The Great Powers of Europe had other views. Even if the Bulgarian
delay at Chataldja--a delay probably due to {56} exhaustion--had not
given the Turks time to strengthen their defences and reorganize their
forces, it is practically certain that the Bulgarian army would not
have been permitted to enter Constantinople. But with the exception of
the capital and its fortified fringe, all Turkey in Europe now lay at
the mercy of the Allies. The entire territory was either already
occupied by their troops or could be occupied at leisure. Only at
three isolated points was the Ottoman power unsubdued. The city of
Adrianople, though closely besieged by the Bulgarians, still held out,
and the great fortresses of Scutari in Northern Albania and Janina in
Epirus remained in the hands of their Turkish garrisons.
The power of Turkey had collapsed in a few weeks. Whether the ruin was
due to inefficiency and corruption in government or the injection by
the Young Turk party of politics into the army or exhaustion resulting
from the recent war with Italy or to other causes more obscure, {57} we
need not pause to inquire. The disaster itself, however, had spread
far enough in the opinion of Europe, and a Peace Conference was
summoned in December. Delegates from the belligerent states and
ambassadors from the Great Powers came together in London. But their
labors in the cause of peace proved unavailing. Turkey was unwilling
to surrender Adrianople and Bulgaria insisted on it as a _sine qua
non_. The Peace Conference broke up and hostilities were resumed. The
siege of Adrianople was pressed by the Bulgarians with the aid of
60,000 Servian troops. It was taken by storm on March 26. Already, on
March 6, Janina had yielded to the well directed attacks of King
Constantine. And the fighting ended with the spectacular surrender on
April 23 of Scutari to King Nicholas, who for a day at least defied the
united will of Europe.
Turkey was finally compelled to accept terms of peace. In January,
while the London Peace Conference was still in session, Kiamil Pasha,
{58} who had endeavored to prepare the nation for the territorial
sacrifice he had all along recognized as inevitable, was driven from
power and his war minister, Nazim Pasha, murdered through an uprising
of the Young Turk party executed by Enver Bey, who himself demanded the
resignation of Kiamil and carried it to the Sultan and secured its
acceptance. The insurgents set up Mahmud Shevket Pasha as Grand Vizier
and made the retention of Adrianople their cardinal policy. But the
same inexorable fate overtook the new government in April as faced
Kiamil in January. The Powers were insistent on peace, and the
successes of the Allies left no alternative and no excuse for delay.
The Young Turk party who had come to power on the Adrianople issue were
accordingly compelled to ratify the cession to the allies of the city
with all its mosques and tombs and historic souvenirs. The Treaty of
London, which proved to be short-lived, was signed on May 30.
{59}