 1923-1934 and its effects on the Turkish minority living in Bulgaria. In bringing international, national and community level dynamics together, it will attempt to show how the relations developed between the Republic of Turkey and Bulgaria affected the conditions of the Turkish minority. Once the diplomatic relationship was established between the two states, Ankara and Sofia made efforts to constrain deliberately the influence of the minority issue on these relations. Consequently, this article asserts that the Turkish minority in Bulgaria constituted rarely, if ever, a factor in its own right that could influence the nature and the direction of the two countries' bilateral relationship for much of the Inter-war era. However, the Bulgarian government began to exert pressure on the Turkish minority, when bilateral relations showed signs of deterioration. Additionally, this article also demonstrates how the reaction of other Balkan countries to regional and international developments had an impact on Turkish-Bulgarian relations and made minorities susceptible to ebbs and flows in bilateral relations.

Yugoslavia and the Balkan unity, 1925–1930

“…68 Since he was also pursuing to reduce the Great Powers' influence, Rüştü bey opposed the Italian efforts to subordinate the Turkish-Greek-Bulgarian rapprochement to their interests and the expansion of the French influence over Bulgaria through its membership in the Little Entente. 69 The Legation in Athens concluded that the failed Bulgarian-Albanian initiative on the First Balkan Conference was a clear signal the moment was not ripe to move from the informal to the official negotiations. The discussion in the same format on the particular obstacles was considered as appropriate for the time being.…”