Yugoslav irredentism was aYugoslavist political idea advocating for merging ofSouth Slav-populated territories withinYugoslavia with several adjacent territories, includingBulgaria,Western Thrace andGreek Macedonia. The government of theKingdom of Yugoslavia sought the union with Bulgaria or its incorporation into Yugoslavia.[1] The government of thecommunist-ruled Yugoslavia underJosip Broz Tito negotiated for an eventual unification with thePeople's Republic of Bulgaria in theBled agreement, and also sought to create an integral Yugoslavia that would incorporate within its borders:Greek Macedonia,Albania,Pirin Macedonia, at least some ofAustrian Carinthia, and for a time the entire Italian region ofFriuli-Venezia Giulia.[2]
Proponents of Yugoslav irredentism included bothmonarchists andrepublicans.[3] Days prior to Yugoslavia's creation in 1918, Yugoslavist politicianSvetozar Pribićević declared that Yugoslavia's borders should extend "from theSoča up toSalonika".[4] Proposals in the interwar period to include Bulgaria within Yugoslavia, included claims by republicans that a republic was necessary for an Integral Yugoslavia with Bulgaria, while others claimed that a republic would not because Bulgaria at that time was a tsardom, and instead claimed that a limitedconstitutional monarchy would be an appropriate form of state that could include Bulgaria within it.[5] The militant movementZveno inBulgaria supported an Integral Yugoslavia that included Bulgaria as well as Albania within it.[6] The Zveno movement participated in theBulgarian coup d'état of 1934, the coup supporters declared their intention to immediately form an alliance withFrance and to seek the unification of Bulgaria into an Integral Yugoslavia.[7]
OnceWorld War II began, in 1940 GeneralMilan Nedić proposed that Yugoslavia join theAxis powers and attack Greece to seize Salonika.[8] During World War II, the British government supported the creation of a Greater Yugoslavia after the war due to opposition to the Bulgarian government's accession to the Axis Powers, in May 1941 endorsing Dr. Malcom Burr's paper in favour of the incorporation of Bulgaria into Yugoslavia after the war.[9]
In June 1945,Josip Broz Tito declared that Yugoslavia had the right to haveTrieste and all ofCarinthia, including Austrian Carinthia, saying "We have liberated Carinthia but international conditions were such that we had to leave it temporarily. Carinthia is ours and we shall fight for it". Neither theSoviet Union nor the Western Allies supported Yugoslav claims against Austria and Italy. Yugoslavia abandoned such claims after the 1948Tito–Stalin split.[10]
In 1947, Tito andGeorgi Dimitrov planned for the eventual annexation of Bulgaria into the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,[11] in theBled agreement, however such arrangements never came to fruition after the Tito-Stalin split, due to Bulgaria siding with the Soviet Union.
