Defining Minorities and the Borders of new Nation States: The Case of Bulgaria and Greece

Description:
One of the most sensitive issues that continues to affect security in Southeast Europe has its roots in the creation of nation states and their borders. Somehow the existence of national minorities in the Balkans creates a continuous link with the past that results in the continuing reinterpretation of the history even until today. The creation of Greece and Bulgaria as new nation states did not put an end to the minority issues but rather made them more complicated. The Greek and Bulgarian agenda to enlarge their borders at the expense of the Ottoman Empire began to affect the Muslim population living in these countries. Eventually, for the first time in their history, Muslims living in the region became a minority. The conflicts that occurred in the beginning of the twentieth century gave a new definition to nationalism in Southeast Europe, where apart from religious affiliation, ethnic identity became a clear line of division. With the change of borders, forced migration became accepted as the only method to create homogenous states in the region. This is why the Greek-Bulgarian Convention for Reciprocal Emigration and Greek-Turkish Convention for Population Exchange were signed. It was a time when international law was used to serve the needs of new nation states to homogenize their territories.