Discover

(Redirected from Treaty of Neuilly)

The 'Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine', dealing with Bulgaria for its role as one of the Central Powers in World War I, was signed on the November 27, 1919 at Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
The treaty established borders over contested territory between Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Yugoslavia. As a Central Powers belligerent, Bulgaria received the least land, and was required to reduce its army to 20,000 men, pay reparations exceeding $400 million, and recognize the existence of Yugoslavia. Bulgaria was required to cede western Thrace to Greece and parts of Dobruja to Romania.
In Bulgaria, the results of the treaty are popularly known as the 'Second National Catastrophe.' During World War II Bulgaria, together with Nazi Germany, temporarily reoccupied the territories it had ceded.

Contents

Territories ceded to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

Region and population

See also

External link

Territories ceded to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

The area formed a part of Bulgaria from the liberation of the country in 1878 until 1919 when they were ceded to the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) under the Treaty of Neuilly. The cession of the region was partly a compensation for the occupation of the southern and eastern part of Serbia by Bulgarian troops in the period between 1915 and 1918 and partly served strategic grounds. The old political boundary between Bulgaria and Serbia followed a chain of high mountain ridges, whereas the new one gave significant military and strategic advantages to the Serbs exposing dangerously the Bulgarian capital of Sofia and thus reducing significantly the military threat for eastern Serbia in case of a new Bulgarian invasion (see also Balkan Wars and World War I).
The Treaty of Neuilly was one in the series of treaties after the World War I (like the Treaty of Versailles, Treaty of Saint-Germain, Treaty of Trianon, Treaty of Sèvres) which were meant to diminish the military and political stength of the defeated members of the Central Powers. As a result of this, some areas with absolute Bulgarian majority (such as Bosilegrad and a part of the Dimitrovgrad municipality) were ceded to Serbia (within the three-nation kingdom), whilst some areas with a significant Serbian population (around the town of Tran) remained in Bulgaria.
Bulgarian sources claim that the treaty was to last for twenty years and that all territories should have been returned to Bulgaria in 1939, but that was not specified in the treaty.

Region and population

Territories ceded by the treaty cover an area of 1,545 km² in Serbia and 1,028 km² in the Republic of Macedonia.
In Serbia, to which the term generally applies in Bulgaria, the territory ceded is split between the modern Serbian District of Pirot (municipality of Dimitrovgrad and smaller parts of the municipalities of Pirot and Babušnica) and District of Pčinja (municipality of Bosilegrad and a small part of the municipality of Surdulica). It also includes a small section along the Timok River in the municipality and District of Zaječar, composed by 8 localities (7 populated by Romanians and 1 populated by Bulgarians)^[1].
In 1919 the area corresponded to the following parts of the Bulgarian ''okrugs'': Kyustendil, 661 km², Tzaribrod 418 km², Tran 278 km², Kula 172 km² and Vidin 17 km².
Bulgarian sources claim that the Bulgarian population made 95% of the population in Bosilegrad and 75% of the population in Tzaribrod at the time. In the Yugoslav Census of 1931, all South Slavs were simply counted as Yugoslavs (Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bulgarians) so a comparison could not be made. According to the last Census in Serbia from 2002, Bulgarians made 50% and 71% of population in Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad respectively.

See also

★ Western Outlands

★ Bulgarians in Serbia

★ Bulgarians in the Republic of Macedonia

External link

★ For the full text of the treaty, see [1]