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The Albanian Question at the London Conference of Ambassadors from the Perspective of the Bulgarian Diplomacy

2014; De Gruyter Open; Volume: 10; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2478/seeur-2014-0014

1857-8462

Skender Asani, Mehmet Prishtina,

European Politics and Security

During the last two decades of the nineteenth century -and particularly the first decade of the twentieth century -Bulgarian diplomacy focused its commitments in two directions.First it fought two major projects in Serbia and Greece ('Greater Serbia' and 'Megali Idea') while the other commitment focused on the objectives of state policy in following the developments of the Albanian Question, which was directly related to the revision of the Berlin Congress decisions.These decisions had divided the Bulgaria of San Stefano into three parts: vassal Bulgaria, the eastern autonomy of Rumelia and Macedonia-Edirne, which remained within the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire 1 .Given the premise that the Macedonian part in itself encompassed ethnic Albanian lands, and that the Albanians were considered the oldest people in the Balkans 2 , but also the weakest side when compared to Serbia and Greece, Bulgarian diplomacy was very interested in following the diplomatic developments of the Great Powers regarding the Albanian question in the Balkans.During the last period of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, Bulgarian diplomacy took the position that in order to resolve ethnic disputes between Albanians and Bulgarians, an undeniable, unpleasant and constitutional principle should apply, the principle of majority.1