Balkan Entente
| |
|---|---|
| 1934–1941 | |
Members of the Balkan Pact Balkan Pact: | |
| Status | Military alliance |
| Historical era | Interwar |
• Formation | 9 February 1934 |
| 6 April 1941 | |
TheBalkan Pact, orBalkan Entente, was atreaty signed byGreece,Romania,Turkey andYugoslavia on 9 February 1934[1] inAthens,[2] aimed at maintaining the geopoliticalstatus quo in the region after the end ofWorld War I. To present a united front againstBulgarian designs on their territories, the signatories agreed to suspend all disputedterritorial claims against one another and their immediate neighbours following the aftermath of the war and a rise in various regionalirredentist tensions.
Other nations in the region that had been involved in related diplomacy refused to sign the document, includingItaly,Albania,Bulgaria,Hungary and theSoviet Union. The pact became effective on the day that it was signed and was registered in theLeague of NationsTreaty Series on 1 October 1934.[3]
The Balkan Pact helped to ensure peace between the signatory nations but failed to end regional intrigues. Although the pact was designed against Bulgaria, on 31 July 1938, its members signed theSalonika Agreement with Bulgaria, which repealed the clauses of theTreaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine andTreaty of Lausanne that had mandated demilitarised zones at Bulgaria's borders with Greece and Turkey, which allowed Bulgaria to rearm.
With the 1940Treaty of Craiova signed by Romania under Nazi Germany's pressure, and after the 1941Axis invasions of Yugoslavia andGreece, the pact effectively ceased to exist and Turkey remained as its only signatory that had avoided any conflict during WWII, even after joining theAllies in 1945.