TheTreaty of Athens between theOttoman Empire and theKingdom of Greece, signed on 14 November 1913, formally ended hostilities between them after the twoBalkan Wars and cededMacedonia—including the major city ofThessaloniki— most ofEpirus, and manyAegean islands to Greece.
In theFirst Balkan War, the coalition ofBulgaria,Serbia,Greece andMontenegro defeated the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans lost nearly all their European possessions, which were reduced to a small amount of territory around theSea of Marmara by theTreaty of London.[1] The Ottomans however were able to recoverEastern Thrace, during theSecond Balkan War, when Bulgaria attacked her former allies and was defeated by the combined forces of all her neighbours includingRomania.[2]
During the First Balkan War, fighting against the Ottomans, Greece had occupied most ofEpirus, southernMacedonia with the great port city ofThessaloniki and most of the islands of theAegean Sea (except the Italian-occupiedDodecanese). In the second war, it expanded its territory in Macedonia further at the expense of Bulgaria. SinceWestern Thrace remained under Bulgarian control (it would be ceded to Greece in the 1919Treaty of Neuilly), Greece shared no land border with Ottoman Empire. Greco-Turkish tensions however remained high, since the Ottoman government refused to accept Greek control over the islands of the northeastern Aegean.
The terms of the treaty were as follows:
The most important issue that remained unresolved was the fate of theNorth Aegean islands (Lesbos,Chios,Lemnos,Imbros andTenedos), which were annexed by Greece during the war. The issue was left to the arbitration of theGreat Powers, who in February 1914 awarded them, except for Imbros and Tenedos, to Greece. As the Ottoman Empire refused to give up its claims, a crisis erupted which led to a naval race during 1913–1914 and preparations were made for a renewed conflict on both sides. The situation was only defused by the outbreak of World War I.
After the Ottoman Empire was defeated in theFirst World War, Greece for a time gainedEastern Thrace up to theÇatalca line as well as Gökçeada (Imbros) and Bozcaada (Tenedos) and a zone inAnatolia aroundİzmir (Treaty of Sèvres), but was forced to cede them to theRepublic of Turkey after theTurkey-Greece war under theTreaty of Lausanne.
