The Great Powers of Europe had other views. Even if the Bulgarian
delay at Chataldja--a delay probably due to 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, 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, 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.