The Tarlis incident was the killing of 17 ethnically
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
peasants by a Greek officer on July 27, 1924, at Tarlis (present-day
Vathytopos), a mountainous village in the
Kato Nevrokopi
Kato Nevrokopi ( el, Κάτω Νευροκόπι "Lower Nevrokopi") is a municipality and town within that municipality in the northwest section of the Drama regional unit, Greece. Before the 2011 local government reform, it was the largest muni ...
region near the Greco-Bulgarian border.
Greco-Bulgarian Communities, Advisory Opinion, 1930 P.C.I.J. (ser. B) No. 17 (July 31) p. 37
Background
''Tarlis (Τърлис)'', ''Loftsa (Ловча)'' and ''Karakioi (Каракьой)'' were three ethnically Bulgarian villages that had remained inside Greek territory after the Greco-Bulgarian border had been drawn in accordance with the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913.
Out of a total population of 800, only 50 individuals were ethnically Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
—recently settled refugees
A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution. from the population exchange between Greece and Turkey
The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey ( el, Ἡ Ἀνταλλαγή, I Antallagí, ota, مبادله, Mübâdele, tr, Mübadele) stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at ...
.
Martial law had been imposed in Greece by the Themistoklis Sophoulis
Themistoklis Sofoulis or Sophoulis (; 24 November 1860 – 24 June 1949) was a prominent centrist and liberal Greek politician from Samos Island, who served three times as Prime Minister of Greece, with the Liberal Party, which he led for many y ...
government that took office three days earlier, on July 24, 1924.
Incident
Official Greek reports stated that in the evening of Saturday, July 26, 1924, residents of Tarlis had gathered in the village's square discussing the issue of repatriation between Greece and Bulgaria according to the 1919 Treaty of Neuilly
The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine (french: Traité de Neuilly-sur-Seine) required Bulgaria to cede various territories, after Bulgaria had been one of the Central Powers defeated in World War I. The treaty was signed on 27 November 1919 at Neuilly ...
, which provided for the voluntary exchange of populations between Greece and Bulgaria. The deadline for issuing resettlement admissions was five days later, on July 31, 1924.
Suddenly, some shots and explosions were heard from a nearby gorge. Major Kalabalikis, the Greek officer in charge of the region, ordered the arrest of 70 ethnic-Bulgarian peasants from the three villages, suspected as being responsible.
The next day, Sunday July 27, 1924, Kalabalikis ordered his military aide lieutenant Doxakis, a Greek officer from Crete, to transport 27 of the captured villagers to the district administration in Serres for interrogation, via the village of Gorno Brodi
Ano Vrontou ( el, Άνω Βροντού; bg, Горно Броди, ''Gorno Brodi'') is a remote mountain village and a former community in the northern Serres (regional unit), Serres regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform ...
.
Doxakis, in charge of 10 Greek soldiers, led the bound captives via a mountain path, bypassing the usually-used road between Tarlis and Gorno Brodi. He returned five hours later to announce that his squad was attacked by Bulgarian guerrillas, and that when the prisoners tried to escape he was forced to kill 17 of them.
Reaction
The Tarlis incident triggered large-scale protests in Bulgaria and an international outcry against Greece. The Mixed Commission for Greek-Bulgarian Emigration investigated the incident and presented its conclusions to the League of Nations in Geneva.
As a result, upon the League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
' demand, a bilateral Bulgarian-Greek agreement was signed in Geneva on September 29, 1924, known as the Politis–Kalfov Protocol
The Politis–Kalfov Protocol ( bg, Спогодба „Калфов-Политис“; el, Πρωτόκολλο Πολίτη - Καλφώφ) was bilateral document signed at the League of Nations in Geneva in 1924 between Greece and Bulgaria and ...
, recognizing the " Greek slavophones" as ethnic Bulgarians and guaranteeing their protection. Next month, a primer textbook for the ethnic Bulgarian population (in a newly invented Latin-based alphabet and not mentioning the name "Bulgarian"), known as Abecedar, was published by the Greek authorities and introduced to schools of Greek Macedonia.
On February 2, 1925, the Greek parliament, claiming pressure from the Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language.
The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
(which had threatened to renounce the 1913 Greco-Serbian alliance treaty), refused to ratify the agreement, which lasted 9 months until June 10, 1925, when the League of Nations annulled it.
See also
* Incident at Petrich
The Incident at Petrich, or War of the Stray Dog, was a Greek–Bulgarian crisis in 1925 that resulted in a brief invasion of Bulgaria by Greece near the border town of Petrich after the killing of a Greek captain and a sentry by Bulgarian soldi ...
References
{{coord missing, Greece
Conflicts in 1924
Mass murder in 1924
Bulgaria–Greece relations
Massacres in Greece
1924 in Greece
1924 in Bulgaria
History of Drama, Greece
July 1924 events
League of Nations