Chapter 156: Bucharest Negotiations (II)
In the days that followed, representatives of the warring nations gathered in Bucharest.
Among them, the Serbian negotiating delegation was led by Foreign Minister Milanovic, the Greek negotiating delegation was led by Foreign Minister Konstantin, and Montenegrin Foreign Minister Nidenov also came to Bucharest with negotiators. Since the performance of the three countries in this war is not good, the foreign ministers of the three countries often come together to keep warm.
This time, the Ottoman delegation was led by its Foreign Minister Ildire, who is also a senior member of the Ottoman Shabaab, and this time he was able to come mainly to see if he could get back Adrianople, knowing that there was no danger between Adrianople and Istanbul, so in the spirit of seeing if there were dates or not, the Ottomans also sent negotiators this time.
Bulgaria, as a defeated country, will also send a negotiation team headed by Prime Minister Gaisov to participate in this round of negotiations with other countries. As the host country, Romania will personally participate in the negotiations this time with Prime Minister Blettianu.
Other European countries also sent representatives to watch the negotiations throughout. Among them, Austria-Hungary, because it had too many interests in the Balkans, sent Foreign Minister Ehrenthal to watch the whole process, and Russia was not to be outdone, and in order to support its younger brother, it also sent Foreign Minister Sasonov to watch the whole process.
In fact, the two countries sent foreign ministers this time for another purpose, that is, to make the Balkan countries stop fighting, the previous Balkan war in order to compete for the Ottoman European territory, the second time because of the uneven distribution of countries, if this time it is still unevenly distributed, it is estimated that the two countries will have to fight first. Neither Austria-Hungary nor Russia had been prepared before, and the present foreign minister had not warned them of their intentions.
After the arrival of the Bulgarian negotiating delegation, which had dragged on until the end, the countries began to negotiate fiercely in the venue prepared by Romania.
The first was the conditions put forward by the victorious powers, in which Serbia offered to take the disputed regions of Bitola and Ohrid to itself, and at the same time offered to give itself the Pivet region of Bulgaria as compensation. The Greeks offered to take possession of the previously occupied region of Thessaloniki. The Ottoman side offered Bulgaria to return Adriaple and the surrounding area. Montenegro did not claim territory, and he wanted Bulgaria to pay 2 million leva in war reparations.
Romania has the best appetite compared to the rest of the Balkans. He demanded that Bulgaria divide its northeastern part from the town of Svisztof on the Danube River along the town of Preslav to the Black Sea, and to give Romania the territory of about 22,000 square kilometers of territory in Bulgaria, the four cities of Dobrich, Ruse, Suman, and Varna.
If they had done exactly what they wanted, then Bulgaria would have lost much more territory in the Balkan war than it had done before. For this reason, the Bulgarian delegation, headed by Prime Minister Gaisov, of course, did not agree.
He decided to start with the easy and then the difficult, and first talked about the conditions of Montenegro. He first said that Montenegro's performance this time was not worthy of Bulgaria's payment for this, and it was right to give him a maximum of 500,000 leva.
Then he picked up Greece and said that in the previous agreement between the three countries to divide Macedonia, the region of Thessaloniki should be given to Bulgaria, but in order to settle the dispute with Greece, Bulgaria made concessions to divide the region of Thessaloniki into two, which is bounded by Salonika, the east belongs to Bulgaria, and the west belongs to Greece, but for the principle of Bulgaria making sacrifices, the city of Thessaloniki should belong to Bulgaria.
In the face of Serbia's conditions, he first said that the Pivet region could not be used as compensation, and that both Bitola and Ohrid should belong to Bulgaria as in the previous agreement, and this time we are also willing to give Serbia the Ohrid region close to Serbia and the Bitola region to Bulgaria in order to settle the dispute.
As for the Ottoman demand that Bulgaria return Adriapor and the surrounding areas to them, Prime Minister Gaischov directly said that this was impossible, and that no Bulgarian would dare to agree to such conditions, as for the regions of Eastern Thrace, which were now occupied by the Ottoman army. He thought that part of it could be given to the Ottoman Empire as compensation, and the rest had to be returned to Bulgaria.
Faced with Romania's conditions, he first admitted that the 4,000 square kilometers of territory allocated to Romania in the treaty that had been signed should come into force immediately. In order to appease Romania's anger at the delay in obtaining the treaty, Bulgaria was willing to give Romania another 4,000 square kilometers of territory, so that Romania would completely occupy the cities of Dobrich and at the same time move the border forward by 20-25 kilometers.
Representatives were not satisfied with the terms of the Bulgarian negotiator, Prime Minister Gaisov. In particular, the host country, Romanian Prime Minister Bretianu, reacted the most violently, and he even said. "If Bulgaria does not meet Romania's conditions, then this war will not stop."
Prime Minister Brettianu's remarks were supported by the Foreign Ministers of Serbia, Greece and Montenegro, who said that meeting Romania's conditions was the basis for the peace talks. Faced with this kind of situation in which all countries are doing Lei Feng, Prime Minister Gaischoff is a little unsure of how to deal with it. He then put the negotiations on hold for a day, citing ill health, to find out what was going on.
"How?"
In the original Bulgarian embassy, Gaishov was asking Foreign Minister Dolasloch, who had completed a visit to the representatives of Germany and Austria. On the day of the rest, Prime Minister Gaisov could not go out due to 'ill health', so Foreign Minister Dilásloch went to Austria-Hungary and Germany, who supported him, to find out the news.
Seeing Prime Minister Geishov's eagerness to know the result, Foreign Minister Dilas Lodge told the news of his inquiry. "It's not a good situation. What I have learned from His Excellency Sasonov is that Romania's terms were negotiated before the war, and that Serbia and Greece must support Romania's demands. It also has the endorsement of Russia, which is very difficult for us to do now. ”
In fact, he got this news on the intention of the Romanian side, after all, now that Romania is in control of the situation, it is completely possible to release this news to Bulgaria.
After hearing Foreign Minister Dilasloč's words, Prime Minister Geishov continued to ask questions of his own concern. "And what about the support of Austria-Hungary and Germany for us?"
Now the hope of reducing losses depended entirely on the support of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
"Germany's support for us is limited to the conditions of Serbia, Greece and Montenegro, and we hope that we can combine the conditions of the Ottomans with reality. As for the conditions in Romania, they let us decide for ourselves. Austria-Hungary, on the other hand, supported us much stronger, and agreed with the conditions we had given before, except that we were expected to take the situation into account in the case of Romania. ”
After listening to Foreign Minister Dilasloch, Gaishov was a little disappointed to learn that neither Austria-Hungary nor Germany were willing to support him on Romanian terms. Now the conditions in Romania have become a precondition for this negotiation, which is very painful for Prime Minister Gaisov. This time, however, Romania has to cede too much territory, up to one-seventh of Bulgaria's current territory, which makes it difficult for Prime Minister Geisov to make a decision.
In the end, he decided to report the situation to King Ferdinand I, and let the country decide whether to accept the condition.