The end of 1933 was marked by intense diplomatic activity in the whole European continent. In Germany, National Socialists and Adolph Hitler came to power. The new German chancellor opted for an immediate revision of the disadvantageous peace treaties from the end of WWI. In October 1933, the German representatives demonstratively left the international disarmament conference and the League of Nations. Hitler started to actively prepare the German people for a second world war.

The military revengefulness became a real threat for the victorious countries of 1918.

On the Balkan peninsula, sadly known as the ammo dump of Europe, enhanced diplomatic shuttle mission started. With its central place in the Balkans, Bulgaria would have an exceptionally strategic importance in a future war. After the Neuille Peace Treaty, which tore away new masses of Bulgarian population, the Bulgarian state was in a complete political and economic isolation from its neighbours who had won the war. Disarmed, with no army, paying enormous reparations to Yugoslavia, Romania and Greece, through its political leaders, Bulgaria did not stop pleading for a peaceful revision of the plundering Neuille treaty and for improvement of the situation of Bulgarians who had remained on the territory of neighbouring countries. By virtue of the postwar 1919 agreement, Romania once again got Southern Dobrudzha, Yugoslavia – the Western Bulgarian outskirts and the Strouma region and Greece got the Bulgarian access to the White Sea, between the rivers Mesta and Maritza in Western Thrace. Only Turkey, as Bulgaria and Germany’s former ally, did not get Bulgarian territories under this pact.

In the second half of the memorable 1933, it was the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikolae Titulesku who did particularly active diplomatic work. Romania entered WWI relatively late and though with an occupied capital, it ended the war as a winner. As a result of its participation, Romania got big territorial acquisitions, mostly from Hungary, Bulgaria and Russia. Titulesku is the most famous Romanian diplomat in the period between the two world wars, a champion of Romania’s alliance with France, a representative for many years of his country in the League of Nations and two times Chairman of its General Assembly. A diplomat of great international authority and experience, he is one of the main factors for the creation of the Balkan Covenant, which just like the Little Antante, had to guarantee the preservation of postwar borders and the peace on the Balkans.

After meetings and talks in Warsaw and Belgrade, on October 13, 1933, the Romanian Foreign Minister arrived in Sofia. With the Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikola Moushanov and Tzar Boris III, Titulesku studied the possibilities of setting a Balkan covenant with a view to solving all accumulated economic and political issues of mutual interest. The official statement, which followed the talks between Titulesku and Moushanov, said they had arranged for an official meeting between Tzar Boris III and King Carol II with participation of the Prime Ministers of the two countries and the Romanian Foreign Minister. Together with Ambassadors Robev and Stoika they outlined the main points of discussion at the meeting: the international situation, the orientation of Bulgaria and Romania, the unsettled issues between the two countries.

The Bulgarian diplomats insisted the meeting put forward for consideration the possibilities of changing the regime of the Bulgarian minority in Dobrudzha, the implementation of the Hague agreement on ceasing the confiscation of Bulgarian estates in Romania, the preservation of the status of Bulgarian agricultural lands, the building of a bridge over the Danube, the boost of the economic relations between the two countries.

Publications of that period mention that the parties negotiating in Sofia did not discuss the issue of territorial compensations, which shows that the Bulgarian diplomacy was still feeling weak and insecure in the context of the undergoing international processes. To show Romania’s good will to improve its relations with Bulgaria, Titulesku voiced willingness to meet with representatives of the Bulgarians emigrants in Dobrudzha. Ivan Penakov, one of the intellectual leaders of the refugees in Dobrudzha, pointed out to Titulesku that these people, which were the victims of that particular situation, instead of being a factor of hostility and discord, could become the factor of bringing the two neighbouring people closer. In the same spirit, Tiulesku replied that he would do his best to improve their situation. After his visit to the Bulgarian capital, the Romanian Foreign Minister left for Athens and Ankara.

Then, the Hungarian Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs arrived to Sofia. In Central Europe, Hungary had the same destiny as Bulgaria. It was internationally isolated, with large number of Hungarians who remained in the neighbouring Yugoslavia, Slovakia and Romania. The visit of the Hungarian delegation at that precise moment aimed at upsetting Titulesku’s attempts to win over Bulgaria for the design of a Balkan Covenant and, given the opportunity, to work out a strategy of the two former WWI allies for a peaceful revision of the treaties of 1919. According to an editorial in the Hungarian newspaper of that time “Pester Loyd” “Bulgaria and Hungary are pursuing a similar foreign policy. All efforts to gain Bulgaria’s favour are falling through because of the strong will of the Bulgarian policy not to make any commitment, thus preserving its complete freedom to act when the appropriate time comes.”

Bulgaria indeed kept this course despite the attempts of the Romanian diplomacy, within its best power, to make Bulgaria enter the Balkan Covenant. At the end of October, the most important meeting of the heads of state of Bulgaria and Romania took place. On October 31, Tzar Borsi III together with the Prime Minister Nikola Moushanov, his two aides-de-camp and the head of the Press Directorate, arrived in Rousse and then in a cutter they left for Gurgevo across the river. There, Tzar Boris III was received with military honours by the Romanian King Carol II personally, the Prime Minister Vaida and the Foreign Minister Titulesku. On board the royal yacht, the two delegations left for Rousse, where they were welcomed by the local political elite, honorary guard and citizens.

The political negotiations took place during a pleasant cruise along the Danube, from Rousse to the village of Vardim (Svishtov region) and back. A careful analysis of the statements of officials shows the great difference in the positions of the Bulgarian and the Romanian politicians. While the Romanian side talked of “cementing” the neighbourly relations, Bulgarians highlighted the need for boosting the friendly relations between the two people. The two monarchs had a tete-a-tete meeting, while the representatives of the two governments discussed the pending issues between the two countries. The focus of talks were the possibilities to open Bulgarian schools and churches in Dobrudzha, the settlement of property issues concerning the agricultural lands of the Bulgarian population, almost entirely expropriated by the Romanian colonialists, the Romanian settlers squatting in Bulgarian houses and the return of ownership deeds to the Bulgarians in Dobrudzha, as well as the pensions they were supposed to receive from the Romanian state.

During the talks, it was implied to the Bulgarian representatives that there could be a way to solve the issues of Bulgarians in Dobrudzha. Even more – to reach an agreement on the construction of a bridge over the Danube, to enable the export of Bulgarian agricultural products through Serbian territory, to give Bulgaria an economic access through the port in Thessaloniki. The price was for the Bulgarian government to give up the idea of a revision of the Neuille Treaty and their territorial claims to their neighbours and sign the planned Balkan Covenant with Yugoslavia, Romania, Greece and Turkey.

Tzar Boris III and the Prime Minister Moushanov defended their positions on the preservation of Bulgarian neutrality and the need for improving the situation of the Bulgarian population outside Bulgarian territory and on a peaceful revision of the Neuille Treaty. Even in Sofia, Titulesku’s attempts to convince Bulgaria to enter the Covenant with the other Balkan countries failed and he was finally forced to state that his plan entirely barred revision of the treaties and change of the territorial status quo. Nevertheless, the meeting at the royal yacht, the visits of the royalties to Gurgevo and Rousse, the exchange of highest national orders and the warm relations they demonstrated were a plus for the Bulgarian diplomacy and its efforts to improve the situation of the Bulgarians in Dobrudzha. The Danube meeting decided that in January 1934 Tzar Boris III and King Carol II would meet once more, this time in Sinaya. Despite the relentlessness of the Bulgarian position, Titulesku decided to leave the door of the Balkan Covenant open a little longer. So that the Bulgarians could reconsider…

The actual results of the top level bilateral meetings and talks and the manifested good will from the Romanian and the Bulgarian sides led to the mitigation of the hard line towards the Bulgarian population in Dobrudzha. An interesting, though unproven detail of the Danube meeting, were the reports circulating both Bulgarian and Romanian press of a possible alliance between the two dynasties. Prime Minister Moushanov himself, in his report to the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Policy, said that it concerned an alliance with Romania entirely outside “any revision of territorial borders”.

What is the comment on this very important moment in the Bulgarian foreign policy during the crucial 1933? Without declining Romanian offers for meetings and dialogue, the Bulgarian politicians tabled the issues of the Bulgarian minority in Dobrudzha and made them known to the world. They officially insisted the internationally recognized rights of Bulgarians in Dobrudzha to be observed and only after that they expressed willingness to discuss the global issues of the Bulgarian foreign policy orientation and Bulgaria’s possible waiver as to a revision of the Neuille Treaty. Romania’s first diplomat voiced readiness for a breakthrough in the Romanian attitude towards the Bulgarian population in Dobrudzha, but firmly insisted that Bulgaria should join the covenant of the Balkan countries. Titulesku’s haste was easily explained in the context of the revisionist statements from Hungary on the west and Russia on the east. Against the backdrop of this threat, the Romania Foreign Minister decided to neutralize Bulgaria, on the one hand by concessions, and on the other - by putting pressure, although in April 1934, when the Balkan Covenant became a fact, he said “Balkan revisionism is just a theory”. A policy consistent with its time, but proven ineffective only in the next five or six years.

Now in retrospect, we should still give credit to the Bulgarian foreign policy of neutrality and its refusal to join any military or political pact during the discussed period. That was the right position for Bulgaria and a political way out of the pressure exercised on the country. In February 1934, Yugoslavia, Romania, Greece and Turkey set the Balkan Covenant so as to observe the territorial status quo. Only six years later, Yugoslavia would be crushed and occupied and Romania would become Germany’s enemy-turned-ally. On September 7, 1940 by virtue of the Krayova Agreement Romania peacefully gave back Souther Dobrudzha to Bulgaria. The settlement of this issue so painful for the Bulgarians improved the relations between the two countries, despite discontent from extreme nationalists in them.

Today’s status of Dobrudzha has long ago been beyond dispute and is not the apple of discord between Bulgarians and Romanians. The two countries’ NATO membership, the future construction of Danube Bridge 2 and their forthcoming EU accession will eradicate what’s left of the problems between them and will turn their territory into a common European Lower Danube region.

Roumyan Ganchev