In 2005 is the 125th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Greece. The relations between the peoples of the two neighboring countries are much older. Greeks and Bulgarians had a similar fate after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkan Peninsula. Deprived of their own state, in the course of several centuries they found an only mainstay of their nationality in the Orthodox church and the old monasteries, which preserved the chronicles of past glory. Without dwelling on the cultural relations between Bulgarians and Greeks during the period of Ottoman domination, we will only note that their lasting political relations were forged during the struggles for overthrowing the foreign domination. The Bulgarians fervently supported the struggle of the Greek people for national liberation and many took part in the Greek uprising in the period 1821-1829. Even before this uprising was proclaimed, three men gathered in Odessa to form a revolutionary organization called Philiki Etairia (Friendly Brotherhood). The founders of the organization were Nikola Skufas, Atanas Chakalov and Emanuil Ksantos. They decided to set up this organization, as they put it, “in order to achieve what they awaited in vain for so long from the humaneness of the Christian rulers”. In only a few years Philiki Etairia grew and created a network of followers in the Danube principalities, in Russia and across the Balkans. Plans for cooperation between the Balkan peoples were drawn. A simultaneous uprising in Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria was planned. There was considerable organizational activity in the Bulgarian lands south of the Danube. On the list of members of Philiki Etairia were the names of many citizens of Tarnovo, Edirne, Plovdiv, Sozopol, Varna, Sliven, Kotel, etc. Memebrs of the organization were also Bulgarians from Wallachia and Moldavia. Hristo Panko, for example, was active in Zimnicea, Romania. Dimitrios Vatikiotis, an ethnic Greek, officer with the Russian army, was chosen as leader of the Bulgarians. One of the historians of Philiki Etairia, Y. Filimon is often quoted in literature. He wrote: “Vatikiotis headed the Bulgarians who numbered 14 thousand people. He initiated their leaders and was sure that at first notice he would rise with his whole detachment.”

The meeting of the representatives of Philiki Etairia held in October 1820 in Ismail, where the general plan for the uprising centered in Peloponnesus was drawn, also discussed a plan presented by Sava Binbashi, which envisaged revolutionary actions in the Bulgarian lands in the districts of Gabrovo, Kotel, Plovdiv and Strandja. Several years later, the great Bulgarian revolutionary Georgi S. Rakovski would write that in nearly every town and bigger village across Bulgaria there had been conspirators for the liberation of the Greeks from Ottoman dominance. Ivan Seliminsky, contemporary of these events also wrote: “In all major Bulgarian towns there were members of the Greek Society.” There were serious preparations for this uprising also in the Bulgarian towns of Sliven, Gabrovo, Elena. On February 22, 1821, when Alexander Ipsilanti marched south, with the intention to cross the Danube, a special delegation from Bulgaria came to Zimnicea to tell him the Bulgarians are ready to revolt and were only waiting for the units of Philiki Etairia. In the detachments of Ipsilanti and Vladimirescu there were also many Bulgarians who were living in Moldavia and Wallachia. Some of the leaders of the movement were Bulgarians, such as the brothers Dimiter and Pavel Makedonski, Dimiter Hodjoglu, Kondo, company commander Ivancho, company commander Stoyko, captain Bozhin and Alexander Nikolaevich, who was thought to be the future prince of Bulgaria. The refusal of the Russian Emperor to support the uprising caused a turn in the events. The Turkish government, after suppressing Northern Bulgaria, decided to send troops north of the Danube which defeated the Etairian forces. In these battles fell many Bulgarians too. The lists of the 1000 Etairists detained here contain 130 names of Bulgarians from all parts of the country and outside it. Already in the first year of the uprising (1821) in it participated many Bulgarians, members or sympathizers of Philiki Etairia, from the towns of Svishtov, Dobrich, Edirne, Pleven, Samokov, Plovdiv, Sliven, Mangalia, Thessaloniki, Stara Zagora, Razgrad, Kazanlak, Silistra, Tarnovo, Gabrovo, Karnobat, Kostur, Pirot, Shumen, Bitolja, Kavarna, Lozengrad, Tetovo, Kratovo, Zlatitsa, Sofia. There were cases when in one family three or four brothers died as volunteers, it was not rare father and son to fight and die in the same detachment. Some Bulgarians reached very high ranks in this uprising and were awarded by the Greek government. Greek historians in their works describe with a good feeling the contribution and losses suffered by the Bulgarians for the liberation of the Greek people. In 1843, on the occasion of the election of Hadji Hristo as deputy of the Bulgarians and Serbs in the National Assembly of Greece, Dr. Seliminski wrote: “The public praise of Bulgarians and Serbs took such proportions that everybody deems us the best people and of greatest service to society.” The Greek historian J. Kardatis assumed that the number of Bulgarian fighters in the Greek uprising exceeded the total number of all European volunteers. This fact alone was a sufficient prerequisite for the mutual respect and development of the relation between the two peoples when they were free, one earlier, the other later, from the despotic tyranny of the Sultan. To this we must add the strong influence the New Greek education and literature had on the secular schools in Bulgaria during the first half of the 19th c.

After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, Greece was among the first countries with which Bulgaria established diplomatic relations. With the election by the Grand National Assembly of the first Bulgarian Prince Alexander I Battenberg he informed the neighboring countries Greece, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro of his accession to the throne and started the procedure, provided in the Constitution, for appointment of diplomatic agents of the Bulgarian Principality in Istanbul, Bucharest, Belgrade and Athens, and reciprocally in Sofia.

Immediately after the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman domination, before official diplomatic relations were established between the Bulgarian Principality and Greece, the Greek Kingdom opened its vice consulate in Burgas and Varna and a general consulate in Plovdiv. As first Greek diplomatic agent and consul general in Sofia was appointed Byzantios, who handed his letters of credence on September 9, 1880. Only a week later, on September 16, the Greek diplomatic agent in Sofia sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Religion on the appointment of a Greek consuls in Svishtov and Balchik. The note contained information about the Greek consulate in the Bulgarian lands before the Liberation:

“After I received the information I lacked, I am in a position to supplement the request I had the honor to address to you in support of the approval for our consular agent in Svishtov. Mr. Demetrius Klimatianos was appointed consular agent with ministerial order dated March 19, 1876, and recognized in this capacity with a firman of the Grand Vizier to the Province Governor. He performed his duties until the declaration of the war and then was forced to seek asylum elsewhere. After the establishment of direct and official relations between the two countries, I thought it is my duty to inform you of his return and request you to instate his position by recommending him to the relevant authorities…A. Byzantios”

In the same note the Greek diplomatic agent presented for approval by the Bulgarian foreign minister Demetrius Stavrakis as Greek consular agent in Balchik, appointed to this post by ministerial order on August 8 the same year. The resolution of Foreign Minister Dragan Tsankov on this note was to collect information on these persons from Svishtov and Balchik and present him a standpoint on “whether there is need, particularly in Svishtov, of such agent”. Four months later, in a letter of January 26, 1881, the Bulgarian Ministry informed the Greek diplomatic agent in Sofia that Mr. D. Klimatianos has received the consent of the Bulgarian government to be consular agent of Greece in Svishtov, but a week later in another letter dated February 3 the minister informed of refused approval for Stavrakis and stated the Ministry motives for this decisions: “Today I must advise you, Mr. Byzantois, that the consent requested for Mr. Stavrakis in Balchik was denied because your candidate was a Turkish subject, born in Samos, and in addition, having been for a long time in Balchik he has too many connections with many inhabitants of this town.”

On January 20, 1883, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent another note to the Greek diplomatic agency in Sofia about the intentions of the Bulgarian Prince Alexander Battenberg to visit Greece. The contents of this note, although it was written entirely in the spirit of the diplomatic protocol, discloses a sincere desire on the part of the Bulgarian government and the Bulgarian Prince Alexander Battenberg for cooperation and development of relations between the Bulgarian Principality and the Kingdom of Greece.

“I have the honor to bring to your knowledge the fact that His Highness, my august master, in his desire to give His Majesty the King of Greece a vivid proof of his great desire to maintain with him relations of good understanding and sincere friendship, as well as enhance the ties which link Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Greece, intends to visit Their Majesties in the beginning of next month April and assure them of his high esteem and express his most hearty wishes for their happiness and prosperity of the royal home, as well as for their broad participation in the noble cause for independence of the nations and civilization.

Informing you of the intentions of His Highness, I have been asked to resort to your kind mediation, Mr. Agent, and request you to kindly let us know if His Majesty vouchsafes to approve the time when His Highness intends to undertake this journey.

Deeply convinced that His Majesty the King of Greece will accept this happy circumstance with a feeling of satisfaction, which will testify to valuable benignancy and friendly feelings, which his government has always bestowed on the government of His Highness, my august master…”

Bulgaria opened its diplomatic agency in Athens in 1896 and appointed Petar Dimitrov as first diplomatic agent. With a telegram of December 7, 1896, the appointed Bulgarian diplomatic agent to Athens Petar Dimitrov informed the Bulgarian Foreign Minister Konstantin Stoilov he had presented his letters of credence to the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Skouze. According to Dimitrov, as soon as he read the letter addressed to the Greek King Georg I, the Greek minister informed him that the Greek government gave its consent for the opening of a Bulgarian diplomatic agency in Athens, but the diplomatic representative from Bulgaria had to be accredited to the Greek government. The motives for this, as the minister pointed out, lied in the apprehensions that the letters of credence from Tsar Ferdinand to King Georg I could put the Greek government in a delicate situation before the Sublime Porte and the great powers. The Greek side proposed that the Bulgarian government send other letters of credence addressed to Minister Skouze and make the previous ones void.

This proposal was not just of the nature of procedure. Rather it reflected the not fully declared position of the Greek ministry, which carefully followed the attitude of the Sublime Porte. The Porte had particular requirements to the diplomatic status of the tributary, under the peace treaty, Bulgarian Principality. The Greek government and the diplomatic corps in Athens discussed carefully what the position of the Bulgarian diplomatic agent should be. Should he go to the court for congratulations on official holidays together with the diplomatic corps, in case he did not want to be with the Turkish minister, or should he present himself to the royal family separately. In order not to offend the minister of the Ottoman Empire, who did not accept another diplomatic person to represent before the Greek court the tributary Bulgarian Principality, at the proposal of the Bulgarian Minister Stoilov, which coincided with the advice of the Russian minister plenipotentiary in Athens, a compromise was found. The Bulgarian diplomatic agent would participate in official ceremonies not in the suite of the Turkish minister plenipotentiary but line after the charges d'affaires of the Great Powers and before those of the other countries.

Three years after the solution of this complicated, not only from the viewpoint of protocol, question of the interrelations between the Ottoman government and the Balkan countries, particularly with the Bulgarian Principality which still had not proclaimed its independence, the Bulgarian diplomatic agent in Athens P. Dimitrov was dismissed by a decree of April 14, 1899, because the post was closed down. The secretary Dimitar Tsokov stayed as charge d'affaires of the diplomatic agency but in another 3 years, as of March 1902 the whole agency was closed “for budget reasons”, as the official announcement said.

When Dimitar Tsokov appeared at the farewell audience with the Greek King Georg I on June 22, 1902, the Greek King did not conceal his surprise, despite the assurances that the reasons were only financial and that this situation would not last more than a couple of years and in the interim the Bulgarian diplomatic agent in Istanbul would be accredited to Athens, too. The Greek King Georg I voiced also his assessment that this act could be treated as an insult, as it was unusual to close down a diplomatic agency for budget reasons taking into account that 6 or 7 years ago the Bulgarian government was very insistent on opening an agency in Athens. This unnatural state for the two neighboring countries was overcome very soon, because in only two years time, in 1904 the Bulgarian diplomatic agency in Athens was reopened and Petar Mateev appointed as diplomatic agent. He handed his letters of credence to the Greek Foreign Minister on June 14, 1904.

After the proclamation of Bulgaria's independence on September 22, 1908, and its recognition by the Great Powers and the Ottoman Empire, the Bulgarian diplomatic agency in Athens, on the strength of a Decree of May 21, 1909, is renamed a legation and the Bulgarian diplomatic agent – minister plenipotentiary. On May 10, 1909, the Greek King signed a decree on the upgrading of the Greek agency in Sofia to the rank of legation. Soon afterwards consent was requested for Evangel Zalacosta in the capacity of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary in Sofia, who handed his letters of credence on September 20, 1909. On September 8, Pancho Hadjimishev was appointed as first Bulgarian envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary in Athens. He presented his letters of credence to the Greek King on November 3, 1910, and remained in this post until the Balkan Wars.

Meanwhile, the activity of the Greek consulates in Bulgaria grew apace. 1887 saw the renewal of the Greek consulate in Ruse, opened in 1878, this time as a vice consulate. In 1905 the vice consulate in Varna grew into a consulate, and the general consulate in Plovdiv, in compliance with the Law on Consulates of 1910, became a consulate. The Kingdom of Greece maintained a number of consular agencies in Bulgaria: in Svishtov from 1880 to 1913; Silistra from 1881 to 1900; Vidin from 1881 to 1913; Assenovgrad from 1881 to 1913; Nessebar from 1889 to 1904; Balchik from 1889 to 1940; Pazardjik from 1892 to 1912; Pomorie from 1894 to 1903. These Greek consular agencies were subordinated to the district consulates or vice consulates, or directly to the Greek diplomatic agency and general consulate in Sofia.

The upgrading of the diplomatic representations of the two countries in 1909 into legations, and of the diplomatic representatives into ministers plenipotentiary raised the level of the relations between them and contributed to the signing of several important conventions. On May 16, 1912, an Agreement on Defense Alliance between Bulgaria and Greece was signed in Sofia. On September 22, 1912, again in Sofia a military convention was signed between Bulgaria and Greece. Two years later the two countries signed a convention on the postal and telegraph services. These were the first steps in the diplomatic relations between Bulgaria and Greece, which in the following decades experienced complicated trials and vicissitudes to reach their most intensive development in the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century when, after it went a long and hard way, Bulgaria is at the threshold of becoming the first continental neighbor of Greece in the family of the European Union.