Foreign and domestic policy of the Ottoman Empire in the estimates Bulgarian military attaché in Istanbul, Colonel Todor Markov (July 1914 – October 1915)

doi:10.7546/DS.2020.13.15

Дмитро Миколенко Doctor Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, 4 Svobody Sq., Kharkiv, Ukraine, 61022 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3953-6510

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7546/DS.2020.13.15

Keywords: Todor Markov, military attaché, Ottoman Empire, Tsardom of Bulgaria, military-strategic partnership, report, telegram

Abstract

The aim of this article is study of the information about the domestic political situation in the Ottoman Empire and the foreign policy of the Porte that was provided to the government and the General Staff of Bulgaria by the military attaché in Istanbul Colonel Todor Markov. His views about the process of rapprochement between Sofia and Istanbul at the beginning of the First World War, his attitude towards Porte as a potential partner of Bulgaria are indicative in the context of understanding the mood of the Bulgarian military and diplomatic elite. He sent to Sofia telegrams, reports, bulletins. These documents form an idea of the colonel’s foreign policy preferences and his attitude towards the Bulgarian-Ottoman partnership.

Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire systematically approached each other under the influence of Germany from July 1914 to October 1915. Colonel Todor Markov has expressed disapproval of Istanbul’s domestic and foreign policy initiatives since the fall of 1914. The military attaché clearly does not believe in the power of Ottoman weapons and in the monolithic nature of the Ottoman Empire. He does not directly express his attitude to the prospect of military cooperation between Sofia and Istanbul, but the facts presented by him indicate the unreliability of Porte as a military-strategic partner. The First World War ended in defeat and significant territorial losses for them.

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