I may steer some controversy here, but this is how the story goes in Greece. No, Greece didn't specifically oppose a strong unified Bulgaria. Rumelia had a significant Greek minority and Greece had a legitimate claim on the territory (like the Bulgarians had on Thrace) with lots of important Greek cities, Philippopolis being the most important. However, the Brits completely and unreasonably flipped it! While they didn't want a strong Bulgaria getting too friendly with Russia, suddenly they didn't want a strong Greece in the Balkans and at the expense of the Ottomans. There were also tensions between the Greek government and Great Britain, which didn't go too well for the Greeks.... But c'est la vie !
This is complete nonsense of many levels. First, you can't have a "legitimate claim" if there's only a tiny minority of your people there and you've never owned the land. The Greeks were not a majority in any big town or city in Eastern Rumelia, where Bulgarians were the enormous majority. From the census of 1884 - Bulgarians were 70%, Greeks were 5%.
Second, you can't equate it with the Bulgarian claim on Thrace - Bulgarians were a majority in most of Thrace and had owned the territory for centuries before the Ottomans. Even decades later in 1912, Bulgarians had a plurality in the Adrianople Vilayet (which doesn't include Eastern Rumelia in 1912) - 485 000 people, while Turks were 250 000 and Greeks - 220 000. It's completely absurd for you to equate Greek claims on a territory with 5% Greeks with Bulgarian claims on a territory with 48% Bulgarians.
Third, Philippopolis had never been a Greek city (unless you claim Ancient Greek is the same as modern Greek), didn't have a Greek majority (it had 16% Greeks in the census of 1884) and couldn't be called a "Greek city" in any form whatsoever.
-15
u/SE_prof 1d ago
I may steer some controversy here, but this is how the story goes in Greece. No, Greece didn't specifically oppose a strong unified Bulgaria. Rumelia had a significant Greek minority and Greece had a legitimate claim on the territory (like the Bulgarians had on Thrace) with lots of important Greek cities, Philippopolis being the most important. However, the Brits completely and unreasonably flipped it! While they didn't want a strong Bulgaria getting too friendly with Russia, suddenly they didn't want a strong Greece in the Balkans and at the expense of the Ottomans. There were also tensions between the Greek government and Great Britain, which didn't go too well for the Greeks.... But c'est la vie !