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2014 | 4(30) | 19-31

Article title

The Macedonian Issue in the Geopolitics of the Balkans in the 20s of the Twentieth Century in the Light of British Diplomatic Relations

Selected contents from this journal

Title variants

Languages of publication

EN

Abstracts

EN
The article shows the attitude of the Great Britain towards controversies connected with the so‑called Macedonian issue during the inter‑war period, using British archival and published sources. From the point of view of Great Britain the Macedonian issue should be eliminated from the international politics of those times. Its instrumentalization through individual revisionist countries of the region and powers could lead to destruction of the interwar political order in the region. The Macedonian case was treated by British diplomats as a result of political manipulation and unfulfilled aspirations of circles, dissatisfied with the political status quo of those days. The demands to recognize the Macedonian population as an ethnic minority were ignored by the British diplomacy, treating them as an expression of revisionism. The British hope was in the long‑term assimilation of the population within Yugoslavia and Greece. British diplomacy insisted that Bulgarian authorities restrict the influence of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) on relations with Yugoslavia. On the other hand, Yugoslavia should give up supporting Bulgarian emigrants who found refuge there after the coup in September 1923. Moreover, British diplomacy cared about no influence, in any form of the controversy related to the Macedonian issue, on the League of Nations.

Contributors

  • Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań

References

  • National Archives, Foreign Office, London,
  • 371/10667 (26 November 1925).
  • 371/10671, Bulgaria. Annual report 1924.
  • 371/11221 (10 February 1926).
  • 371/12089, Bulgaria. Annual report 1926.
  • 371/12092 (23 November 1930).
  • 371/12856 (22 March 1928; 5 April 1928).
  • 371/12864, Bulgaria. Annual report 1927.
  • 371/13577, Bulgaria. Annual report 1928.
  • 371/14316 (15 May 1930).
  • 371/14317 (23 July 1930).
  • 371/14326, Bulgaria. Annual report 1929.
  • 371/15172 (3 June 1931).
  • 371/15173 (11 November 1931).
  • 371/15896 (14 June 1932).
  • 371/16650 (27 February 1933).
  • 371/18369 (15 March 1934).
  • 371/57473 (5 February 1932).
  • 371/7375 (10 May 1922).
  • 371/8569 (7 July 1923).
  • 371/9719 (24 January 1924).
  • 371/14326.
  • Central Department (1 July 1930), The Origins of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation and its History since the Great War.
  • Avramovski Ž., Britanci o Kraljevini Jugoslaviji. Godišnji izveštaji Britanskog poslanstva u Beogradu 1921‑1938, Vol. 1, Beograd–Zagreb 1995 (Plava Biblioteka).
  • Kofos E., Nationalism and Communism in Macedonia. Civil Conflict, Politics of Mutation, National Identity, New Rochelle 1993 (Hellenism: Ancient, Mediaeval, Modern).
  • Livanios D., The Macedonian Question. Britain and the Southern Balkans 1939‑1949, Oxford 2008 (Oxford Historical Monographs).
  • ‘Macedonia of the Serbs, 1870‑ 1941: from Old Serbia to Southern Serbia’ in I.D. Stefanidis V. Vlasidis, E. Kofos (eds.), Macedonian Identities through Time. Interdisciplinary Approaches, Thessaloniki 2008.
  • Neilson K., ‘Orme Sargent, Appeasement and British Policy in Europe, 1933‑1939’, Twentieth Century British History, Vol. 5, No. 1 (2010).
  • Rossos A., ‘The British Foreign Office and Macedonian National Identity, 1918‑1941’, Slavic Rewiev, Vol. 53, No. 2 (1994).
  • Skakun M., Jugoslovensko‑bugarski odnosi, Beograd 1979.

Document Type

Publication order reference

YADDA identifier

bwmeta1.element.desklight-9cea1610-fcc6-4e6c-8379-286f24c1cf26
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