Balkan wars according to the British resources (1912-1913)

The aim of this research was to reveal the role and political attitudes of Great Britian in the Balkan Wars during 1912 and 1913 through British archive documents. With this purpose in mind, the classified British documents from different sources were examined and the findings were presented to form a meaningful whole. Furthermore, the research findings were supported with the articles of some British newspapers that were regarded as the reflections of unofficial British public opinion. The research findings were thought to be noteworthy in terms of revealing the Britain's contextual perspective on developments in Balkan geography and the its general perspective towards the Ottoman Empire as the superpower of that period. As a result of the research, it was concluded that Britain built its foreign policy on the Anglo-French Entente and the British-Russian agreement upon facing a new European order in the second half of the XIXth century. In this regard, it was determined that Britain, which unofficially played the role of referee on the eve of the Balkan Wars, did not do its utmost to restrict the intervention of the Russians in the Balkans and could not react effectively in proportion to its political power. It was also observed that during this period Britain reached a deadlock between her interests in the Ottoman Empire, her Muslim subjects in India and the Christian Balkan people. It is understood that Britain's official neutrality policy at the beginning of the Balkan Wars evolved to the point of the spokesmanship of the demands of the Balkan allies as a result of the Ottoman defeats and the British public supported this policy. It was concluded that British archival documents were mostly focused on the Bulgarians' outstanding to the Çatalca line, the invasion of Thessaloniki by the Allied forces, the maritime struggles between the Greeks and the Turks, the blocked peace talks after ceasefire because of the future of Edirne, the Turks benefiting from the fighting among allies after the First Balkan War and Turkish mobilization to take Edirne back and the future of the Aegean Islands on final agreements among the developments during the Balkan Wars. In addition, it was determined that the British had engaged in various military, social and civic intelligence activities throughout the Ottoman geography during the Balkan Wars to determine its possible future influence areas, and mostly raced against Germany.The most prominent zone of this struggle was the Armenians living in the Ottoman lands. In this respect, it was revealed that rather than spectators British were actively involved in creating an atmosphere of unrest and chaos in Armenian-resident region.