The article analyses the coverage of the Petrich conflict of 1925 by the New York Times, outlining its editorial policy and generated images and notions. For ten days, from 22 to 31 of October, the conflict was one of the main topics on the newspaper's front page, followed by several smaller items on the following pages. The paper gathered information through various channels from different places, including from the frontline Petrich region of Bulgaria. Several viewpoints were always displayed: compulsory those of Greece and Bulgaria, and sometimes also of other regional factors; the official stance of Washington was followed as well, but since the administration of the moderate isolationist Calvin Coolidge was quite aloof, the newspaper most often oriented its readership around British foreign policy attitudes which in this case strongly supported the League of Nations as a proper international institution to solve the conflict. Ultimately, the newspaper pointed to the Greek fault for starting the conflict and contributed to creating a positive image of Bulgaria as a country that behaved responsibly in the system of international relations and appeared as a worthy partner. The newspaper opened its pages to Greek and even more to Bulgarian opinions, the latter extensively elaborated especially by Lambo Kisselintcheff, representative of MPO and practically IMRO’s spokesperson in US. The image of Macedonia as an unfairly treated region was substantially outlined also by the paper itself; the search for justice and the critical attitude allowed the New York Times to see and highlight the problem of respecting the rights of Bulgarian minorities in Greece and Yugoslavia and even in some cases to advance the idea of turning Macedonia into a special political entity under the rule of the League of Nations.
The New York Times and the Greek-Bulgarian Conflict of 1925
Abstract
Keywords
- Greek-Bulgarian conflict
- Petrich incident
- New York Times
- League of Nations
- Macedonia
- Macedonian Political Organization
- Kisselintcheff
References
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