Separation—Only Separation

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bmost easily accepted. In order to save both peoples the in- bescapable and permanent killings and suffering which are the bfruits of the conflicting claims to the land, governments some- btimes realize that the only solution is—once and for all—perma- bnent separation. Sometimes this is done, as with the Germans, bunilaterally; rarer are the instances of governmental agreement band cooperation. But there are outstanding instances in modern btimes in which logical, hard-headed governments understood bthat the existence of a large, hostile minority within its borders bwas a guarantee of future disaster and misery. Acting on that bassumption, the enemy minority, the potential time bomb, was bdefused through removal.

Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria

bBy the beginning of the twentieth century, the Balkans and bAsia Minor were raging pits of nationalist intrigue. The Ot- btoman Empire was in an advanced state of decay and disintegra- btion. In 1821, the Greeks had already succeeded in liberating bpart of the peninsula and had set up an independent state. Oth- ber nationalities followed, setting up their own independent states b—Rumania, Serbia, Montenegro, and, in 1878, Bulgaria. But bother nationalities still seethed under the Ottoman yoke; parts of bthe nationalities that had won their independence were still liv- bing as minorities within other national states, and the new na- btions still had claims not only against the Ottomans but against beach other.

bBulgaria was born thanks to its Great Power protector, bCzarist Russia, which sent the Ottomans to a crashing defeat. bThe Turks were forced to sign the Treaty of San Stefano (1878), bwhich called for a “Greater Bulgaria” extending from the Black bSea on the east to the Aegean on the south and as far west as bSaloniki. This area took in not only Turkish territory and popu- blation but that claimed by Greeks and Serbs. When the Con- bgress of Berlin (1878) forced the Bulgars to give back much of bthe territory, that now became in their minds “Unredeemed bBulgaria,” including the whole of Macedonia and most of bThrace. The inevitable occurred.

bWhen the Balkan states in secret alliance defeated Turkey bin the First Balkan War (1912), all of European Turkey was bconquered except for the area around Constantinople (Istan- b