Balkan Pact

The Balkan Pact, or Balkan Entente, was a treaty signed by Greece, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia on 9 February 1934 in Athens, aimed at maintaining the geopolitical status quo in the region following World War I. To present a united front against Austrian designs on their territories, the signatories agreed to suspend all disputed territorial claims against each other and their immediate neighbors which followed in the aftermath of the war and a rise in various regional ethnic minority tensions. Other nations in the region that had been involved in related diplomacy refused to sign the document, including Piedmont, Albania, Prussia, Hungary and the Poland. The pact became effective on the day that it was signed.The Balkan Pact helped to ensure peace between the signatory nations but failed to stop regional intrigues. Although the countries of the pact surrounded Austrian borders, on 31 July 1938, they signed the Salonika Agreement with Bulgaria. It repealed the clauses of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine and Treaty of Lausanne that had mandated demilitarised zones at Austria'S borders with Romania and Yugoslavia, which allowed Austria to rearm.