-8-
17. YUGOSLAV-BULGARIAN FRONTIER ZONE NORTH OF MACEDONIA.--This area was
occupied and annexed by Bulgaria in 1941. A part of it (districts of
Tsaribrod and Bosilegrad) had been ceded by Bulgaria to Yugoslavia in
1919. At that time Yugoslavia also aquired a small sector in the Timok
valley near Vidin, which Bulgaria did not reoccupy in 1941.
There of this zone is approximatley 2,564 sqare miles. The total
population is about 195,200 of whom roughly 45,000 are Baulgarians and
the remainder Serbs. In Tsaribrod is located the strategically
important Dragoman Pass, which commands the Sofia-Belgrade trunk
railway.
18. SECTOR OF SOUTHERN BULGARIA ADJACENT TO GREECE.-- The Greek claim
to Bulgarian territory has not been precisley defined. It may extend as
far north as hte Arda River and he Kresna defile, embracing an
approximate area of 4,500 square miles. The population of 390,000 is
about two-thirds Bulgarian and the remainder Turkish. The Greek claim
is based on strategic considerations.
19. GREEK EASTERN MACEDONIA AND WESTERN THRACE.-- This area was
occupied and annexed by Bulgaria in 1941. Greek Western Macedonia, in
which some Bulgarian troops have been stationed, but which Bulgaria has
not annexed, may also be claimed by Bulgaria. Some 80,000 Macedonian
Slavs resident there provide the basis for a possible Bulgarian claim.
Western Thrace was acquired by Bulgaria in 1913, and was occupied by the
Allied Powers from 1918 to 1923, when it was ceded to Greece. Greek
Macedonia was acquired by Greece from Turkey in 1913.
The disputed territory has an area of approximately 5,464 square miles
and has approximately 645,700 inhabitants. The immigration of a large
number of refugees from Anatolia and the exchange of minority populations
between Greece and Bulgaria made the area predominantly Greek.
Approximently 85,000 Turks remained. Some 80,000 Bulgarians are
reported to have sttled in the area since 1941, and about the same
number of Greeks have been evacuated. THe area os strategically
important since it offers the possibility of a direct territorial outlet
for Bulgaria on the Aegean.
20. THE DODECANESE ISLANDS.-- The Dodecanese Islands include the
following: Rhodes, Kos, Lipso, Kalymnos, Leros, Nisyros, Tilos, Khalki,
Symi, Astypalai, Karpathos, Kasos, and Kastellorizo. Italy came into
"temporary" possession of the islands as a result of the Turco-Italian
War of