The treaty of peace provided that beyond a line drawn from Enos near
the mouth of the Maritza River on the Aegean Sea to Midia on the coast
of the Black Sea all Turkey should be ceded to the Allies except
Albania, whose boundaries were to be fixed by the Great Powers. It was
also stipulated that the Great Powers should determine the destiny of
the Aegean Islands belonging to Turkey which Greece now claimed by
right of military occupation and the vote of their inhabitants (nearly
all of whom were Greek). A more direct concession to Greece was the
withdrawal of Turkish sovereignty over Crete. The treaty also
contained financial and other provisions, but they do not concern us
here. The essential point is that, with the exception of
Constantinople and a narrow hinterland for its protection, the Moslems
after more than five centuries of possession had been driven out of
Europe.
{60}
This great and memorable consummation was the achievement of the united
nations of the Balkans. It was not a happy augury for the immediate
future to recall the historic fact that the past successes of the
Moslems had been due to dissensions and divisions among their Christian
neighbors.
{61}