View source for First Balkan War

<includeonly></includeonly>{{short description|1912–1913 war between the Balkan League and the Ottoman Empire}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = First Balkan War
| image             = Balkanskata voina Photobox.jpg
| image_upright = 1.0
| caption           = Clockwise from top right: Serbian forces entering the town of [[Kosovska Mitrovica|Mitrovica]]; Ottoman troops at the [[Battle of Kumanovo]]; Meeting of the Greek king [[George I of Greece|George I]] and the Bulgarian tsar [[Ferdinand I of Bulgaria|Ferdinand I]] in [[Thessaloniki]]; Bulgarian heavy artillery
| partof            = the [[Balkan Wars]]
| place             = [[Balkan Peninsula]]
| date              = {{plainlist|
*8 October 1912 – 30 May 1913
*({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=10|day1=08|year1=1912|month2=05|day2=30|year2=1913}})
}}
| result            = [[Balkan League]] victory
*[[Treaty of London (1913)|Treaty of London]]
*[[Treaty of Athens]]
| territory         = Ottoman European territory divided between the Balkan League States.
| combatant1        = {{plainlist|
* '''[[Balkan League]]''':
*{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Bulgaria}}
*{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Greece|state}}
*{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Serbia}}
*{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Montenegro}}}}
| combatant2        = {{ubl
 |{{flag|Ottoman Empire}}}}
| commander1        = {{plainlist|
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} [[Ferdinand I of Bulgaria|Ferdinand I]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} [[Vladimir Vazov]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} [[Georgi Vazov]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} [[Mihail Savov]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} [[Ivan Fichev]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} [[Vasil Kutinchev]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} [[Nikola Ivanov]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} [[Radko Dimitriev]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} [[Stiliyan Kovachev]]   
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} [[Georgi Todorov (general)|Georgi Todorov]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} [[Andranik Ozanian]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} [[Garegin Nzhdeh]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Greece|state}} [[George I of Greece|George I]]{{Assassinated}}
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Greece|state}} [[Eleftherios Venizelos]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Greece|state}} [[Constantine I of Greece|Constantine I]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Greece|state}} [[Panagiotis Danglis]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Greece|state}} [[Pavlos Kountouriotis]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Greece|state}} [[Ioannis Damianos]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Greece|state}} [[Nikolaos Delagrammatikas]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Greece|state}} [[Konstantinos Sapountzakis]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Greece|state}} [[Dimitrios Matthaiopoulos]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Greece|state}} [[Konstantinos Damianos]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Serbia}} [[Peter I of Serbia|Peter I]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Serbia}} [[Alexander I of Yugoslavia|Prince Alexander]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Serbia}} [[Radomir Putnik]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Serbia}} [[Petar Bojović]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Serbia}} [[Stepa Stepanović]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Serbia}} [[Božidar Janković (general)|Božidar Janković]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Serbia}} [[Živojin Mišić]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Serbia}} [[Pavle Jurišić Šturm]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Montenegro}} [[Nicholas I of Montenegro|Nicholas I]]
*{{nowrap|{{flagicon|Kingdom of Montenegro}} [[Danilo, Crown Prince of Montenegro|Prince Danilo Petrović]]}}
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Montenegro}} [[Prince Peter of Montenegro|Prince Peter]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Montenegro}} [[Janko Vukotić]]
*{{flagicon|Kingdom of Montenegro}} [[Radomir Vešović]]}}
| commander2        = {{plainlist|
*{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Mehmed V]]{{Surrendered}}
*{{nowrap|{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Mahmud Shevket Pasha]]}}
*{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Enver Pasha]]
*{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Nazım Pasha]]
*{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Zeki Pasha]]
*{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Mehmet Esat Bülkat|Esat Pasha]]{{Surrendered}} 
*{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Kölemen Abdullah Pasha|Abdullah Pasha]]{{POW}}
*{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Ali Rıza Pasha]]
*{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Hasan Tahsin Pasha]]{{Surrendered}}
*{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[İsmail Hakkı Okday|İsmail Hakkı Pasha]] 
*{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Hasan Rıza Pasha]]{{Assassinated}}
*{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Mehmed Şükrü Pasha]]
*{{nowrap|{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Essad Pasha Toptani]]{{Surrendered}}}}
*{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Rauf Orbay|Rauf Pasha]]}}
| strength1         = {{plainlist|
*'''{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}}''' 450,300+ men<ref name="Hall16">{{harvnb|Hall|2000|p=16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dennis |first=Brad |date=2019-07-03 |title=Armenians and the Cleansing of Muslims 1878–1915: Influences from the Balkans |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13602004.2019.1654186 |journal=Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs |language=en |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=411–431 |doi=10.1080/13602004.2019.1654186 |s2cid=202282745 |issn=1360-2004|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
*'''{{flagicon|Kingdom of Serbia}}''' 230,000 men<ref name="Hall18">{{harvnb|Hall|2000|p=18}}</ref>
*'''{{flagicon|Kingdom of Greece|state}}''' 125,000 men<ref name="Erickson70">{{harvnb|Erickson|2003|p=70}}</ref>
*'''{{flagicon|Kingdom of Montenegro}}''' 44,500 men{{sfn|Erickson|2003|p=69}}
*'''Total:''' 850,000+
}}
| strength2         = {{plainlist|      '''{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}}''' 436,742 men initially {{small|(significantly more than the Balkan League by the end)}}{{sfn|Erickson|2003|p=52}}
}}
| casualties1       = {{plainlist|
*'''{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Bulgaria}}:'''<ref name="Hall135">{{harvnb|Hall|2000|p=135}}</ref>
**14,000 killed
**4,926 missing
**50,000 wounded
**19,000 dead of disease
*'''{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Greece|state}}:'''<ref name="Hall135"/>
*5,169 killed 
*23,502 wounded
*1,550 dead of disease 
*'''{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Serbia}}:'''
*5,000 killed
*18,000 wounded<ref>''Βιβλίο εργασίας 3, Οι Βαλκανικοί Πόλεμοι'', ΒΑΛΕΡΙ ΚΟΛΕΦ and ΧΡΙΣΤΙΝΑ ΚΟΥΛΟΥΡΗ, translation by ΙΟΥΛΙΑ ΠΕΝΤΑΖΟΥ, CDRSEE, Thessaloniki 2005, p. 120, '''(Greek)'''. Retrieved from http://www.cdsee.org</ref>
*6,698 dead of disease
*'''{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Montenegro}}:'''<ref name="Hall135"/><ref name="Erickson329"/>
*2,836 killed
*6,602 wounded
*406 dead of disease<hr>
'''Total:''' 156,139 killed, wounded, or died of disease
}}
| casualties2       = '''{{flag|Ottoman Empire}}:'''<ref name="Erickson329">{{harvnb|Erickson|2003|p=329}}</ref>{{plainlist|
*50,000 killed
*100,000 wounded
*115,000 captured
*75,000 dead of disease<hr>
*'''Total:''' 340,000 killed, wounded, captured or died of disease
}}
| casualties3       = Numerous [[Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars|Albanian]] and [[Persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction#Balkan Wars|Ottoman civilian]] casualties [[First Balkan War#Atrocities and migrations|''(see below...)'']]
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox First Balkan War}}
}}

The '''First Balkan War''' lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the [[Balkan League]] (the Kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]], [[Kingdom of Serbia|Serbia]], [[Kingdom of Greece|Greece]] and [[Kingdom of Montenegro|Montenegro]]) against the [[Ottoman Empire]]. The [[Balkan]] states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically inferior (significantly superior by the end of the conflict) and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, achieving rapid success.

The war was a comprehensive and unmitigated disaster for the Ottomans, who lost 83% of their European territories and 69% of their European population.<ref name="uslu">[http://www.academia.edu/2966094/Balkan_Savaslari_ve_Balkan_Savaslarinda_Bulgaristan ''Balkan Savaşları ve Balkan Savaşları'nda Bulgaristan''], Süleyman Uslu</ref> As a result of the war, the League captured and partitioned almost all of the Ottoman Empire's remaining territories in Europe. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an [[independent Albania]], which dissatisfied the [[Serbs]]. Bulgaria, meanwhile, was dissatisfied over the division of the spoils in [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]] and attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 June 1913, which provoked the start of the [[Second Balkan War]].

During the war, many civilians, overwhelmingly [[Turk (term for Muslims)|Muslim Turks]], were either killed or [[Muhacir|forced to flee]] their homes. The highly politicized and disorganized units of the Ottoman army were quite incapable of evacuating the civilians in the war zone. This situation left many civilians in the occupied areas defenseless against the invading armies of the Balkan League. Although there are discussions about the exact amount of civilian casualties, when the war ended great changes occurred in the demographic makeup of the Balkan region.<ref>{{cite web |title=1.1. The ethnography and national aspirations of the Balkans |url=https://macedonia.kroraina.com/en/carnegie/chapter1_1.html |website=macedonia.kroraina.com}}</ref>

== Background ==
Tensions among the [[Balkan]] states over their rival aspirations to the provinces of Ottoman-controlled [[Rumelia]] ([[Eastern Rumelia]], [[Thrace]] and [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]]) subsided somewhat after the mid-19th-century intervention by the [[Great Powers]], which aimed to secure both more complete protection for the provinces' Christian majority as well as to maintain the status quo. By 1867, [[Serbia]] and [[Montenegro]] had both secured their independence, which was confirmed by the [[Treaty of Berlin (1878)]]. Between 1878 and 1912, the [[Kingdom of Greece|Greece]], [[Principality of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]], and Serbia sponsored insurgent groups in Ottoman Macedonia to fight against the government and themselves in a conflict known as the [[Macedonian Struggle]]. The question of the viability of Ottoman rule was revived after the [[Young Turk Revolution]] in July 1908, which compelled the Ottoman [[Sultan]] to restore the suspended [[Constitution of the Ottoman Empire|constitution]] of the empire.

Serbia's aspirations to take over [[Ottoman Bosnia|Bosnia and Herzegovina]] were thwarted by the [[Bosnian crisis]], which led to the Austrian annexation of the province in October 1908. The Serbs then directed their war efforts to the south. After the annexation, the [[Young Turks]] tried to induce the Muslim population of [[Bosnia]] to emigrate to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman authorities resettled those who took up the offer in districts of northern Macedonia with few Muslims. The experiment proved to be a catastrophe since the immigrants readily united with the existing population of Albanian Muslims and participated in the series of [[Albanian revolt of 1911|1911 Albanian uprisings]] and the [[Albanian revolt of 1912]]. Some Albanian government troops switched sides.

In May 1912, Albanian rebels seeking national autonomy and the re-installment of Sultan [[Abdul Hamid II]] to power drove the Young Turkish forces out of [[Skopje]] and pressed south towards Manastir (now [[Bitola]]), forcing the Young Turks to grant effective autonomy over large regions in June 1912.<ref>Noel Malcolm, ''A Short History of Kosovo,'' pp. 246–247</ref><ref>Olsi Jazexhi, ''Ottomans into Illyrians: passages to nationhood in 20th century Albania,'' pp. 86–89</ref> Serbia, which had been helping to arm the Hamidian and Catholic Albanians rebelling in the [[Mirditë]] region; sent secret agents to some of the prominent leaders, taking the revolt as a pretext for war.<ref>Noel Malcolm, ''A Short History of Kosovo'' pp. 250–251.</ref> Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria had all been in talks about possible offensives against the Ottoman Empire before the 1912 Albanian revolt had broken out, and a formal agreement between Serbia and Montenegro had been signed on 7 March.{{sfn|Hall|2000|pp=10–13}} On 18 October 1912, King [[Peter I of Serbia]] issued a declaration, 'To the Serbian People,' which appeared to support Albanians as well as Serbs:

{{blockquote|The Turkish governments showed no interest in their duties towards their citizens and turned a deaf ear to all complaints and suggestions. Things got so far out of hand that no one was satisfied with the situation in Turkey in Europe. It also became unbearable for the Serbs, the Greeks, and the Albanians. By the grace of God, I have therefore ordered my brave army to join in the Holy War to free our brethren and to wish for a better future. In Old Serbia, my army will meet not only upon Christian Serbs but also upon Muslim Serbs, who are equally dear to us, and in addition to them, upon Christian and Muslim Albanians with whom our people have shared joy and sorrow for thirteen centuries now. To all of them, we bring freedom, brotherhood and equality.}}

In a search for allies, Serbia was ready to negotiate a treaty with Bulgaria.<ref>The Ear Correspondence of Leon Trotsky: Hall, ''The Balkan Wars, 1912–13,'' 1980, p. 221</ref> The agreement provided that in the event of victory against the Ottomans, Bulgaria would receive all of Macedonia south of the [[Kriva Palanka]]–[[Ohrid]] line. Bulgaria accepted Serbia's expansion as being to the north of the [[Shar Mountains]] ([[Kosovo]]). The intervening area was agreed to be "disputed" and would be arbitrated by the [[Tsar of Russia]] in the event of a successful war against the Ottoman Empire.{{sfn|Hall|2000|p=11}} During the war, it became apparent that the Albanians did not consider Serbia as a liberator, as had been suggested by King Peter I, and the Serbian forces failed to observe his declaration of amity toward Albanians.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

After the successful coup d'état for [[Bulgarian unification|unification]] with Eastern Rumelia,<ref>Joseph Vincent Fulle, ''Bismarck's Diplomacy at Its Zenith,'' 2005, p. 22</ref> Bulgaria began to dream that its national unification would be realized. For that purpose, it developed a large army and was identified as the "[[Prussia]] of the Balkans".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/1/4/4/7/14477/14477-h/14477-h.htm|title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Inside Story of the Peace Conference|author=Dr. E.J. Dillon|website=Mirrorservice.org|access-date=1 March 2022}}</ref> However, Bulgaria could not win a war alone against the Ottomans.

In Greece, [[Hellenic Army]] officers had rebelled in the [[Goudi coup]] of August 1909 and secured the appointment of a progressive government under [[Eleftherios Venizelos]], which they hoped would resolve the [[Cretan State|Crete question]] in Greece's favour. They also wanted to reverse their defeat in the [[Greco-Turkish War (1897)]] by the Ottomans. An emergency military reorganization, led by a French military mission, had been started for that purpose, but its work was interrupted by the outbreak of war in the Balkans. In the discussions that led to Greece joining the [[Balkan League]], Bulgaria refused to commit to any agreement on distributing territorial gains, unlike its deal with Serbia over Macedonia. Bulgaria's diplomatic policy was to push Serbia into one that limited its access to Macedonia<ref>Hugh Seton-Watson & Christopher Seton-Watson, ''The Making of a New Europe,'' 1981, p. 116</ref> while simultaneously refusing any such agreement with Greece. Bulgaria believed that its army could occupy the big part of Aegean Macedonia and the port city of Salonica ([[Thessaloniki]]) before the Greeks could do so.

In 1911, [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]] had launched an [[Italo-Turkish War|invasion of Tripolitania]], now in [[Libya]], which was quickly followed by the occupation of the [[Dodecanese Islands]] in the [[Aegean Sea]]. The Italians' decisive military victories over the Ottoman Empire and the successful 1912 Albanian revolt encouraged the Balkan states to imagine that they might win a war against the Ottomans. By the spring and summer of 1912, the various Christian Balkan nations had created a network of military alliances, becoming known as the Balkan League.

The Great Powers, most notably [[French Third Republic|France]] and [[Austria-Hungary]], reacted to the formation of the alliances by trying unsuccessfully to dissuade the Balkan League from going to war. In late September, the League and the Ottoman Empire mobilized their armies. [[Kingdom of Montenegro|Montenegro]] was the first to declare war on 25 September ([[Old Style|O.S.]])/8 October. After issuing an impossible ultimatum to the [[Ottoman Porte]] on 13 October, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece declared war on the Ottomans on 17 October (1912). The declarations of war attracted a large number of war correspondents. An estimated 200 to 300 [[journalists of the Balkan Wars|journalists from around the world covered the war in the Balkans]] in November 1912.<ref>"Correspondants de guerre", ''Le Petit Journal Illustré'' (Paris), 3 Novembre 1912.</ref>

== Order of battle and plans ==
[[File:Balkan 1912.svg|thumb|upright=1.8|Political boundaries in the Balkans before the First Balkan War]]
Due to poor organization, transportation problems and the protracted [[Italo-Turkish War|war with Italy]], the Ottoman [[order of battle]] only had 12,024 officers, 324,718 other ranks, 47,960 animals, 2,318 artillery pieces and 388 machine guns ready by early October instead of the planned full complement of 750,000 officers and soldiers.<ref name="Erickson78-84">{{harvnb|Erickson|2003|pp=78–84}}</ref> A total of 920 officers and 42,607 men of them had been assigned to non-divisional units and services, the remaining 293,206 officers and men were assigned to four armies.<ref name="Turkish General Staff">{{cite book | last =Balkan Harbi (1912–1913) | title =Harbin Sebepleri, Askeri Hazirliklar ve Osmani Devletinin Harbi Girisi | publisher = Genelkurmay Basimevi| year =1993 | page =100}}</ref>

Opposing them and continuing their secret prewar settlements for expansion, the three Slavic allies (Bulgarian, Serbs and Montenegrins) had extensive plans to co-ordinate their war efforts: the Serbs and the Montenegrins in the theatre of [[Sandžak]] and the Bulgarians and the Serbs in the Macedonian and the Bulgarians alone in the [[Thracia]]n theatre.

The bulk of the Bulgarian forces (346,182 men) was to attack Thrace, fighting against the Thracian Ottoman Army of 96,273 men and about 26,000 garrison troops,<ref name="The War between Bulgaria and Turkey659-663">The War between Bulgaria and Turkey, Volume II, pp. 659–663</ref> or about 115,000 personnel in total, according to Hall's, Erickson's and the Turkish General Staff's 1993 studies. It was to be supported by the [[Kırcaali Detachment]] of 24,000 military personnel, deployed along the [[Arda (Maritsa tributary)|Arda]] river to prevent the Bulgarians from reaching the [[Aegean Sea]] and thus cutting Ottoman transportation and communication links with Macedonia.

The [[Vardar Army]] of some 58,000 men was deployed near [[Kumanovo]] against the First and Second Serbian Armies of 90,000 Serbian and approx. 50,000 Serbian and Bulgarian men. Approx. 28,000 additional men from the [[Struma Corps]] were to protect the right flank of the Vardar Army and prevent Bulgarian encroachment along the [[Struma (river)|Struma]].<ref name="The War between Bulgaria and Turkey511">The War between Bulgaria and Turkey, Volume I, pp. 511</ref><ref name="Erickson173">{{harvnb|Erickson|2003|p=173}}</ref>

The [[Yanya Corps]] (22,000 men) was to defend Epirus and Albania from the Greek [[Army of Epirus]], while the VIII Corps (29,000 men) was deployed to guard the Thessalian mountain passes leading to Thessaloniki.<ref name="Erickson214-216">{{harvnb|Erickson|2003|pp=214–216}}</ref> Additional 25,000 men of the [[Işkodra Corps]] were stationed in [[Shkodër]] to protect Northern Albania.<ref name="The War between Bulgaria and Turkey511"/> Thus, the Ottoman military personnel stationed in Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and Epirus numbered almost 200,000 men, who were pitted against 234,000 Serbs, 48,000 Bulgarians and 115,000 Greeks.<ref name="Erickson170">{{harvnb|Erickson|2003|p=170}}</ref>

=== Bulgaria ===
{{further|Order of battle of the Bulgarian Army in the First Balkan War (1912)}}
Bulgaria was militarily the most powerful of the four Balkan states, with a large, well-trained, well-equipped army.<ref name="Hall16"/> Bulgaria mobilized a total of 599,878 men out of a population of 4.3 million.<ref name="Hall18"/> The Bulgarian field army counted for nine infantry [[division (military)|divisions]], one cavalry division and 1,116 artillery units.<ref name="Hall16"/> The commander-in-chief was Tsar [[Ferdinand of Bulgaria|Ferdinand]], and the operating command was in the hands of his deputy, General [[Mihail Savov]]. The Bulgarians also had a small navy of six torpedo boats restricted to operations along the country's [[Black Sea]] coast.<ref name="Hall17">{{harvnb|Hall|2000|p=17}}</ref>

Bulgaria was focused on actions in Thrace and Macedonia. It deployed its main force in Thrace by forming three armies. The [[First Army (Bulgaria)|First Army]] (79,370 men), under General [[Vasil Kutinchev]], had three infantry divisions and was deployed to the south of [[Yambol]] and assigned operations along the [[Tundzha]] River. The [[Second Army (Bulgaria)|Second Army]] (122,748 men), under General [[Nikola Ivanov]], with two infantry divisions and one infantry brigade, was deployed west of the First Army and was assigned to capture the strong fortress of Adrianople ([[Edirne]]). Plans had the [[Third Army (Bulgaria)|Third Army]] (94,884 men), under General [[Radko Dimitriev]], to be deployed east of and behind the First Army and to be covered by the cavalry division that hid it from the Ottomans' sight. The Third Army had three infantry divisions and was assigned to cross Mount [[Stranja]] and to take the fortress of Kirk Kilisse ([[Kırklareli]]). The 2nd (49,180) and 7th (48,523 men) Divisions were assigned independent roles, operating in [[Western Thrace]] and Eastern Macedonia, respectively.

==== Armenian volunteers ====
Three hundred Armenians from throughout the Ottoman Empire, Europe, and Russia, a small yet significant number, volunteered to fight on the side of the Balkan League's soldiers of more than 850,000. Under the leadership of [[Andranik|Andranik Ozanian]] and [[Garegin Nzhdeh]], the Armenian detachment was commissioned to fight the Ottomans first at [[Momchilgrad]] and [[Komotini]] and its environs, and then later [[İpsala]], [[Keşan]], and [[Malkara]], and [[Tekirdağ]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dennis |first=Brad |date=2019-07-03 |title=Armenians and the Cleansing of Muslims 1878–1915: Influences from the Balkans |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13602004.2019.1654186 |journal=Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs |language=en |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=411–431 |doi=10.1080/13602004.2019.1654186 |s2cid=202282745 |issn=1360-2004|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Serbia ===
{{further|Order of battle of the Serbian Army in the First Balkan War}}
Serbia called upon about 255,000 men, out of a population of 2,912,000, with about 228 heavy guns, grouped in ten infantry divisions, two independent brigades and a cavalry division, under the effective command of the former war minister, [[Radomir Putnik]].<ref name="Hall18"/> The Serbian High Command, in its prewar war games,{{clarify|date=January 2017}} had concluded that the most likely site for the decisive battle against the Ottoman [[Vardar Army]] would be on the [[Ovče Pole]] Plateau, ahead of Skopje. Thus, the main forces were formed as three armies for the advance towards Skopje, and a division and an independent brigade were to cooperate with the Montenegrins in the [[Sanjak of Novi Pazar]].

The First Army (132,000 men), the strongest, was commanded by Crown Prince [[Alexander I of Yugoslavia|Alexander]], and the Chief of Staff was Colonel [[Petar Bojović]]. The First Army formed the centre of the drive towards Skopje. The Second Army (74,000 men) was commanded by General [[Stepa Stepanović]] and had one Serbian and one Bulgarian (7th Rila) division. It formed the army's left wing and advanced towards [[Stracin]]. Though the inclusion of a Bulgarian division was according to a prewar arrangement between Serbian and Bulgarian armies, it ceased to obey the orders of Stepanović as soon as the war began, only following those of the Bulgarian High Command. The Third Army (76,000 men) was commanded by General [[Božidar Janković (general)|Božidar Janković]], and since it was on the right wing, had the task to invade Kosovo and then move south to join the other armies in the expected battle at Ovče Polje. There were two more concentrations in northwestern Serbia across the borders between Serbia and Austria-Hungary: the Ibar Army (25,000 men), under General [[Mihailo Živković]], and the Javor Brigade (12,000 men), under Lieutenant-Colonel Milovoje Anđelković.

=== Greece ===
{{Further|Order of battle of the Hellenic Army in the First Balkan War}}
[[File:Greek Artillery Balkans.jpg|thumb|Greek artillerymen with 75 mm field gun]]
Greece, whose population was then 2,666,000,<ref name="Erickson70"/> was considered the weakest of the three main allies since it fielded the smallest army and had suffered a defeat against the Ottomans 16 years earlier, in the [[Greco-Turkish War (1897)|Greco-Turkish War of 1897]]. A British consular dispatch from 1910 expressed the common perception of the Greek army's abilities: "If there is a war, we shall probably see that the only thing Greek officers can do besides talking is to run away."<ref name="Fotakis42">{{harvnb|Fotakis|2005|p=42}}</ref> However, Greece was the only Balkan country to possess a meaningful navy, which was vital to the League to prevent Ottoman reinforcements from being rapidly transferred by ship from Asia to Europe. The Serbs and the Bulgarians readily appreciated it as the chief factor in initiating the process of Greece's inclusion in the League.{{sfn|Fotakis|2005|p=44}} As the Greek ambassador to Sofia put it during the negotiations that led to Greece's entry into the League, "Greece can provide 600,000 men for the war effort. With 200,000 men on the battlefield, the fleet will be able to prevent 400,000 men from being landed by Turkey between [[Salonica]] and [[Gallipoli]]."<ref name="Hall17"/>

The Greek army was still undergoing reorganization by a [[French military mission to Greece (1911–1914)|French military mission]], which arrived in early 1911. Under French supervision, the Greeks had adopted the triangular infantry division as their primary formation though more importantly, the overhaul of the mobilization system allowed the country to field and equip a far greater number of troops than had been the case in 1897. Foreign observers estimated Greece would mobilize approximately 50,000 men, but the Greek army fielded 125,000, with another 140,000 in the National Guard and reserves.<ref name="Erickson70"/><ref name="Fotakis42"/> Upon mobilization, as in 1897, the force was grouped in two field armies, reflecting the geographic division between the two operational theatres that were open to the Greeks: [[Thessaly]] and Epirus. The [[Army of Thessaly]] (Στρατιά Θεσσαλίας) was placed under Crown Prince [[Constantine I of Greece|Constantine]], with Lieutenant-General [[Panagiotis Danglis]] as his chief of staff. It fielded the bulk of the Greek forces: seven infantry divisions, a cavalry regiment, and four independent [[Evzones]] light mountain infantry battalions, roughly 100,000 men. It was expected to overcome the fortified Ottoman border positions and advance towards southern and central Macedonia, aiming to take Thessaloniki and Bitola. The remaining 10,000 to 13,000 men in eight battalions were assigned to the [[Army of Epirus]] ({{lang|el|Στρατιά Ηπείρου}}) under Lieutenant-General [[Konstantinos Sapountzakis]]. As it had no hope of capturing Ioannina, the heavily fortified capital of Epirus, the initial mission was to pin down the Ottoman forces there until sufficient reinforcements could be sent from the Army of Thessaly after the successful conclusion of operations.

[[File:Greek cruiser Georgios Averof in 1909.jpg|thumb|The armored cruiser {{ship|Greek cruiser|Georgios Averof||2}}, flagship of the Greek fleet. She was the most modern warship involved in the conflict and played a crucial role in operations in the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]].]]
The Greek navy was relatively modern, strengthened by the recent purchase of numerous new units and undergoing reforms under the supervision of a [[British naval mission to Greece (1911–1915)|British mission]]. Invited by Greek Prime Minister Venizelos in 1910, the mission began its work upon its arrival in May 1911. Granted extraordinary powers and led by Vice Admiral [[Lionel Grant Tufnell]], it thoroughly reorganized the Navy Ministry and dramatically improved the number and the quality of exercises in gunnery and fleet maneuvers.<ref name="Fotakis25–35">{{harvnb|Fotakis|2005|pp=25–35}}</ref> In 1912, the core unit of the fleet was the fast armoured cruiser [[Greek cruiser Georgios Averof|''Georgios Averof'']], which had been completed in 1910 and then was the fastest and the most modern warship in the combatant navies.{{sfn|Fotakis|2005|p=45}} It was complemented by three rather-antiquated battleships of the {{sclass|Hydra|battleship|4}}. There were also eight destroyers, built in 1906–1907, and six new destroyers, hastily bought in the summer of 1912 as the imminence of war became apparent.<ref name="Fotakis25–35"/>

Nevertheless, at the outbreak of the war, the Greek fleet was far from ready. The Ottoman battlefleet retained a clear advantage in the number of ships, speed of the primary surface units and, most importantly, the number and calibre of the ships' guns.{{sfn|Fotakis|2005|pp=45–46}} In addition, as the war caught the fleet in the middle of its expansion and reorganization, a full third of the fleet (the six new destroyers and the submarine {{ship|Greek submarine|Delfin|1912|2}}) reached Greece only after hostilities had started, forcing the navy to reshuffle crews, who consequently suffered from lacking familiarity and training. Coal stockpiles and other war stores were also in short supply, and the ''Georgios Averof'' had arrived with barely any ammunition and remained so until late November.<ref name="Fotakis46">{{harvnb|Fotakis|2005|p=46}}</ref>

=== Montenegro ===
Montenegro was the smallest nation in the Balkan Peninsula, but in recent years before the war, it had improved its military skills with support from [[Russian Empire|Russia]]. Also, it was the only Balkan country never to be fully conquered by the Ottoman Empire. As the smallest member of the League, Montenegro did not have much influence. However, it was advantageous for Montenegro,{{clarify|date=March 2017}} since when the Ottoman Empire was trying to counter the actions of Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece, there was enough time for Montenegro to prepare, which helped its successful military campaign.

=== Ottoman Empire ===
Known colloquially as "the sick man of Europe", by 1912, the Ottoman Empire was at the end stages of a centuries long decline. Upon the outbreak of war Turkish forces were extremely vulnerable. The Ottoman Empire itself possessed a far larger population than all of its adversaries combined, of around 26 million. However just over 6.1 million lived in what still remained of Ottoman Europe, of which only 2.3 million were Muslim. A majority of the remainder were Orthodox Christians, considered unfit for conscription. The poor transport network of the Empire's Asian regions dictated that the only reliable way to mass transfer troops to the front was by sea where they'd be vulnerable to attacks from the Greek fleet based in the Aegean. In addition, in 1912 Ottomans were still at war with the Italians who in the year proceeding had overrun Ottoman Libya and by now were invading the [[Dodecanese]] islands, a campaign which had dominated Ottoman military efforts. Though the Ottoman Empire and Italy made peace on 15 October 1912, only days after the outbreak of hostilities in the Balkans, the protracted war had prevented the Ottomans from reinforcing their position in the Balkans as their relations with the Balkan states deteriorated.{{sfn|Hall|2000|p=19}}

==== Forces in Balkans ====
[[File:Ottoman troops with flag.jpg|thumb|Ottoman troops during the Balkan Wars]]
The Ottomans' military capabilities were hampered by several factors, such as domestic strife caused by the Young Turk Revolution and the [[31 March Incident|counterrevolutionary coup]] several months later. That resulted in different groups competing for influence within the military. A German mission had tried reorganizing the army, but its recommendations had not been fully implemented. The Ottoman army was caught in the middle of reform and reorganization. Also, several of the army's best battalions had been transferred to [[Yemen Vilayet|Yemen]] to face the ongoing rebellion. In the summer of 1912, the Ottoman High Command decided disastrously to dismiss some 70,000 mobilized troops.<ref name="Hall18"/>{{sfn|Uyar|Erickson|2009|pp=225–226}} Though the regular army (''Nizam'') was well-equipped and had trained active divisions, the reserve units (''Redif'') that reinforced it was ill-equipped, especially in artillery, and badly-trained.

The Ottomans' strategic situation was difficult, as their borders were almost impossible to defend against a coordinated attack by the Balkan states. The Ottoman leadership decided to secure all of their territory. As a result, the available forces, which could not be effortlessly reinforced from Asia because of Greek control of the sea and the inadequacy of the Ottoman railway system, were dispersed too thinly across the region. They failed to stand up to the rapidly-mobilized Balkan armies.{{sfn|Uyar|Erickson|2009|pp=226–227}} The Ottomans had three in Europe (the Macedonian, Vardar and Thracian Armies), with 1,203 pieces of mobile and 1,115 fixed artillery in fortified areas. The Ottoman High Command repeated its error of previous wars by ignoring the established command structure to create new superior commands, the [[Eastern Army (Ottoman Empire)|Eastern Army]] and [[Western Army (Ottoman Empire)|Western Army]], reflecting the division of the operational theatre between the Thracian (against the Bulgarians) and Macedonian (against the Greeks, Serbs and Montenegrins) fronts.{{sfn|Uyar|Erickson|2009|pp=227–228}}

The Western Army fielded at least 200,000 men,<ref name="Erickson170"/> and the Eastern Army fielded 115,000 men against the Bulgarians.<ref name="Hall22">{{harvnb|Hall|2000|p=22}}</ref> The Eastern Army was commanded by [[Nazim Pasha]] and had seven corps of 11 regular infantry divisions, 13 Redif divisions{{clarify|reason=what does this word mean?|date=September 2021}} and at least one cavalry division:
*[[I Corps (Ottoman Empire)|I Corps]] with three divisions (2nd Infantry (minus regiment), 3rd Infantry and 1st Provisional divisions).
*[[II Corps (Ottoman Empire)|II Corps]] with three divisions (4th (minus regiment) and 5th Infantry and Uşak Redif divisions).
*[[III Corps (Ottoman Empire)|III Corps]] with four divisions (7th, 8th and 9th Infantry Divisions, all minus a regiment, and the Afyonkarahisar Redif Division).
*[[IV Corps (Ottoman Empire)|IV Corps]] with three divisions (12th Infantry Division (minus regiment), İzmit and Bursa Redif divisions).
*[[XVII Corps (Ottoman Empire)|XVII Corps]] with three divisions (Samsun, Ereğli and İzmir Redif divisions).
*[[Adrianople Fortified Area Command|Edirne Fortified Area]] with six-plus divisions (10th and 11th Infantry, Edirne, Babaeski and Gümülcine Redif and the Fortress division, 4th Rifle and 12th Cavalry regiments).
*[[Kırcaali Detachment]] with two-plus divisions (Kırcaali Redif, Kırcaali Mustahfız division and 36th Infantry Regiment).
*An independent cavalry division and the 5th Light Cavalry Brigade.

The Western Army (Macedonian and Vardar Army) constituted ten corps with 32 infantry and two cavalry divisions. Against Serbia, the Ottomans deployed the Vardar Army (HQ in Skopje) under [[Halepli Zeki Pasha]], with five corps of 18 infantry divisions, one cavalry division and two independent cavalry brigades under the:
*[[V Corps (Ottoman Empire)|V Corps]] with four divisions (13th, 15th, 16th Infantry and the İştip Redif divisions)
*[[VI Corps (Ottoman Empire)|VI Corps]] with four divisions (17th, 18th Infantry and the Manastır and Drama Redif divisions)
*[[VII Corps (Ottoman Empire)|VII Corps]] with three division (19th Infantry and Üsküp and Priştine Redif divisions)
*[[II Corps (Ottoman Empire)|II Corps]] with three divisions (Uşak, Denizli and İzmir Redif divisions)
*Sandžak Corps{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}} with four divisions (20th Infantry (minus regiment), 60th Infantry, Metroviça Redif Division, Taşlıca Redif Regiment, [[Firzovik Detachment|Firzovik]] and [[Taşlıca Detachment|Taslica]] detachments)
*An independent Cavalry Division and the 7th and 8th Cavalry Brigades.

The Macedonian Army (headquarters in Thessaloniki under [[Ali Rıza Pasha]]) had 14 divisions in five corps, deployed against Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro.

Against Greece, at least seven divisions were deployed:
*[[VIII Corps (Ottoman Empire)|VIII Provisional Corps]] with three divisions (22nd Infantry and Nasliç and Aydın Redif divisions).
*[[Yanya Corps]] with three divisions (23rd Infantry, Yanya Redif and Bizani Fortress divisions).
*Selanik Redif division and [[Karaburun Detachment]] as independent units.

Against Bulgaria, in southeastern Macedonia, two divisions, the [[Struma Corps]] (14th Infantry and Serez Redif divisions, plus the [[Nevrekop Detachment]]), were deployed.

Against Montenegro, four-plus divisions were deployed:
*[[İşkodra Corps]] with two-plus divisions (24th Infantry, Elbasan Redif, [[İşkodra Fortified Area Command|İşkodra Fortified Area]])
*[[İpek Detachment]] with two divisions (21st Infantry and Prizren Redif divisions)

According to the organizational plan, though the men of the Western Group were to total 598,000, slow mobilization and the inefficiency of the rail system drastically reduced the number of men available. According to the Western Army Staff, when the war began, it had only 200,000 men available.<ref name="Erickson170"/> Although more men would reach their units, war casualties prevented the Western Group from coming near its nominal strength. In wartime, the Ottomans had planned to bring more troops in from Syria, both ''Nizamiye'' and ''Redif''.<ref name="Erickson170"/> Greek naval supremacy prevented those reinforcements from arriving. Instead, those soldiers had to deploy via the land route, and most never made it to the Balkans.{{sfn|Uyar|Erickson|2009|p=227}}

The Ottoman General Staff, assisted by the German military mission, developed twelve war plans designed to counter various combinations of opponents. Work on Plan No. 5, which was against Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, was very advanced and had been sent to the army staff for them to develop local plans.{{sfn|Erickson|2003|p=62}}

==== Ottoman Navy ====
[[File:barbaroshayreddin.jpg|thumb|Ottoman flagship {{ship|Ottoman battleship|Barbaros Hayreddin||2}} (photo) and her sister {{ship|Ottoman battleship|Turgut Reis||2}} were more heavily armed and armoured than ''Georgios Averof'', but five knots slower.]]
The Ottoman fleet had performed abysmally in the 1897 Greco-Turkish War, forcing the Ottoman government to begin a drastic overhaul. Older ships were retired, and newer ones were acquired, chiefly from France and Germany. In addition, in 1908, the Ottomans called in a [[British naval missions to the Ottoman Empire|British naval mission]] to update their training and doctrine.{{sfn|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|pp=9–14}} The British mission, headed by Admiral Sir [[Douglas Gamble]], would find its task almost impossible. The political upheaval in the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution prevented it to a large extent. Between 1908 and 1911, the office of the Navy Minister changed hands nine times. Interdepartmental infighting and the entrenched interests of the bloated and averaged officer corps, many of whom occupied their positions as quasi-[[sinecure]], further obstructed drastic reform. In addition, the Ottoman ministers met the British attempts to control the navy's construction programme with suspicion. Consequently, funds for Gamble's ambitious plans for new ships were unavailable.{{sfn|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|pp=14–15}}

To counter the Greek acquisition of the ''Georgios Averof'', the Ottomans initially tried to buy the new German armoured cruiser {{SMS|Blücher}} or the [[battlecruiser]] {{SMS|Moltke}}. Not able to afford the ships' high cost, the Ottomans acquired two old {{sclass|Brandenburg|battleship|0}} [[pre-dreadnought battleship]]s, which became {{ship|Ottoman battleship|Barbaros Hayreddin||2}} and {{ship|Ottoman battleship|Turgut Reis||2}}.{{sfn|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|pp=16–17}} Along with the cruisers {{ship|Ottoman cruiser|Hamidiye||2}} and {{ship|Ottoman cruiser|Mecidiye||2}}, both ships were to form the relatively modern core of the Ottoman battlefleet.<ref name="Erickson131">{{harvnb|Erickson|2003|p=131}}</ref> By the summer of 1912, however, they were already in poor condition because of chronic neglect: the rangefinders and ammunition hoists had been removed, the telephones were not working, the pumps were corroded, and most of the watertight doors could no longer be closed.<ref name="OSN20">{{harvnb|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|p=20}}</ref>

=== Albanian volunteers and irregulars in the Ottoman army ===
During the onset of the First Balkan War, most Albanians, including frequent rebels like Isa Boletin, united to defend the Ottoman Empire in order to safeguard their Albanian territories. Without a centralized national structure, Albanians were compelled to depend on Ottoman establishments, its military, and its administration to shield them from partition. However, all three proved inadequate against the onslaught of four invading Balkan armies. Even following the signing of the armistice in December 1912, Ottoman regular troops, along with Albanian irregular forces, persisted in central and southern Albania.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gawrych|first=George|title=The Crescent and the Eagle: Ottoman rule, Islam and the Albanians, 1874–1913|year=2006|publisher=IB Tauris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=otuRDwAAQBAJ&dq=a+majority+of+Albanians,+even+habitual+rebels&pg=PA202|isbn=978-1-84511-287-5|page=202| quote=When the First Balkan War broke out, a majority of Albanians, even habitual rebels such as Isa Boletin, rallied in defence of the din ve devlet ve vatan to preserve intact their Albanian lands. Lacking a national organization, Albanians had no choice but to rely on Ottoman institutions, its army, and its government for protection from partition. Both failed them miserably in the face of four invading Balkan armies. As a result, foreign invasion and occupation severed that link between the Albanian Eagle and the Ottoman Crescent.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Kondis| first = Basil | title = Greece and Albania, 1908–1914 | publisher = Institute for Balkan Studies | year = 1976| location = Thessaloniki |ref= Kondis |page=84 | isbn = 979-8-8409-4908-5 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=tEloAAAAMAAJ|quote=The Albanian forces fought on the side of Turkey not because they desired a continuance of Turkish rule but because they believed that together with the Turks, they would be able to defend their territory and prevent the partition of "Greater Albania}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Richard C. |title=The Balkan Wars 1912–1913: Prelude to the First World War |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-58363-8 |page=85 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IuWAAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA85 |access-date=19 April 2022 |language=en |quote="Ottoman regulars supported by Albanian irregulars continued in central and southern Albania even after the signing of the armistice in December 1912"}}</ref>

== Operations ==
=== Bulgarian theatre ===
[[File:Yaroslav Veshin - Na nozh.jpg|thumb|left|"Bulgarians overrun the Ottoman positions ''à la bayonette''", by the Czech painter [[Jaroslav Věšín]].]]

Montenegro started the First Balkan War by declaring war against the Ottomans on {{OldStyleDate|8 October|1912|25 September}}. The western part of the Balkans, including Albania, Kosovo, and Macedonia, was less vital to the resolution of the war and the survival of the Ottoman Empire than the Thracian theatre, where the Bulgarians fought significant battles against the Ottomans. Although geography dictated Thrace would be the primary battlefield in a war with the Ottoman Empire,<ref name="Hall22"/> the position of the Ottoman Army there was jeopardized by erroneous intelligence estimates of the opponents' order of battle. Unaware of the secret prewar political and military settlement over Macedonia between Bulgaria and Serbia, the Ottoman leadership assigned the bulk of its forces there. The German ambassador, [[Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim|Hans Baron von Wangenheim]], one of the most influential people in the Ottoman capital, had reported to Berlin on 21 October that the Ottoman forces believed that the bulk of the Bulgarian army would be deployed in Macedonia with the Serbs. Then, the Ottoman headquarters, under [[Kölemen Abdullah Pasha|Abdullah Pasha]], expected to meet only three Bulgarian infantry divisions, accompanied by cavalry, east of Adrianople.{{sfn|Erickson|2003|p=85}} According to historian E. J. Erickson, though that assumption possibly resulted from the analysis of the objectives of the Balkan Pact, it had deadly consequences for the Ottoman Army in Thrace, which was now required to defend the area from the bulk of the Bulgarian army against impossible odds.{{sfn|Erickson|2003|p=86}} The misappraisal was also the reason for the catastrophic aggressive Ottoman strategy at the start of the campaign in Thrace.

====Bulgarian offensive and advance to Çatalca====
{{further|Battle of Kirk Kilisse|Battle of Lule Burgas|First Battle of Çatalca}}
[[File:Bulgarian Army FBW.JPG|thumb|400px|Bulgarian military operations during the First Balkan War]]
On the Thracian Front, the Bulgarian army had placed 346,182 men against the Ottoman First Army, with 105,000 men in eastern Thrace and the Kircaali detachment, of 24,000 men, in western Thrace. The Bulgarian forces were divided into the First, Second and Third Bulgarian Armies of 297,002 men in the eastern part and 49,180 (33,180 regulars and 16,000 irregulars) under the 2nd Bulgarian Division (General Stilian Kovachev) in the western part.<ref name="Hall22-24">{{harvnb|Hall|2000|pp=22–24}}</ref> The first large-scale battle occurred against the Edirne-Kırklareli defensive line, where the Bulgarian First and Third Armies (a combined 174,254 men) defeated the Ottoman East Army (of 96,273 combatants),<ref name="Hall22-24"/><ref>''The war between Bulgaria and Turkey 1912–1913, Volume II'' Ministry of War 1928, p. 660</ref> near Gechkenli, Seliolu and Petra. The Ottoman XV Corps urgently left the area to defend the [[Gallipoli Peninsula]] against an expected Greek amphibious assault, which never materialized.<ref name="Erickson82">{{harvnb|Erickson|2003|p=82}}</ref> The absence of the corps created an immediate vacuum between Adrianople and [[Didymoteicho|Demotika]], and the 11th Infantry Division from the Eastern Army's IV Corps was moved there to replace it. Thus, one complete army corps was removed from the Eastern Army's order of battle.<ref name="Erickson82"/>

As a consequence of the insufficient intelligence of the invading forces, the Ottoman offensive plan failed in the face of Bulgarian superiority. That forced Kölemen Abdullah Pasha to abandon [[Battle of Kirk Kelesse|Kirk Kilisse]], which was taken without resistance by the Bulgarian Third Army.<ref name="Erickson82"/> The fortress of Adrianople, with some 61,250 men, was isolated and [[Battle of Adrianople (1913)|besieged]] by the Bulgarian Second Army, but for the time being, no assault was possible because of the lack of siege equipment in the Bulgarian inventory.{{sfn|Seton-Watson|2009|p=238}} Another consequence of Greek naval supremacy in the Aegean was that the Ottoman forces did not receive the reinforcements that had been in the war plans, which would have been further corps transferred by sea from [[Ottoman Syria|Syria]] and Palestine.<ref name="Erickson333">{{harvnb|Erickson|2003|p=333}}</ref> Thus, the Greek navy played an indirect but crucial role in the Thracian campaign by neutralizing three corps, a significant portion of the Ottoman army, in the all-important opening round of the war.<ref name="Erickson333"/> Another more direct role was the emergency transportation of the Bulgarian 7th Rila Division from the Macedonian Front to the Thracian Front after the end of operations there.{{sfn|Seton-Watson|2009|p=202}}

[[File:Chataldzha attack.jpg|thumb|267px|The Bulgarian attack at [[Çatalca]].]]

After the Battle of Kirk Kilisse, the Bulgarian High Command decided to wait a few days, but that allowed the Ottoman forces to occupy a new defensive position on the [[Lüleburgaz]]-[[Karaağaç, Edirne|Karaağaç]]-[[Pınarhisar]] line. However, the Bulgarian attack by the First and Third Armies, which together accounted for 107,386 riflemen, 3,115 cavalries, 116 machine guns and 360 artillery pieces, defeated the reinforced Ottoman Army, with 126,000 riflemen, 3,500 cavalries, 96 machine guns, and 342 artillery pieces<ref name="Erickson102">{{harvnb|Erickson|2003|p=102}}</ref> and reached the [[Sea of Marmara]]. In terms of forces engaged, it was the largest battle fought in Europe between the end of the [[Franco-Prussian War]] and the beginning of the First World War.<ref name="Erickson102"/> As a result, the Ottoman forces were pushed to their final defensive position across the [[Çatalca]] Line, protecting the peninsula and [[Constantinople]]. There, they managed to stabilize the front with the help of fresh reinforcements from Asia. The line had been constructed during the [[Russo-Turkish War of 1877-8]], under the directions of a German engineer in Ottoman service, von Bluhm Pasha, but it had been considered obsolete by 1912.{{sfn|Hall|2000|p=32}} An epidemic of [[cholera]] spread among the Bulgarian soldiers after the [[Battle of Luleburgas - Bunarhisar]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/9611592|title=Of Other Balkan Wars: Affective Worlds of Modern and Traditional (The Bulgarian Example) |first=Snezhana|last=Dimitrova|date=1 September 2013|journal=Perceptions: Journal of Foreign Affairs |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=29–55|access-date=1 March 2022}}</ref>

{{multiple images
| align = left
| image1 = Andranik Bulgarian Army Officer 1912.png
| width1 = 147
| image2 = Nzhdeh Bulgarian Army Officer.jpg
| width2 = 150
| footer = [[Andranik Ozanian]] ''(left)'' and [[Garegin Nzhdeh]] ''(right)'' led a company of Armenian volunteers in the [[Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps]].
}}
Meanwhile, the Bulgarian 2nd Thracian division's forces, 49,180 men divided into the Haskovo and Rhodope detachments, advanced towards the Aegean Sea. The Ottoman Kircaali detachment (Kircaali Redif and Kircaali Mustahfiz Divisions and 36th Regiment, with 24,000 men), tasked with defending a {{nobr|400 km}} front across the Thessaloniki-[[Alexandroupoli]] railroad, failed to offer serious resistance and the commander, Yaver Pasha, was captured with 10,131 officers and men by the [[Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps]] on 26 November. After the occupation of Thessaloniki by the Greek army, his surrender completed the isolation of the Ottoman forces in Macedonia from those in Thrace.

[[File:Chataldja armistice.jpg|thumb|267px|Çatalca armistice delegates; General [[Ivan Fichev]], [[Nazim Pasha]] and General [[Mihail Savov]] are in the first row.]]

On {{OldStyleDate|17 November|1912|4 November}}, the offensive against the Çatalca Line began, despite clear warnings that Russia would attack the Bulgarians if they occupied Constantinople. The Bulgarians launched their [[First Battle of Çatalca|attack]] along the defensive line, with 176,351 men and 462 artillery pieces against the Ottomans' 140,571 men and 316 artillery pieces,<ref name="Erickson131"/> but despite Bulgarian superiority, the Ottomans succeeded in repulsing them. The Ottomans and Bulgaria agreed to negotiate on {{OldStyleDate|3 December|1912|20 November}}, the latter representing Serbia and Montenegro, and peace negotiations began in London. Greece also participated in the conference but refused to agree to a truce and continued its operations in the Epirus sector. They were interrupted on {{OldStyleDate|23 January|1913|10 January}}, when a [[coup d'état of 1913|Young Turk coup d'état]] in Constantinople, under [[Enver Pasha]], overthrew the government of [[Kâmil Pasha]]. Upon the expiration of the agreement, on {{OldStyleDate|3 February|1913|21 January}}, hostilities restarted.

==== Ottoman counteroffensive ====
{{further|Order of battle of the Bulgarian Army in the First Balkan War (1913)}}
On 20 February, Ottoman forces attacked Gallipoli in Çatalca and its south. There, the Ottoman X Corps, with 19,858 men and 48 guns, landed at [[Şarköy]] while an attack of around 15,000 men supported by 36 guns (part of the 30,000-strong Ottoman army isolated in Gallipoli Peninsula) at [[Bulair]], farther south. Both attacks were supported by fire from Ottoman warships and had been intended, in the long term, to relieve pressure on Edirne. Confronting them were about 10,000 men with 78 guns.<ref>{{harvnb|Erickson|2003|p=262}}</ref> The Ottomans were probably unaware of the presence in the area of the new [[Fourth Army (Bulgaria)|4th Bulgarian Army]], of 92,289 men, under General [[Stiliyan Kovachev]]. Thick fog, intense Bulgarian artillery, and machine gunfire hampered the Ottoman attack in the thin [[isthmus]], with a front of just 1800m. As a result, the attack stalled and was repulsed by a Bulgarian counterattack. By the end of the day, both armies had returned to their original positions. Meanwhile, the Ottoman X Corps, which had landed at Şarköy, advanced until {{OldStyleDate|23 February|1913|10 February}}, when the reinforcements sent by General Kovachev succeeded in halting them.

Casualties on both sides were light. After the frontal attack in Bulair's failure, the Ottoman forces at Şarköy re-entered their ships on {{OldStyleDate|24 February|3=11 February}} and were transported to Gallipoli.

The Ottoman attack at Çatalca, directed against the powerful Bulgarian First and Third Armies, was initially launched only as a diversion from the Gallipoli-Şarköy operation to pin down the Bulgarian forces [[in situ]]. Nevertheless, it resulted in unexpected success. The Bulgarians, who were weakened by cholera and concerned that an Ottoman amphibious invasion might endanger their armies, deliberately withdrew about {{nobr|15 km}} and to the south over {{nobr|20 km}} to their secondary defensive positions, on higher ground to the west. With the end of the attack in Gallipoli, though the Ottomans cancelled the operation since they were reluctant to leave the Çatalca Line, several days passed before the Bulgarians realized that the offensive had ended. By 15 February, the front had again stabilized, but fighting along the static lines continued. The battle, which resulted in heavy Bulgarian casualties, could be characterized as an Ottoman tactical victory but a strategic defeat since it did nothing to prevent the failure of the Gallipoli-Şarköy operation or to relieve the pressure on Edirne.

==== Fall of Adrianople and Serbo-Bulgarian friction ====
{{Main|Siege of Odrin (1912–13){{!}}Siege of Adrianople (1912–13)}}

The failure of the Şarköy-Bulair operation and the deployment of the Second Serbian Army, with its much-needed heavy siege artillery, sealed Adrianople's fate. On 11 March, after a two weeks bombardment, which destroyed many fortified structures around the city, the final assault started, with League forces enjoying a crushing superiority over the Ottoman garrison. The Bulgarian Second Army, with 106,425 men and two Serbian divisions, with 47,275 men, conquered the city, with the Bulgarians suffering 8,093 and the Serbs 1,462 casualties.<ref>''The war between Bulgaria and Turkey 1912–1913, Volume V'', Ministry of War 1930, p. 1057</ref> The Ottoman casualties for the entire Adrianople campaign reached 23,000 dead.<ref>Zafirov – Зафиров, Д., Александров, Е., История на Българите: Военна история, София, 2007, {{ISBN|954-528-752-7}}, Zafirov p. 444</ref> The number of prisoners is less clear. The Ottoman Empire began the war with 61,250 men in the fortress.<ref name="Erickson281">{{harvnb|Erickson|2003|p=281}}</ref> Richard Hall noted that 60,000 men were captured. Adding to the 33,000 killed, the modern "Turkish General Staff History" notes that 28,500-man survived captivity<ref>Turkish General Staff, Edirne Kalesi Etrafindaki Muharebeler, p. 286</ref> leaving 10,000 men unaccounted for<ref name="Erickson281"/> as possibly captured (including the unspecified number of wounded). Bulgarian losses for the entire Adrianople campaign amounted to 7,682.<ref>Зафиров, Д., Александров, Е., История на Българите: Военна история, София, 2007, Труд, {{ISBN|954-528-752-7}}, p. 482</ref> That was the last and decisive battle that was necessary for a quick end to the war<ref>Зафиров, Д., Александров, Е., История на Българите: Военна история, София, 2007, Труд, {{ISBN|954-528-752-7}}> Zafirov – p. 383</ref> even though it is speculated that the fortress would have fallen eventually because of starvation. The most important result was that the Ottoman command had lost all hope of regaining the initiative, which made any more fighting pointless.<ref>''The war between Bulgaria and Turkey 1912–1913, Volume V'', Ministry of War 1930, p. 1053</ref>

[[File:1912-13 Shukru Pasha.jpg|thumb|267px|Ottoman postcard celebrating the defender of Adrianople, [[Mehmed Şükrü Pasha]]]]

The battle had significant results in Serbian-Bulgarian relations, planting the seeds of the two countries' confrontation some months later. The Bulgarian censor rigorously cut any references to Serbian participation in the operation in the telegrams of foreign correspondents. Public opinion in Sofia thus failed to realize the vital services of Serbia in the battle. Accordingly, the Serbs claimed that their troops of the 20th Regiment captured the Ottoman commander of the city and that Colonel Gavrilović was the allied commander who had accepted Shukri's official surrender of the garrison, a statement that the Bulgarians disputed. The Serbs officially protested and pointed out that although they had sent their troops to Adrianople to win for Bulgaria's territory, whose acquisition had never been foreseen by their mutual treaty,<ref name="Seton-Watson">{{harvnb|Seton-Watson|2009|pp=210–238}}</ref> the Bulgarians had never fulfilled the clause of the treaty for Bulgaria to send 100,000 men to help the Serbians on their Vardar Front. The Bulgarians answered that their staff had informed the Serbs on 23 August.{{Clarify|date=May 2010}} The friction escalated some weeks later when the Bulgarian delegates in London bluntly warned the Serbs that they must not expect Bulgarian support for their Adriatic claims. The Serbs angrily replied that it was a blatant withdrawal from the prewar agreement of mutual understanding, according to the Kriva Palanka-Adriatic line of expansion. The Bulgarians insisted that the Vardar Macedonian part of the agreement remained active, and the Serbs were still obliged to surrender the area, as had been agreed.<ref name="Seton-Watson"/> The Serbs answered by accusing the Bulgarians of maximalism and pointed out that if they lost both northern Albania and Vardar Macedonia, their participation in the common war would have been virtually for nothing. The tension soon was expressed in a series of hostile incidents between both armies on their mutual line of occupation across the Vardar valley. The developments essentially ended the Serbian-Bulgarian alliance, making a future war between the two countries inevitable.

===Greek theatre===
====Macedonian front====
[[File:Grèce 1ere Guerre balkanique.png|thumb|400px|Greek operations during the First Balkan War (borders depicted are from after the Second Balkan War)]]

Ottoman intelligence had also disastrously misread Greek military intentions. In retrospect, the Ottoman staff seemingly believed that the Greek attack would be shared equally between Macedonia and Epirus. That made the Second Army staff evenly balance the combat strength of the seven Ottoman divisions between the Yanya Corps and VIII Corps in Epirus and southern Macedonia, respectively. Though the Greek army also fielded seven divisions, it had the initiative, so it concentrated all seven against VIII Corps, leaving only several independent battalions of scarcely divisional strength on the Epirus front. That had fatal consequences for the Western Group by leading to the early loss of the city at the strategic centre of all three Macedonian fronts (Thessaloniki), sealing their fate.{{sfn|Erickson|2003|p=215}} In an unexpectedly brilliant and rapid campaign, the Army of Thessaly seized the city. In the absence of secure sea lines of communications, retaining the Thessaloniki-Constantinople corridor was essential to the overall strategic posture of the Ottomans in the Balkans. Once that was gone, the defeat of the Ottoman army became inevitable, in which the Bulgarians and the Serbs also played a vital role. Their great victories at Kirkkilise, Lüleburgaz, Kumanovo, and Monastir (Bitola) shattered the Eastern and Vardar Armies. However, they were not decisive in ending the war. The Ottoman field armies survived, and in Thrace, they grew stronger every day. Strategically, those victories were enabled partially by the weakened condition of the Ottoman armies, which had occurred by the active presence of the Greek army and navy.{{sfn|Erickson|2003|p=334}}

With the declaration of war, the Greek Army of Thessaly, under Crown Prince Constantine, advanced to the north and [[Battle of Sarantaporo|overcame Ottoman opposition]] in the fortified mountain passes of [[Sarantaporo]]. After another victory at [[Battle of Yenidje|Giannitsa (Yenidje)]], on {{OldStyleDate|2 November|1912|20 October}}, the Ottoman commander, [[Hasan Tahsin Pasha]], surrendered Thessaloniki and its garrison of 26,000 men to the Greeks on {{OldStyleDate|9 November|1912|27 October}}. Two Corps headquarters (Ustruma and VIII), two Nizamiye divisions (14th and 22nd) and four Redif divisions (Salonika, Drama, Naslic and Serez) were thus lost to the Ottoman order of battle. Also, the Ottoman forces lost 70 artillery pieces, 30 machine guns and 70,000 rifles (Thessaloniki was the central arms depot for the Western Armies). The Ottoman forces estimated that 15,000 officers and men had been killed during the campaign in southern Macedonia, bringing their total losses to 41,000 soldiers.{{sfn|Erickson|2003|p=226}} Another consequence was that the destruction of the Macedonian army sealed the fate of the Ottoman Vardar Army, which was fighting the Serbs to the north. The fall of Thessaloniki left it strategically isolated, without logistical supply and depth to maneuver, and ensured its destruction.

Upon learning of the outcome of the Battle of Giannitsa (Yenidje), the Bulgarian High Command urgently dispatched the 7th ''Rila'' Division from the north towards the city. The division arrived there a day later, after surrendering to the Greeks the day before, who were further away from the city than the Bulgarians. Until 10 November, the Greek-occupied zone had been expanded to the line from [[Lake Dojran]] to the [[Pangaion hills]] west to [[Kavalla]]. In western Macedonia, however, the lack of coordination between the Greek and the Serbian headquarters cost the Greeks a setback in the [[Battle of Vevi (1912)|Battle of Vevi]], on {{OldStyleDate|15 November|1912|2 November}}, when the Greek [[5th Infantry Division (Greece)|5th Infantry Division]] crossed its way with the VI Ottoman Corps (part of the Vardar Army with the 16th, 17th and 18th Nizamiye Divisions), retreating to Albania after the Battle of Prilep against the Serbs. The Greek division, surprised by the presence of the Ottoman Corps, isolated from the rest of the Greek army and outnumbered by the now-counterattacking Ottomans centred on Monastir (Bitola), was forced to retreat. As a result, the Serbs beat the Greeks to Bitola.

====Epirus front====
[[File:IAN F2099.jpg|thumb|267px|[[Constantine I of Greece|Constantine]] with his staff, at the main war base at Emin Aga Inn, [[Epirus (region)|Epirus]], before the siege of [[Ioannina]].]]
In the Epirus front, the Greek army, despite the fact that it was heavily outnumbered, was initially victorious conquering easily the small town of [[Filippiada|Philippiada]] on {{OldStyleDate|30 September|1912|12 October}}, and the major port of Epirus, [[Preveza]], after the [[Preveza#Balkan_Wars|battle of Nicopolis]], on {{OldStyleDate|8 October|1912|21 October}}, and thus pushed north towards Ioannina.<ref>{{cite book|last=Karabelas|first=Nikos D.|title=The Liberation of Preveza. 21 October 1912 |publisher=Sylloges |year=1992|location=Athens|language=Greek|url=https://www.academia.edu/3333996 |pp=25-55|isbn=960-7463-00-5}}</ref> On 5 November, Major [[Spyros Spyromilios]] led a [[Himara revolt of 1912|revolt]] in the coastal area of [[Himarë]] and expelled the Ottoman garrison without any significant resistance,<ref name=Kondis>{{cite book|last=Kondis |first=Basil |title=Greece and Albania, 1908–1914 |publisher=Institute for Balkan Studies |year=1978|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tEloAAAAMAAJ |page=93|isbn=979-8-8409-4908-5 }}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UV1oAAAAMAAJ&q=5+November Epirus, 4000 years of Greek history and civilization]. M. V. Sakellariou. Ekdotike Athenon, 1997. {{ISBN|978-960-213-371-2}}, p. 367.</ref> and on 20 November, Greek troops from western Macedonia entered [[Korçë]]. However, Greek forces in the Epirote front lacked the numbers to initiate an offensive against the German-designed defensive positions of [[Bizani]], which protected Ioannina and needed to wait for reinforcements from the Macedonian front.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=01eQAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Korytsa+was+taken+on%22 Albania's captives.] Pyrros Ruches, Argonaut 1965, p. 65.</ref>

After the campaign in Macedonia was over, a large part of the Army was redeployed to Epirus, where Constantine assumed command. In the [[Battle of Bizani]], the Ottoman positions were breached, and Ioannina was taken on {{OldStyleDate|6 March|1913|21 February}}. During the siege, on 8 February 1913, the Russian pilot N. de Sackoff, flying for the Greeks, became the first pilot ever shot down in combat when his biplane was hit by ground fire after a bomb ran on the walls of Fort Bizani. He came down near the town of Preveza, on the coast north of the Ionian island of [[Lefkas]], secured local Greek assistance, repaired his plane and resumed flying back to base.<ref name="Baker">Baker, David, ''Flight and Flying: A Chronology'', Facts On File, Inc., New York, 1994, {{LCCN|9231491}}, {{ISBN|0-8160-1854-5}}, p. 61.</ref> The fall of Ioannina allowed the Greek army to continue its advance into [[northern Epirus]], now the south of Albania, which it occupied. There they halted, but the Serbian control was very close to the north.

===Naval operations===
[[File:Greek warships 1912-10-05.jpg|thumb|267px|The Greek fleet assembled at [[Phaleron Bay]] on 5/18 October 1912 before it sailed for Lemnos.]]
On the outbreak of hostilities on 18 October, the Greek fleet, placed under the newly promoted Rear Admiral [[Pavlos Kountouriotis]], sailed for the island of [[Lemnos]], [[Battle of Lemnos (1912)|occupying it]] three days later (although fighting continued on the island until 27 October) and establishing an anchorage at [[Moudros Bay]]. That move had significant strategic importance by providing the Greeks with a forward base near the Dardanelles Straits, the Ottoman fleet's main anchorage and refuge.{{sfn|Fotakis|2005|pp=47–48}}<ref name="Hall64">{{harvnb|Hall|2000|p=64}}</ref> The Ottoman fleet's superiority in speed and [[Broadside (naval)|broadside]] weight made Greek plans expect it to sortie from the straits early in the war. The Greek fleet's unpreparedness because of the early outbreak of the war might as well have let such an early Ottoman attack achieve a crucial victory. Instead, the Ottoman navy spent the first two months of the war in operations against the Bulgarians in the Black Sea, which gave the Greeks valuable time to complete their preparations and allowed them to consolidate their control of the Aegean Sea.{{sfn|Fotakis|2005|pp=46–48}}

====Establishment of Greek control of the Aegean====
Lieutenant [[Nikolaos Votsis]] scored a significant success for Greek morale on 21 October by sailing his [[torpedo boat]] No. 11, in the cover of night, into the harbour of Thessaloniki, sinking the old Ottoman [[ironclad]] battleship {{ship|Ottoman ironclad|Feth-i Bülend||2}} and escaping unharmed. On the same day, Greek troops of the Epirus Army seized the Ottoman naval base of Preveza. Though the Ottomans scuttled the four ships present there, the Greeks were able to salvage the Italian-built torpedo-boats {{ship|Ottoman torpedo boat|Antalya||2}} and {{ship|Ottoman torpedo boat|Tokad||2}}, which were commissioned into the Greek Navy as {{ship|Greek torpedo boat|Nikopolis||2}} and {{ship|Greek torpedo boat|Tatoi||2}}, respectively.{{sfn|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|pp=19–20, 156}} A few days later, on 9 November, the wooden Ottoman armed steamer ''Trabzon'' was intercepted and sunk by the Greek torpedo boat No. 14, under Lieutenant-General [[Periklis Argyropoulos (admiral)|Periklis Argyropoulos]], of [[Ayvalık]].<ref name="OSN20"/>
[[File:Blowing up of 'Fetih-i-Bulend'.jpg|thumb|267px|A depiction of the sinking of the ''Feth-i Bülend'' in a popular lithograph. Votsis is shown in the lower left-hand corner.]]

By mid-November, Greek naval detachments had seized the islands of [[Imbros]], [[Thasos]], [[Agios Efstratios]], [[Samothrace]], [[Psara]] and [[Ikaria]], and landings were undertaken on the larger islands of [[Lesbos]] and [[Chios]] only on 21 and 27 November, respectively. Substantial Ottoman garrisons were present on the latter two islands, and their resistance was fierce. They withdrew into the mountainous interior and were not subdued [[Battle of Lesbos (1912)|until 22 December 1912]] and [[Battle of Chios (1912)|until 3 January 1913]], respectively.<ref name="Hall64"/>{{sfn|Erickson|2003|pp=157–158}} [[Samos]], officially an [[Principality of Samos|autonomous principality]], was not attacked until 13 March 1913, out of a desire not to upset the Italians in the nearby Dodecanese. The clashes were short-lived, as the Ottoman forces withdrew to the Anatolian mainland, and the island was securely in Greek hands by 16 March.<ref name="Hall64"/>{{sfn|Erickson|2003|pp=158–159}}

At the same time, with the aid of numerous merchant ships converted to [[auxiliary cruiser]]s, a loose naval blockade on the Ottoman coasts from the Dardanelles to [[Suez]] was instituted, which disrupted the Ottomans' flow of supplies (only the Black Sea routes to [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]] remained open) and left some 250,000 Ottoman troops immobilized in Asia.{{sfn|Fotakis|2005|pp=48–49}}{{sfn|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|p=19}} Given the incomplete state of the Ottoman rail network, the Greek blockade meant that Ottomans' Asian reinforcements often had to march on foot in exhausting marches towards Constantinople before they could cross into Europe and affect the course of operations there.{{sfn|Fotakis|2005|p=49}} This contributed to the Balkan League's early victories in the Balkans.{{sfn|Erickson|2003|pp=170, 334}}
[[File:Greek torpedo-boat Nikopolis.jpg|thumb|267px|The torpedo boat {{ship|Greek torpedo boat|Nikopolis||2}}, former Ottoman {{ship|Ottoman torpedo boat|Antalya||2}}, captured at Preveza by the Greeks]]

In the [[Ionian Sea]], the Greek fleet operated without opposition, ferrying supplies for the army units on the Epirus front. Furthermore, the Greeks bombarded and then blockaded the port of [[Vlorë]] in Albania on 3 December and [[Durrës]] on 27 February. A naval blockade, extending from the pre-war Greek border to Vlorë, was also instituted on 3 December, isolating the newly established [[Provisional Government of Albania]] that was based there from any outside support.{{sfn|Hall|2000|pp=65, 74}}

====Confrontations off the Dardanelles====
[[File:Ottoman vs Greek fleet, 1913.png|thumb|267px|Diagram in the journal ''[[L'Illustration]]'' of the main surface vessels in the Greek and Ottoman fleets]]
[[File:Battle Elli.jpg|thumb|267px|''The Naval Battle of Elli'', oil painting by [[Vassileios Chatzis]], 1913.]]

The main Ottoman fleet remained inside the Dardanelles for the early part of the war, and the Greek destroyers continuously patrolled the straits' exit to report on a possible sortie. Kountouriotis suggested [[naval mine|mining]] them, but that was not taken up out of fear of international opinion.<ref name="Fotakis50">{{harvnb|Fotakis|2005|p=50}}</ref> On 7 December, the head of the Ottoman fleet, Tahir Bey, was replaced by Ramiz Naman Bey, the leader of the hawkish faction among the officer corps. A new strategy was agreed with the Ottomans to take advantage of any absence of ''Georgios Averof'' to attack the other Greek ships. The Ottoman staff formulated a plan to lure a number of the Greek destroyers on patrol into a trap. The first attempt, on 12 December, failed because of boiler trouble, but a second attempt, two days later, resulted in an indecisive engagement between the Greek destroyers and the cruiser ''Mecidiye''.{{sfn|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|pp=21–22}}

The war's first significant fleet action, the [[Battle of Elli]], was fought two days later, on {{OldStyleDate|16 December|1912|3 December}}. The Ottoman fleet, with four battleships, nine destroyers and six torpedo boats, sailed to the entrance of the straits. The lighter Ottoman vessels remained behind, but the battleship squadron continued north, covered by forts at [[Kumkale, Çanakkale|Kumkale]], and engaged the Greek fleet coming from Imbros at 9:40. Leaving the older battleships to follow their original course, Kountouriotis led the ''Averof'' into independent action: using her superior speed, she cut across the Ottoman fleet's bow. Under fire from two sides, the Ottomans were quickly forced to withdraw to the Dardanelles.<ref name="Fotakis50"/><ref name="OSN22">{{harvnb|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|p=22}}</ref> The whole engagement lasted less than an hour in which the Ottomans suffered heavy damage to the ''Barbaros Hayreddin'' and 18 dead and 41 wounded (most during their disorderly retreat) and the Greeks had one dead and seven wounded.<ref name="Fotakis50"/>{{sfn|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|pp=22, 196}}

In the aftermath of Elli, on 20 December, the energetic Lieutenant Commander [[Rauf Bey]] was placed in effective command of the Ottoman fleet. Two days later, he led his forces out in the hope of again trapping the patrolling Greek destroyers between two divisions of the Ottoman fleet, one heading for Imbros and the other waiting at the entrance of the straits. The plan failed as the Greek ships quickly broke contact. At the same time, the ''Mecidiye'' came under attack by the Greek submarine ''Delfin'', which launched a torpedo against it but missed; it was the first such attack in history.<ref name="OSN22"/> The Ottoman army continued to press upon a reluctant Navy a plan for the reoccupation of Tenedos, which the Greek destroyers used as a base, by an [[amphibious operation]] scheduled for 4 January. That day, weather conditions were ideal, and the fleet was ready, but the ''Yenihan'' regiment earmarked for the operation failed to arrive on time. The naval staff still ordered the fleet to carry out a sortie, and an engagement developed with the Greek fleet without any significant results for either side.{{sfn|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|pp=22–23}} Though similar sorties followed on 10 and 11 January, the results of the "cat and mouse" operations were always the same: "The Greek destroyers always managed to remain outside the Ottoman warships' range and each time the cruisers fired a few rounds before breaking off the chase."{{sfn|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|p=23}}

[[File:Savuranoglu hamidiye.jpg|thumb|267px|Ottoman cruiser {{ship|Ottoman cruiser|Hamidiye||2}}. Its exploits during its eight-month cruise through the Mediterranean were a major morale booster for the Ottomans.]]

In preparation for the next attempt to break the Greek blockade, the Ottoman Admiralty sought to create a diversion by sending the light cruiser ''Hamidiye'', captained by Rauf Bey, to raid Greek merchant shipping in the Aegean. It was hoped that the ''Georgios Averof'', the only substantial Greek unit fast enough to catch the ''Hamidiye'', would be drawn into pursuit, weakening the remaining Greek fleet.<ref name="Fotakis50"/><ref name="OSN26">{{harvnb|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|p=26}}</ref> In the event, ''Hamidiye'' slipped through the Greek patrols on the night of 14–15 January and bombarded the harbour of the Greek island of [[Syros]], sinking the Greek auxiliary cruiser {{ship|Greek cruiser|Makedonia||2}}, which lay in anchor there (it was later raised and repaired). The ''Hamidiye'' then left the Aegean for the Eastern Mediterranean, making stops at [[Beirut]] and [[Port Said]] before it entered the [[Red Sea]]. Although it provided a significant morale boost for the Ottomans, the operation failed to achieve its primary objective since Kountouriotis refused to leave his post and pursue the ''Hamidiye''.<ref name="Fotakis50"/><ref name="OSN26"/><ref name="Hall65">{{harvnb|Hall|2000|p=65}}</ref>

Four days later, on {{OldStyleDate|18 January|1913|5 January}}, when the Ottoman fleet again sallied from the straits towards Lemnos, it was defeated for a second time in the [[Battle of Lemnos (1913)|Battle of Lemnos]]. This time, the Ottoman warships concentrated their fire on the ''Averof'', which again made use of its superior speed and tried to "[[cross the T]]" of the Ottoman fleet. ''Barbaros Hayreddin'' was again heavily damaged, and the Ottoman fleet was forced to return to the shelter of the Dardanelles and their forts, with 41 killed and 101 wounded.<ref name="Fotakis50"/>{{sfn|Langensiepen|Güleryüz|1995|pp=23–24}} It was the last attempt for the Ottoman navy to leave the Dardanelles, which left the Greeks dominant in the Aegean. On {{OldStyleDate|5 February|1913|24 January}}, a Greek [[Farman MF.7]], piloted by Lieutenant [[Michael Moutoussis|Michael Moutousis]] and with Ensign [[Aristeidis Moraitinis (aviator)|Aristeidis Moraitinis]] as an observer, carried out aerial patrol of the Ottoman fleet in its anchorage at [[Nara Burnu|Nagara]] and launched four bombs on the anchored ships. Although it scored no hits, it is regarded as the first naval-air operation in military history.<ref>{{cite web |title=History: Balkan Wars |url=http://www.haf.gr/en/history/history/history_2.asp |access-date=3 May 2010 |publisher=Hellenic Air Force |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090718062057/http://www.haf.gr/en/history/history/history_2.asp |archive-date=18 July 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Boyne |first=  Walter J. | title=Air Warfare: an International Encyclopedia: A–L | publisher=ABC-CLIO | year=2002| pages= 66, 268|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=FW_50wm8VnMC&q=moraitinis&pg=PA66| isbn=978-1-57607-345-2}}</ref>

General Ivanov, the commander of the Second Bulgarian Army, acknowledged the role of the Greek fleet in the overall Balkan League victory by stating that "the activity of the entire Greek fleet and above all the ''Averof'' was the chief factor in the general success of the allies."<ref name="Hall65"/> The Ottomans were also aware of the impact of the Greek naval actions on the conflict; according to navy commander Hasan Sami Bey, without the Greek navy establishing control of the sea lanes, "the allied land operations would have undoubtedly taken another course."<ref name="Fotakis50"/>

===Serbian and Montenegrin theatre===
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2015}}
[[File:Montenegrins attacking Decic Fortress.jpg|thumb|left|267px|Montenegrins attacking Dečić Fortress]]
[[File:Skadar predaja zastave.jpg|alt=|thumb|267px|Ottoman flag being surrendered to King [[Nicholas I of Montenegro]]]]
[[File:Montenegrin heavy cannon, 1912.jpg|thumb|267px|Montenegrin artillery crossing the [[Lim (river)|Lim River]] during the attack on [[Berane]]]]
[[File:Montenegro Danillo 1912.jpg|thumb|left|267px|Crown Prince Danilo visiting a Montenegrin battery]]
The Serbian forces operated against the primary part of the Ottoman Western Army in Novi Pazar, Kosovo and northern and eastern Macedonia. Strategically, they were divided into four independent armies and groups operating against the Ottomans: the Javor brigade and the Ibar Army in [[Novi Pazar]]; the Third Army in Kosovo; the First Army in northern Macedonia; and the Second Army from Bulgaria in eastern Macedonia. The decisive battle was expected to be fought in north Macedonia, in the plains of Ovče Pole, where the Ottoman Vardar Army's main forces were expected to concentrate.

The plan of the Serbian Supreme Command had three Serbian armies encircle and destroy the Vardar Army in that area, with the First Army advancing from the north (along the line of Vranje-Kumanovo-Ovče Pole), the Second Army from the east (along the line of Kriva Palanka-Kratovo-Ovče Pole) and the Third Army from the northwest (along the line of Priština-Skopje-Ovče Pole). The prime role was given to the First Army. The Second Army was expected to cut off the Vardar Army's retreat and, if necessary, to attack its rear and right flank. The Third Army was to take Kosovo and, if necessary, to assist the First Army by attacking the Vardar Army's left and rear. The Ibar Army and the Javor brigade had minor roles in the plan and were expected to secure the Sanjak of Novi Pazar and replace the Third Army in Kosovo after it had advanced south.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

The Serbian army, under General (later Marshal) Putnik, achieved three decisive victories in [[Vardar Macedonia]], the primary Serbian objective in the war, by effectively destroying the Ottoman forces in the region and conquering northern Macedonia. The Serbs also helped the Montenegrins take the Sandžak and sent two divisions to aid the Bulgarians at the siege of Edirne. The last battle for Macedonia was the [[Battle of Monastir]], in which the remains of the Ottoman Vardar Army were forced to retreat to central Albania. After the battle, Serbian Prime Minister Pasic asked General Putnik to take part in the race for Thessaloniki. Putnik declined and turned his army to the west, towards Albania, since he saw that a war between Greece and Bulgaria over Thessaloniki could greatly help Serbia's plans for Vardar Macedonia.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

After pressure from the Great Powers, the Serbs started withdrawing from northern Albania and the Sandžak, yet left behind their heavy artillery park to help the Montenegrins in the continuing Siege of Shkodër. On 23 April 1913, Shkodër's garrison was forced to surrender because of starvation.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

==Atrocities and migrations==
{{See also|Persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction#Balkan Wars|Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars|Greek genocide#Balkan Wars and pre-World War I}}
[[File:Bulgarian soldiers with dead Turkish civilians (Edirne).jpg|thumb|267px|Bulgarian soldiers with bodies of killed Turkish civilians at the Awaz Baba Fort outside Adrianople (Edirne), March 1913]]
[[File:NY Times Massacre of Albanians 1912.jpg|thumb|31 December 1912 ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' headline]]

Although it is known that both sides committed various war crimes during the war, what is known about the number of casualties is controversial. The insufficient number of impartial observers in the region throughout the war makes it difficult to conclude civilian casualties.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mojzes |first1=Paul |title=Balkan genocides: holocaust and ethnic cleansing in the twentieth century |date=2011 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham, Md. |isbn=978-1-4422-0664-9 |page=299}}</ref> It is estimated that in the years 1912–1914 c. 890,000 civilians of various nationalities crossed the borders of the Balkan countries, including also those of the Ottoman Empire.<ref name=Mourelos/> The intense influx of refugees from the region and the news of the massacres caused a deep shock in the Ottoman mainland. This further increased the hatred of minorities already present in Ottoman society. The situation became a factor that exacerbated the [[Late Ottoman genocides|Ottoman genocides in World War I]], which took place approximately two years after the end of the First Balkan War.<ref>{{cite book |title=World War I and the end of the Ottomans from the Balkan Wars to the Armenian genocide |date=2015 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-0-75560-909-3 |editor-last1=Kieser |editor-first1=Hans-Lukas |location=London |editor-last2=Öktem |editor-first2=Kerem |editor-last3=Reinkowski |editor-first3=Maurus}}</ref>

The heavy and rapid defeat of the Ottoman army prevented the safe evacuation of the Muslim civilians, making them a clear target for the Balkan League forces invading the region. As a result, it is estimated that, in total, up to 632,000<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDoFR3UJOSgC |title=McCarthy, Justin (1995). Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821–1922. Darwin Press. p. 164.|isbn=9780340706572 |last1=McCarthy |first1=Justin |date=2 February 2001 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref>–1.5 million<ref>Hupchick, Dennis P., The Balkans: From Constantinople to Communism. p. 321.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Pekesen |first=Berna |date=2012 |title=Expulsion and Emigration of the Muslims from the Balkans |url=http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/europe-on-the-road/forced-ethnic-migration/berna-pekesen-expulsion-and-emigration-of-the-muslims-from-the-balkans |website=European History Online}}</ref> Ottoman Muslims perished outside of Albania and c. 400,000<ref>Hupchick, Dennis P., The Balkans: From Constantinople to Communism p. 321.</ref>–813,000<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDoFR3UJOSgC |title=McCarthy, Justin (1995). Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821–1922. Darwin Press. p. 164.|isbn=9780340706572 |last1=McCarthy |first1=Justin |date=2001 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref> became refugees by the end of the Second Balkan War.

There were various instances where Albanian communities were targeted  especially by Serbian and Montenegrin forces.<ref>{{cite book |author=United States Department of State |title=Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States |date=1943 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=115 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ADhGAQAAMAAJ&q=Serbian+troops+atrocities+1913&pg=PA115 |access-date=2 January 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Report">{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/reportofinternat00inteuoft|title=Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan War|last1=International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars|last2=Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Division of Intercourse and Education|date=1 January 1914|publisher=Washington, D.C. : The Endowment|access-date=6 September 2016|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref name="Golgotha">[http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1913_1.html Leo Freundlich: Albania's Golgotha] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531131757/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1913_1.html |date=31 May 2012 }}</ref> According to contemporary accounts, c. 20,000–25,000 Albanians in the Kosovo Vilayet were killed in the first two to four months of the conflict.<ref>[http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1913_1.html Leo Freundlich: Albania's Golgotha] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531131757/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1913_1.html|date=31 May 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hudson |first=Kimberly A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W4zndspbem4C |title=Justice, Intervention, and Force in International Relations: Reassessing Just War Theory in the 21st Century |date=2009 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-203-87935-1 |page=128}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Judah |first=Tim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sVf1na3FN_UC |title=Kosovo: War and Revenge |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-30009-725-2 |location=New Haven, Connecticut |page=18}}</ref><ref>[http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1913_6.html Archbishop Lazër Mjeda: Report on the Serb Invasion of Kosova and Macedonia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303195950/http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts20_1/AH1913_6.html|date=3 March 2016}}</ref> The number of Albanian deaths exceeded 120,000 by the end of the Second Balkan War.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Rifati |first=Fitim |url=https://www.balkanjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/JSB-1.-sayi-revize_2-Fitim-Rifati-1.pdf |title=Kryengritjet shqiptare në Kosovë si alternativë çlirimi nga sundimi serbo-malazez (1913–1914) |date=2021 |journal=Journal of Balkan Studies |volume=1 |page=84 |doi=10.51331/A004 |quote="According to Serbian Social Democrat politician Kosta Novakovic, from October 1912 to the end of 1913, the Serbo-Montenegrin regime exterminated more than 120,000 Albanians of all ages, and forcibly expelled more than 50,000 Albanians to the Ottoman Empire and Albania." |issn=2671-3675 |archive-date=16 June 2023 |access-date=12 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230616205615/https://www.balkanjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/JSB-1.-sayi-revize_2-Fitim-Rifati-1.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Alpion |first=Gëzim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sylOEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22120,000+albanians%22+%221912%22&pg=PA11 |title=Mother Teresa: The Saint and Her Nation |date= 2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=9789389812466 |pages=11, 19 |quote="During the Balkan wars, in total '120,000 Albanians were exterminated', hundreds of villages' were shelled by artillery and 'a large number of them were burned down' across Kosova and Macedonia. The figures do not include people killed in present-day Albania and the devastated houses, villages and towns that Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers left behind when they were eventually forced to retreat.'"}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Novakovic |first=Kosta |title=Colonisation and Serbianisation of Kosova |url=http://www.kosova.com/arkivi1997/expuls/dok5.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225040933/http://www.kosova.com/arkivi1997/expuls/dok5.htm |archive-date=25 December 2013 |publisher=The Institute of History, Prishtina}}</ref><ref name=":10">{{Cite journal |last=Ademi |first=Haxhi |date=2019 |title=THE CASE OF THE "DISPLACEMENT" OF SERBS FROM KOSOVO DURING WORLD WAR TWO |url=http://www.istoriecraiova.ro/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019_1_ANALE.pdf#page=27 |journal=Analele UniversităŃii din Craiova. Istorie |pages=32}}</ref><ref name=":13">{{Cite journal |last=Zhitia |first=Skender |date=2021 |title=The Anti-Albanian Policy of the Serbian State, Programs and Methods (XIX–XX) |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1777746 |journal=Journal of History & Future}}</ref><ref name=":18">{{cite book |last1=Geshov |first1=Ivan Evstratiev |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=enANAQAAIAAJ&q=massacres%20albanais%20serbe%201913 |title=La genèse de la guerre mondiale: la débâcle de l'alliance balkanique |date=1919 |publisher=P. Haupt |edition=as for example that of the Serbian deputy Triša Kaclerovićh, who, in an article published in 1917 by the International Bulletin, affirms that in 1912–1913 120,000 Albanians were massacred by the Serbian army |page=64 |language=fr |access-date=9 August 2023}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Pirraku |first=Muhamet |url=https://zeflushmarku.edu.mk/libra/masakra_e_dubraves_pirraku.pdf |title=MASAKRA NË BURGUN E DUBRAVËS 19 –24 MAJ 1999 |publisher=Biblioteka Kombëtare dhe Universitare e Kosovës |pages=162 |quote="'there were some 150 thousand Albanians killed by Serbs in 1912–13'"}}</ref> Hundreds of thousands of Albanians were deported throughout the Balkan Wars.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Štěpánek |first=Václav |url=https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/_flysystem/fedora/pdf/115340.pdf |title=Problem of colonization of Kosovo and Metohija in 1918–1945 |year=2010 |pages=88}}</ref><ref name=":112">{{Cite book |last=Alpion |first=Gëzim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sylOEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22120,000+albanians%22+%221912%22&pg=PA11 |title=Mother Teresa: The Saint and Her Nation |date=2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=9789389812466 |pages=11}}</ref><ref name="Qirezi46">{{cite book |last=Qirezi |first=Arben |title=Kosovo and Serbia: Contested Options and Shared Consequences |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |year=2017 |isbn=9780822981572 |editor1-last=Mehmeti |editor1-first=Leandrit I. |pages= |chapter=Settling the self-determination dispute in Kosovo |editor2-last=Radeljić |editor2-first=Branislav |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IWMqDwAAQBAJ&q=1912&pg=PT74}}</ref>

The [[Albanian declaration of independence]] led to further violence, as Albanian villagers created paramilitaries to fight against Ottoman forces. These paramilitaries were also responsible for destroying churches and targeting Greek-speaking Christian villages, killing women and children.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kinley |first1=Christopher |title=The Balkan War in Epirus: Religious Identity and the Continuity of Conflict |journal=Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies |date=3 September 2021 |volume=23 |issue=5 |page= 7|doi=10.1080/19448953.2021.1935077 |s2cid=236314658 |language=en |issn=1944-8953|quote=The  Albanian  declaration  of  independence  further  instigated  violence,  as  Albanian villagers in northeast Ioannina formed çeta bands to fight against Ottoman troops. These paramilitary groups also swept the countryside desecrating churches and targeted Greek-speaking Christian villages, killing women and children. The violence was so severe that many villagers sought refuge in mountain caves where they died from cold and starvation while huddled together.}}</ref>

Successive Ottoman defeats already from 1911 and territorial losses resulted in the creation of strong nationalist tendencies in Turkish politics.<ref name=Mourelos>{{cite journal |last1=Mourelos |first1=Yannis G. |title=The 1914 persecutions and the first attempt at an exchange of minorities between Greece and Turkey |journal=Balkan Studies |date=1 January 1985 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=389, 390 |url=https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/view/2092 |access-date=7 November 2023 |language=en |issn=2241-1674}}</ref> In the spring of 1913, the Ottoman authorities began a [[Greek genocide|systematic campaign of persecution]] of their Greek subjects in large numbers in towns and villages both in Eastern Thrace and Anatolia.<ref name=Kontogiorgi>{{cite journal |last1=Kontogiorgi |first1=Elisabeth |title=Forced migration, repatriation, exodus: the case of Ganos-Chora and Myriophyto-Peristasis Orthodox communities in Eastern Thrace |journal=Balkan Studies |date=1 January 1994 |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=21, 22 |url=https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/view/2500 |access-date=7 November 2023 |language=en |issn=2241-1674}}</ref> This campaign of extermination by the Ottoman authorities included boycott, expulsions, forcible migrations, focusing on Greeks of the Aegean region and eastern Thrace, whose presence in these areas was deemed a threat to national security.<ref>{{cite book | last=Akçam |first=Tanner | date=2004 | title=From Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide | publisher=Zed Books |pages=69, 84}}</ref> From July 1913, as soon as Eastern Thrace returned to Ottoman control, pillaging and acts of intimidation and violence against the local Greek communities were perpetrated.<ref name=Kontogiorgi/>

==Reasons for Ottoman defeat==
The principal reason for the Ottoman defeat in the autumn of 1912 was the decision on the part of the Ottoman government to respond to the demands from the Balkan League on 15 October 1912 by declaring war at a time when its mobilization, ordered on 1 October, was only partially complete.{{sfn|Akmeşe|2015|pp=124–127}} During the declaration of war, 580,000 Ottoman soldiers in the Balkans faced 912,000 soldiers of the Balkan League.<ref name="Akmeşe127">{{harvnb|Akmeşe|2015|p=127}}</ref> The bad condition of the roads, together with the sparse railroad network, had led to the Ottoman mobilization being grossly behind schedule, and many of the commanders were new to their units, having been appointed only on 1 October 1912.<ref name="Akmeşe127"/> Many Turkish divisions were still involved in a losing war with Italy far away in the Libyan provinces. The stress of fighting on multiple fronts took a massive toll on the Ottoman Empire's finances, morale, casualties and supplies. The Turkish historian [[Handan Nezir Akmeşe]] wrote that the best response when they were faced with the Balkan League's ultimatum on 15 October on the part of the Ottomans would have been to try to stall for time via diplomacy while they completed their mobilization, instead of declaring war immediately.<ref name="Akmeşe127"/>

War Minister [[Nazım Pasha]], Navy Minister [[Mahmud Muhtar Pasha]] and Austrian military attaché [[Josef Pomiankowski]] had presented overly-optimistic pictures of the Ottoman readiness for war to the Cabinet in October 1912 advising that the Ottoman forces should take the offensive at once at the outbreak of hostilities.<ref name="Akmeşe127"/> By contrast, many senior army commanders advocated taking the defensive when the war began, arguing that the incomplete mobilization and serious logistic problems made taking the offensive impossible.<ref name="Akmeşe127"/> Other reasons for the defeat were:
* Under the tyrannical and paranoid regime of [[Abdul Hamid II|Sultan Abdul Hamid II]], the Ottoman army had been forbidden to engage in war games or maneuvers out of the fear that it might be the cover for a coup d'état.<ref name="Akmeşe128">{{harvnb|Akmeşe|2015|p=128}}</ref> The four years since the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 had not been enough time for the army to learn how to conduct large-scale maneuvers.<ref name="Akmeşe128"/> War games in 1909 and 1910 had shown that many Ottoman officers could not efficiently move large bodies of troops such as divisions and corps, a deficiency that General Baron [[Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz|Colmar von der Goltz]] stated after watching the 1909 war games would take at least five years of training to address.{{sfn|Akmeşe|2015|pp=120–121}}
*The Ottoman army was divided into two classes; ''Nizamiye'' troops (conscripted for five years) and ''Redif'' (reservists who served for seven years).{{sfn|Akmeşe|2015|p=5}} Training of the ''Redif'' troops had been neglected for decades, and the 50,000 ''Redif'' troops in the Balkans in 1912 had received extremely rudimentary training at best.{{sfn|Akmeşe|2015|pp=128–129}} One German officer, Major [[Otto von Lossow]], who served with the Ottomans, complained that some of the ''Redif'' troops did not know how to handle or fire a rifle.<ref name="Akmeşe129">{{harvnb|Akmeşe|2015|p=129}}</ref>
* Support services in the Ottoman army, such as logistics and medical services, were poor.<ref name="Akmeşe129"/> There was a massive shortage of doctors, no ambulances and few stretchers, and the few medical faculties were entirely inadequate for treating the large numbers of wounded.<ref name="Akmeşe129"/> This resulted in most of them dying, which damaged morale. In particular, the badly-organized transport corps was so inefficient that it was unable to supply the troops in the field with food, which forced troops to resort to requisitioning food from local villages.<ref name="Akmeşe129"/> Even so, Ottoman soldiers lived below the subsistence level with a daily diet of 90 g of cheese and 150 g of meat but had to march all day long, leaving much of the army sickly and exhausted.<ref name="Akmeşe129"/> 
* The heavy rainfall in the fall of 1912 had turned the mud roads of the Balkans into quagmires, making it extremely difficult to supply the army in the field with ammunition, which led to constant shortages at the front.{{sfn|Akmeşe|2015|p=130}}
* After the 1908 revolution, the Ottoman officer corps had become politicized, with many officers devoting themselves to politics at the expense of studying war.<ref name="Akmeşe130-131">{{harvnb|Akmeşe|2015|pp=130–131}}</ref> Furthermore, the politicization of the army had led it to be divided into factions, most notably between those who were members of the [[Committee of Union and Progress]] and its opponents.<ref name="Akmeşe130-131"/> Additionally, the Ottoman officer corps had been divided between ''Alayli'' ("ranker") officers who had been promoted up from NCOs and privates and the ''Mektepli'' ("college-trained") officers who had graduated from the War College.<ref name="Akmeşe132">{{harvnb|Akmeşe|2015|p=132}}</ref> After the 1909 counterrevolution attempt, many of the ''Alayli'' officers had been purged.<ref name="Akmeşe132"/> The bulk of the army, peasant conscripts from Anatolia, were much more comfortable with the ''Alayli''  officers than with the ''Mektepli'' officers, who came from a different social milieu.<ref name="Akmeşe132"/> Furthermore, the decision to conscript non-Muslims for the first time meant that ''[[jihad]]'', the traditional motivating force for the Ottoman Army, was not used in 1912, something that the officers of the German military mission advising the Ottomans believed was bad for the Muslims' morale.<ref name="Akmeşe132"/>

== Aftermath ==
{{Main|Second Balkan War}}
{{Expand section|date=June 2008}}
[[File:Alfred-schmidt-cartoon-the-turks-power-in-europe-is-shaken-by-his-balkan-neighbours.jpg|thumb|right|Danish cartoon shows Balkan states attacking the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War, October 1912]]
The [[Treaty of London (1913)|Treaty of London]] ended the First Balkan War on 30 May 1913. All Ottoman territory west of the [[Enez]]-[[Kıyıköy]] line was ceded to the Balkan League, according to the ''status quo'' at the time of the armistice. The treaty also declared [[Independent Albania|Albania]] an independent state. Most of the territory designated to form the new Albanian state was occupied by Serbia and Greece, who only reluctantly withdrew their troops. Having unresolved disputes with Serbia over the division of northern Macedonia and with Greece over southern Macedonia, Bulgaria was prepared, if the need arose, to solve the problems by force, and began transferring its military from [[Eastern Thrace]] to the disputed regions. Unwilling to yield to any pressure, Greece and Serbia settled their mutual differences and signed a military alliance directed against Bulgaria on 1 May 1913, even before the [[Treaty of London, 1913|Treaty of London]] had been concluded. This was soon followed by a [[Greek–Serbian Alliance of 1913|treaty of "mutual friendship and protection"]] on 19 May / 1 June 1913. This set the stage for the [[Second Balkan War]].

==Great Powers==
{{More citations needed|section|date=December 2022}}
Although the Great Powers noticed the developments that led to the war, they had an official consensus over the [[Eastern Question|territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire]], which led to a stern warning to the Balkan states. However, each Great Power took a different unofficial diplomatic approach since interests conflicted. Since the mixed unofficial signals cancelled any possible preventive effect of the mutual official warning, they failed to prevent or end the war:
* [[Russian Empire|Russia]] was a prime mover in the establishment of the Balkan League and saw it as an essential tool in case of a future war against its rival, Austria-Hungary.<ref name="Stowell1">{{cite book | last=Stowell | first=Ellery Cory|author-link=Ellery Cory Stowell | title=The Diplomacy Of The War of 1914: The Beginnings Of The War (1915) | publisher=Kessinger Publishing, LLC. | year=2009 | isbn=978-1-104-48758-4 | page=94}}</ref> Russia was unaware of the Bulgarian plans for Thrace and Constantinople, territories for which it had long held ambitions.
*[[Third French Republic|France]], not feeling ready for a war against Germany in 1912, took a position strongly against the war and firmly informed its ally Russia that it would not take part in a potential conflict between Russia and Austria-Hungary if it resulted from actions of the Balkan League. France, however, failed to achieve British participation in a common intervention to stop the conflict.
*The [[British Empire]], although officially a staunch supporter of the Ottoman Empire's integrity, took secret diplomatic steps encouraging the Greek entry into the League to counteract Russian influence. At the same time, it encouraged Bulgarian aspirations over Thrace since the British preferred Thrace to be Bulgarian to Russian, despite British assurances to Russia on its expansion there.
*[[Austria-Hungary]], struggling for an exit from the [[Adriatic]] and seeking ways for expansion in the south at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, was opposed to any other nation expanding in the area. At the same time, Austria-Hungary had internal problems with the significant Slavic populations that campaigned against the German–Hungarian joint control of the multinational state. Serbia, whose aspirations towards Bosnia were no secret, was considered an enemy and the primary tool of Russian machinations, which were behind the agitation of the Slav subjects. However, Austria-Hungary failed to achieve a German backup for a strong reaction. Initially, German Emperor [[Wilhelm II]] told Austro-Hungarian [[Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria|Archduke Franz Ferdinand]] that Germany was ready to support Austria-Hungary in all circumstances, even at the risk of a world war, but the Austro-Hungarians hesitated. Finally, in the [[German Imperial War Council of 8 December 1912]], the consensus was that Germany would not be ready for war until at least mid-1914 and notes about that passed to Austria-Hungary. Thus, no actions could be taken when the Serbs acceded to the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum of 18 October and withdrew from Albania.
* The [[German Empire]], already heavily involved in internal Ottoman politics, officially opposed the war. However, Germany's effort to win Bulgaria for the [[Central Powers]], since Germany saw the [[sick man of Europe|inevitability of Ottoman disintegration]], made Germany toy with the idea of replacing the Ottomans in the Balkans with a friendly [[Greater Bulgaria]] with the borders of the [[Treaty of San Stefano]]. This was based on the German origin of the Bulgarian King [[Ferdinand of Bulgaria|Ferdinand]] and his anti-Russian sentiments. Finally, when tensions again [[July Crisis|grew hot in July 1914]] between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, when the [[Black Hand (Serbia)|Black Hand]], an organization backed by Serbia, assassinated Franz Ferdinand, no one had strong reservations about the possible conflict, and the [[First World War]] broke out.

==List of battles==
=== Bulgarian–Ottoman battles ===
{{Aligned table | style=width:76%; | class=wikitable | cols=5
|col1style=width:25%;text-align:left; |col2style=width:8%; |col3style=width:15%; |col4style=width:15%; |col5style=width:20%;
|colstyle=text-align:center;
|style1.1=text-align:center;
|rowstyle=background:#d0fb8e; |row10style=background:lightgrey; |row6style=background:#f9adb2;
|row1header=on
|Battle|Year|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} Commander|{{flag|Ottoman Empire}} Commander|Result
|[[Battle of Kardzhali]] | 1912 | Vasil Delov | Mehmed Pasha | Bulgarian Victory
|[[Battle of Kirk Kilisse]] | 1912 | [[Radko Dimitriev]] | Mahmut Pasha | Bulgarian Victory
|[[Battle of Lule Burgas]] | 1912 | [[Radko Dimitriev]] | Abdullah Pasha | Bulgarian Victory
|[[Siege of Adrianople (1912–1913)|Siege of Edirne / Adrianople]] | 1912–13 | Georgi Vazov | Gazi Pasha | Bulgarian Victory
|[[First Battle of Çatalca]] | 1912 | [[Radko Dimitriev]] | [[Nazim Pasha]] | Ottoman Victory{{sfn|Vŭchkov|2005|pp=99–103}}
|[[Battle of Kaliakra (1912)|Naval Battle of Kaliakra]] | 1912 | Dimitar Dobrev | [[Rauf Orbay|Hüseyin Bey]] | Bulgarian Victory
|[[Battle of Merhamli]] | 1912 | Nikola Genev | Mehmed Pasha | Bulgarian Victory
|[[Battle of Bulair]]| 1913 | [[Georgi Todorov (general)|Georgi Todorov]]| [[Mustafa Kemal]] | Bulgarian Victory
|[[Second Battle of Çatalca]]| 1913 | [[Vasil Kutinchev]]| [[Ahmed Izzet Pasha|Ahmet Pasha]] | Indecisive
|[[Battle of Şarköy]]| 1913 | [[Stiliyan Kovachev]] | [[Enver Pasha]]| Bulgarian Victory
}}

=== Greek–Ottoman battles ===
{{Aligned table | style=width:76%; | class=wikitable | cols=5
|col1style=width:25%;text-align:left; |col2style=width:8%; |col3style=width:15%; |col4style=width:15%; |col5style=width:20%;
|colstyle=text-align:center;
|style1.1=text-align:center;
|rowstyle=background:#a8d3f7; |row4style=background:#f9adb2; |row8style=background:#f9adb2;
|row1header=on
|Battle | Year | {{flagcountry|Kingdom of Greece|state}} Commander | {{flag|Ottoman Empire}} Commander | Result
|[[Battle of Sarantaporo]] | 1912 | [[Constantine I of Greece|Constantine I]] | [[Hasan Tahsin Pasha|Hasan Pasha]] | Greek Victory
|[[Battle of Yenidje]] | 1912 | [[Constantine I of Greece|Constantine I]] | [[Hasan Tahsin Pasha|Hasan Pasha]] | Greek Victory
|[[Battle of Sorovich]] | 1912 | [[Dimitrios Matthaiopoulos|Matthaiopoulos]] | [[Hasan Rıza Pasha|Hasan Pasha]] | Ottoman Victory
|[[Preveza#Balkan Wars|Battle of Nicopolis]] | 1912 | [[Konstantinos Sapountzakis|Sapountzakis]] | [[Mehmet Esat Bülkat|Esat Pasha]] | Greek Victory
|[[Battle of Pente Pigadia]] | 1912 | [[Konstantinos Sapountzakis|Sapountzakis]] | [[Mehmet Esat Bülkat|Esat Pasha]] | Greek Victory
|[[Battle of Lesbos (1912)|Battle of Lesbos]] | 1912 | [[Pavlos Kountouriotis|Kountouriotis]] | Abdul Ghani | Greek Victory
|[[Battle of Chios (1912)|Battle of Chios]] | 1912 | [[Ioannis Damianos|Damianos]] | Zihne Bey | Greek Victory
|[[Battle of Driskos]] | 1912 | [[Dimitrios Matthaiopoulos|Matthaiopoulos]] | [[Mehmet Esat Bülkat|Esad Pasha]] | Ottoman Victory
|[[Himara revolt of 1912|Revolt of Himara]] | 1912 | [[Konstantinos Sapountzakis|Sapountzakis]] | [[Mehmet Esat Bülkat|Esat Pasha]] | Greek Victory
|[[Battle of Elli]] | 1912 | [[Pavlos Kountouriotis|Kountouriotis]] | Remzi Bey | Greek Victory
|[[Capture of Korytsa]] | 1912 | [[Konstantinos Damianos|Damianos]] | Davit Pasha | Greek Victory
|[[Battle of Lemnos (1913)|Battle of Lemnos]] | 1913 | [[Pavlos Kountouriotis|Kountouriotis]] | Remzi Bey | Greek Victory
|[[Battle of Bizani]] | 1913 | [[Constantine I of Greece|Constantine I]] | [[Mehmet Esat Bülkat|Esat Pasha]] | Greek Victory
}}

=== Serbian–Ottoman battles ===
{{Aligned table | style=width:76%; | class=wikitable | cols=5
|col1style=width:25%;text-align:left; |col2style=width:8%; |col3style=width:15%; |col4style=width:15%; |col5style=width:20%;
|colstyle=text-align:center;
|style1.1=text-align:center;
|rowstyle=background:#caadf3;
|row5style=background:#f9adb2;
|row6style=background:lightgrey;
|row1header=on
|Battle|Year|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Serbia}} Commander|{{flag|Ottoman Empire}} Commander|Result
|[[Battle of Kumanovo]] | 1912 | [[Radomir Putnik]] | [[Zeki Pasha]] | Serbian Victory
|[[Battle of Prilep]] | 1912 | [[Petar Bojović]]| [[Zeki Pasha]] | Serbian Victory
|[[Battle of Monastir]] | 1912 | [[Petar Bojović]] | [[Zeki Pasha]] | Serbian Victory
|[[Battle of Lumë]] | 1912 | [[Božidar Janković (general)|Božidar Jankovic]] | [[Bajram Curri]] |
Albanian Victory
|[[Siege of Scutari (1912–1913)|Siege of Scutari]] | 1913 | [[Nikola I Petrović-Njegoš|Nikola I]] | [[Hasan Riza Pasha|Hasan Pasha]] | [[Status quo ante bellum]]<ref>Somel, Selçuk Akşin. ''Historical dictionary of the Ottoman Empire''. Scarecrow Press Inc. 2003. lxvi.</ref>
|[[Siege of Adrianople (1912–1913)|Siege of Adrianople]] | 1913 | [[Stepa Stepanovic]] | Gazi Pasha | Serbian victory
}}

==See also==
*[[List of places burned during the Balkan Wars]]
*[[List of Serbian–Turkish conflicts]]
*[[Journalists of the Balkan Wars]] [[1913 Ottoman coup d'état]]

==Citations==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book |title=Defeat in Detail: The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912–1913 |last=Erickson |first=Edward J. |year=2003 |publisher=Greenwood  |location=Westport, CT |isbn=0-275-97888-5}}
*{{cite book |last=Fotakis |first=Zisis |title=Greek Naval Strategy and Policy, 1910–1919 |year=2005 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-0-415-35014-3}}
*{{cite book |title=The Balkan Wars, 1912–1913: Prelude to the First World War |last=Hall |first=Richard C. |year=2000 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-415-22946-4}}
*{{cite book |last=Hooton |first=Edward R. |title=Prelude to the First World War: The Balkan Wars 1912–1913 |publisher=Fonthill Media |year=2014<!--can't find a 2017 pubn--> |isbn=978-1-78155-180-6}}
*{{cite book |title=The Ottoman Steam Navy, 1828–1923 |last1=Langensiepen |first1=Bernd |last2=Güleryüz |first2=Ahmet |year=1995 |publisher=Conway Maritime Press/Bloomsbury |location=London |isbn=0-85177-610-8}}
*Michail, Eugene. "The Balkan Wars in Western Historiography, 1912–2012." in Katrin Boeckh and Sabine Rutar, eds. ''The Balkan Wars from Contemporary Perception to Historic Memory'' (Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2016) pp.&nbsp;319–340. [https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/51738360/395351_1_En_Online.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1533221972&Signature=mFVCISG0uy5q%2FgSMLJybt1ftU4s%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DThe_Balkan_Wars_from_Contemporary_Percep.pdf#page=323 online]{{dead link|date=October 2019}}
*Murray, Nicholas (2013). ''The Rocky Road to the Great War: the Evolution of Trench Warfare to 1914.'' Dulles, Virginia, Potomac Books {{ISBN|978-1-59797-553-7}}
*Pettifer, James. ''War in the Balkans: Conflict and Diplomacy Before World War I'' (IB Tauris, 2015).
*{{cite book| title=The Birth of Modern Turkey: The Ottoman Military and the March to World I |last=Akmeşe |first=Handan Nezir |year=2015 |publisher=I.B. Tauris}}
*{{cite book |title=The Balkan Wars, 1912 to 1913 |last=Schurman |first=Jacob Gould |year=2004 |publisher=Kessinger |location=Whitefish, MT |isbn=1-4191-5345-5}}
*{{cite book |title=The Rise of Nationality in the Balkans |first=R. W. |last=Seton-Watson |year=2009 |orig-date=1917 |publisher=BiblioBazaar |location=Charleston, SC |isbn=978-1-113-88264-6}}
*Trix, Frances. "Peace-mongering in 1913: the Carnegie International Commission of Inquiry and its Report on the Balkan Wars." ''First World War Studies'' 5.2 (2014): 147–162.
*{{cite book |last1=Uyar |first1=Mesut |last2=Erickson |first2=Edward |title=A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Atatürk |year=2009 |publisher=Praeger Security International |location=Santa Barbara, CA |isbn=978-0-275-98876-0}}
*{{cite book |first=Vladimir |last=Stojančević |title=Prvi balkanski rat: okrugli sto povodom 75. godišnjice 1912–1987, 28. i 29. oktobar 1987}}
*{{cite book |first=Aleksandŭr |last=Vŭchkov |title=The Balkan War 1912–1913|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vwoXAQAAIAAJ |year=2005 |publisher=Angela|isbn=978-954-90587-2-7 }}
*{{cite book |last=Ratković |first=Borislav |others=Istorijski institut JNA |title=Prvi balkanski rat 1912–1913: Operacije srpskih snaga |trans-title=First Balkan War 1912–1913: Operations of Serbian Forces |location=Belgrade |publisher=Vojnoistorijski Institut |year=1975 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FUTRAAAAMAAJ}}
*{{cite book|author=The Bulgarian Ministry of War|title=Войната между България и Турция през 1912–1913 г.|trans-title=The War between Bulgaria and Turkey, 1912–1913|volume=I, II, VI, VII|year=1928|publisher=State Printing House}}

'''Further reading'''
*{{Cite book |editor-last=Bataković |editor-first=Dušan T. |editor-link=Dušan T. Bataković |title=Histoire du peuple serbe |trans-title=History of the Serbian People |language=fr |year=2005 |location=Lausanne |publisher=L'Age d'Homme |isbn=978-2-8251-1958-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a0jA_LdH6nsC }}
*{{Cite book |last=Ćirković |first=Sima |author-link=Sima Ćirković |title=The Serbs |year=2004 |location=Malden |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-1-4051-4291-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Wc-DWRzoeIC }}
*{{Cite book |last=Jelavich |first=Barbara |author-link=Barbara Jelavich |title=History of the Balkans: Twentieth Century |volume=II |year=1983 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-27459-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hd-or3qtqrsC }}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|First Balkan War}}
{{Library resources box}}
*Hall, Richard C.: [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/balkan_wars_1912-1913 Balkan Wars 1912–1913], in: [https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/home/ 1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War].
*[http://maps.omniatlas.com/europe/19130423/ Map of Europe during First Balkan War at omniatlas.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414182223/http://maps.omniatlas.com/europe/19130423/ |date=14 April 2012 }}
*[http://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/node/33/balkan%20efg1914/multilingual:1/showOnly:video/paging:dmlkZW8tMS0xNi1pbWFnZS0xLTE2LXNvdW5kLTEtMTYtcGVyc29uLTEtMTYtdGV4dC0xLTE2 Films about the Balkan War at europeanfilmgateway.eu]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130829144336/http://www.clemmesen.org/articles/Istanbul_OCT_2012_Conference_Paper.pdf Clemmesen, M. H. ''Not Just a Prelude: The First Balkan War Crisis as the Catalyst of Final European War Preparations'' (2012) ]
*[http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a284241.pdf Anderson, D. S. ''The Apple of Discord: The Balkan League and the Military Topography of the First Balkan War'' (1993)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180920180139/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a284241.pdf |date=20 September 2018 }}
*[https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/1914_Documents Major 1914 primary sources from BYU]

{{Balkan Wars}}
{{Wars and battles involving Serbs}}
{{Great Power diplomacy}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:First Balkan War| ]]
[[Category:1912 in the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:1913 in the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1912]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1913]]
[[Category:Wars involving Serbia]]
[[Category:Wars involving Bulgaria]]
[[Category:Wars involving Montenegro]]
[[Category:Wars involving Greece]]
[[Category:Modern history of Greek Macedonia]]
[[Category:Wars involving the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:1912 in Bulgaria]]
[[Category:1912 in Serbia]]
[[Category:1912 in Greece]]
[[Category:1912 in Montenegro]]
[[Category:1913 in Bulgaria]]
[[Category:1913 in Serbia]]
[[Category:1913 in Greece]]
[[Category:1913 in Montenegro]]
[[Category:History of Samos]]