It encompassed the area surrounded by the rivers Maritsa (Evros) in the east, Mesta (Nestos) in the west, the Rhodope Mountains in the north and the Aegean Sea in the south.

During the Second Balkan War the Greek Army captured most of the area between Xanthi (İskeçe) and the Maritsa river south of Soufli without encountering resistance by the overstretched Bulgarian army which retreated to the southern slopes of the Rhodope mountains (several kilometers to the north of Xanthi and Komotini) while the Ottoman forces occupied the regions of Soufli (Sofulu), Didymoteicho (Dimetoka) and Ortaköy.

After the Second Balkan War the treaty of Bucharest was signed which returned the area to Bulgaria and the Greek army withdrew from Western Thrace.

While the area had been returned to Bulgaria by the Bucharest treaty, the Bulgarian army wished to avoid conflict with the Ottomans and retreated to a line coinciding with the pre-Balkan war border up to Aydoğmuş and from there along a ridge of the Rhodope mountains running west of Daridere and east of Madan up to the Bulgarian-Greek border.

A Jewish citizen, Samuel Karaso, was tasked by the government with establishing an official press agency and to publish a newspaper named Müstakil ("Independent") in Turkish and French.