Bulgarian rule of Macedonia, Morava Valley and Western Thrace (1941–1944)
Between 21 and 22 April, a conference was held in Vienna between Joachim von Ribbentrop and Count Galeazzo Ciano, at which the demarcation line between Bulgaria and the Italian protectorate of Albania was determined.
The Italian occupation zone included the cities of Tetovo, Gostivar, Struga, Debar and Kichevo, a total of 4,314 km2 with 232,000 people, and Bulgaria – Ohrid and Resen.
The annexation of Vardar Macedonia, the Aegean Sea and Morava Valley to Bulgaria was not sanctioned by a special act of the Bulgarian Parliament.
While the accession of Dobrudja was made by an international treaty that entered into force, the territorial changes in 1941 were left for a final decision after the war.
[11] With these tens of billions of the Bulgarian people, the backward areas under foreign rule were transformed - new schools, hospitals, stations, ports, railway lines, civil and industrial sites were built, swamps were drained, roads were laid, irrigation canals were built on the Syarsko Pole, shipyards in Kavala and on the island of Thassos, settlements were developed, and the bare wastelands left by foreign rule were afforested.
On May 23, 1941, Dobri Nemirov, Elisaveta Bagryana and Stiliyan Chilingirov and Professor Nikola Stoyanov arrived in Skopje together with numerous students, cultural figures and others.
The former VMRO activist, then chairman of the Ilinden organization, Lazar Tomov, also arrived there, bringing the flag of the Vardarski Yunak society, closed in 1918 by the Serbian authorities.
The Day of the Bulgarian Alphabet and Writing is celebrated in many cities of Vardar Macedonia – Bitola, Veles, Prilep, Ohrid, Resen and others.
Local societies of Brannik and SBNL were also established (see: Boris Drangov Legion), which organized students from Vardar Macedonia and developed anti-communist activities.
[9] Agricultural cooperatives began to be formed in the Skopje region (Gorni Polog, Glishik, Romanovtsi, Dolyani, Studena Bara).
At the end of June, Ivan Stranski arrived from Bulgaria, who held talks with local specialists on soil improvement and other issues.
At the end of the year, the Bitola Regional Commissariat also distributed significant quantities of flour, sugar, oil, meat, tservuli, and firewood.
[9] A water union was established in Kochani and the drainage of the Skopje and Strumica fields was initiated, and an attempt was made to limit malaria.
[17] On May 4, 1943, a memorial service was held in the village of Banitsa on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the death of Gotse Delchev, attended by a number of Bulgarian public figures from Old Bulgaria and Macedonia.
He read in a Yugoslav brochure how the Serbs had fought against the Bulgarian bandits (IMRO) until 1941 in Yugoslavia, namely with counter-units led by Mihail Kalamatiev, Mino Stankov and others.
[20] The regional governor of Skopje, Dimitar Raev, sent a request to the minister of internal affairs, Petar Gabrovski, who gave his consent to the formation of counter-units, mainly from supporters of Ivan Mihailov's IMRO.
On October 16, the Greek collaborationist prime minister, Gen. Georgios Tsolakoglou sent a memorandum to the leadership of the Third Reich against the developing "Bulgarian propaganda" in Aegean Macedonia.
[23] The remaining Jews were deported by the Bulgarian administration and handed over to the Germans, who sent them to the Treblinka extermination camp, as a result of which the Jewish community of the New Lands was almost completely destroyed.
On August 26, 1944, under the threat of the Red Army advancing in Romania, the government of Ivan Bagryanov declared Bulgaria's neutrality in the war between Germany and the Soviet Union.
[25] Within a few days, it broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, demanded a formal armistice from the United States and Great Britain, and began preparing the withdrawal of Bulgarian troops from the territories annexed by Yugoslavia and Greece.
Under these circumstances, the leader of the "Ratnik" (Warrior) group, Prof. Assen Kantardzhiev, tried to call to convince the commander of the Fifth Army, Gen. Kocho Stoyanov, to march on Sofia and establish military rule in the country, overthrowing the government and making Alexander Tsankov prime minister.
During this period, after consultations in Sofia, Ivan Mihailov arrived in Skopje with the intention of proclaiming the creation of the Independent Republic of Macedonia, but realizing that its fate was once again predetermined, he gave up.
Meanwhile, the new commander in place of Stoyanov - General Alexander Popdimitrov - concluded an agreement with the German headquarters in Skopje on September 7, 1944, for a "symbolic" war between the two countries in Macedonia.
The Yugoslav partisans, despite the fact that the new government in Sofia had announced a break with the Hitlerite coalition, were instructed to treat the Bulgarians as an enemy force, which they did.
The Soviet Union also initially believed that it was possible to include at least Western Thrace in the country's post-war borders and thus secure a strategic outlet to the Aegean Sea.
Thus, at the end of September, the transfer of administrative power in the Aegean Sea region to local Greek partisan governments began.
The situation in the Balkans created in the fall of 1944 was favourable for the implementation of the foreign policy program of Yugoslav politicians to restore the pre-war borders of Yugoslavia.
Bulgarian troops conducted the offensive Nish Operation – the elite VII SS Division was defeated and Niš was captured.
At the same time, the Bregalnica-Strumica Operation was conducted, as a result of which the Wehrmacht units were pushed out of Tsarevo Selo, Kočani, Štip, Strumica, Veles and other settlements.
From October 21 to November 30, the Kosovo Operation was carried out, during which the cities of Podujevë, Pristina, Mitrovica, Raška and Novi Pazar were captured.
