Hey all, been interested in Bulgaria's role in the Great War and what would have happened if they'd been successfully courted by the Entente and set upon the Ottomans and Austro-Hungarians. Now, this question has probably been explored before, so I'm wondering if there are any good timelines or threads about it?
It is possible in the following scenarios:
1. The internal Macedonian - Adrianopol revolutionary organization decided to conduct purely defensive actions against the Ottomans and to concentrate its efforts in the fight against the Serbian and Greek armed propaganda in Macedonia, which through a strategy that today would be defined as "State terrorism" denationalized the local Bulgarians. Because, according to Turkish left-wing historians, it was this uprising that led to the Young Turk revolution - which began precisely in Resen, Macedonia, and the Young Turks, after temporarily legitimizing the national organizations of the Christian nations, in order to trick their leaders into acting with parliamentary means and thus destroy them, announce a policy for violent Osmanization and/or Genocide of non-Turks in the Empire, forced Bulgaria to create the ill-fated Balkan Union, where the successes of Serbian and Greek propaganda lead to the previously rejected partition of Macedonia, and Bulgaria's geographical location near the Ottoman capital, forced her there to concentrated its main forces leads to Serbian and Greek occupation of over 60% of Macedonia, and the atrocities on the Bulgarians there lead Bulgaria to start the Second Balkan War, which was desired and prepared by our neighbors as well, according to the testimonies of foreign journalists such as Henri Posey, Vladimir Sis and others and according to their diplomatic documents. But if VMORO had stuck to the strategy I mentioned, the Balkan Wars would not have broken out, and Macedonia and Southern Thrace would have been under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
2. During the Ilinden Uprising, Bulgaria declared war on the Ottoman Empire, and a significant part of Macedonia was liberated. Such scenarios describe the first Bulgarian alternative history novel "1903", which came out less than 2 years ago and whose author did detailed historical research. (links:
https://offnews.bg/knigi/1903-istoriata-takava-kakvato-mozheshe-da-bade-786209.html) In this timeline, Bulgaria liberated about 40% of Macedonia, as much as during the First Balkan War. It is obvious that using in the First Balkan War this more convenient starting position for the offensive and most of the human resources, he would have established control over almost the entire, if not the entire area.
3. In the Second Balkan War, an armistice was concluded a few days later, and as a result, the Greek army was destroyed in the Kresna Gorge (link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kresna_Gorge), and its king was captured, killed or committed suicide to avoid capture. Apart from the fact that then Bulgaria would keep the regions of the cities of Syar (today's Seres), Drama and Kavala, there was no way to hide this "Macedonian Varbish Pass" (by analogy with the battle in 811, in which Khan Krum destroyed a large part of the Byzantine army and kills the emperor Nicephorus, from whose skull a cup was made) would show the world that Bulgaria was defeated diplomatically, but not militarily, which would lead to her courting the Entente more vigorously, and she would force Serbia , Greece and Romania for territorial concessions in its favor, while in OTL this does not happen and these countries are preferred over Bulgaria, which is forced to become part of the Central Powers.