James Baquet Sometimes very serious conflicts can start for what seem to be very silly reasons. The “War of the Stray Dog” (also called the “Incident at Petrich”) is one of these. As usually told, the war began in 1925 when a dog ran from the Greek side of a border into Bulgarian-held territory. When the dog’s owner, a Greek soldier, ran after his dog, Bulgarian sentries shot the man, sparking the war. Another version of the story says that Bulgarian soldiers attacked a Greek outpost, killing a Greek captain and a soldier. In either case, the incident had deeper causes than at first appear. The Greeks and Bulgarians had been disputing possession of Macedonia and (later) Western Thrace for decades. There had been several years of guerrilla warfare between armed groups on both sides, followed by the Second Balkan War (1913). There was also a Macedonian Front (1916-18) during the First World War. The outcome of all this was that, by 1925, Greece held much of the disputed territory by treaty. But Bulgarian irredentism ensured that tensions in the area would continue to run high, with raids and terrorist attacks launched from Bulgarian territory into the territories of Greece and Yugoslavia. Thus — whatever ignited the incident — it was the culmination of a long period of smoldering hostility. In the end, the five-day episode cost around 175 lives, and ended with Bulgarian victory when the League of Nations — a forerunner to the United Nations — declared that there must be a ceasefire; that Greece must withdraw its troops from Bulgarian territory; and that the Greeks should pay an indemnity of 45,000 pounds to Bulgaria for damages. Greece accepted the decision while simultaneously complaining that it was unfair. Meanwhile, Bulgaria was instructed to observe a “cooling-off period” before allowing its people back into the war-torn area. The Greeks had been given two months in which to pay their penalty; some 50 Bulgarian civilians were killed during that time. Vocabulary: Which word above means: 1. at the same time 2. burning slowly with smoke but no open flame 3. money paid as compensation 4. started, lit (as a fire) 5. guards 6. having wandered away from home 7. remote post, away from the main force 8. occurrence, happening 9. something that comes before something else 10. policy calling for the return of territory formerly belonging to a country | 