DIPLOMACY AND RIVALRY – BULGARIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS (1878 – 1925)
Études balkaniques (Sofia) 2025, N 2, pp. 390 – 420
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62761/645.EB.LXI2.03
Kalina PEEVA 
Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Abstract: The article traces the long journey to the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Republic of Turkey. It examines the background of the Bulgarian-Turkish diplomatic relations and attempts to clarify some details related to the chronology and ranks of the respective diplomatic missions. The earliest contacts, which took place in a legally unregulated environment and under inequitable conditions are presented, and so are the transformations that unfolded after 1896, when Prince Ferdinand I gained international recognition as the ruler of Bulgaria. In 1909 the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire established regular diplomatic relations, already as equal entities in international relations, suspended over the period of the Balkan Wars 1912-1913, and subsequently at the end of World War I. Last but not least, the article discusses the Treaty of Friendship of 1925, under which the two countries have maintained diplomatic relations to this day.
Keywords: Bulgarian-Turkish relations, diplomacy, independence, the Treaty of Angora, the Treaty of Friendship.