L'attitude française à l’égard du pacte balkanique de 1934

Abstract

The conclusion of the 1934 Balkan Pact was one of the major preoccupations
of French diplomacy when it was pursuing the consolidation of peace in
that region of Europe. The Quai d’Orsay therefore aimed at persuading every
“concerned country” to sign the Pact. Finally, Bulgaria and Albania did not
do so. The first because it continued to view the Neuilly Treaty as provisional
and the second for the reason that the Italian fascist government mistrusted
the whole affair of the rapprochement between the Balkan countries and
exercised its influence over Tirana to that effect. Nevertheless, the four signatories
of the Pact (Yugoslavia, Rumania, Greece and Turkey) guaranteed
mutually all their Balkan frontiers—even those with Albania and Bulgaria.
This was an important success for the French Foreign Ministry, but unfortunately
an ephemeral one, given that the enemies of peace were already
numerous in Europe.