Corfu incident

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The Corfu Incident was a diplomatic emergency in 1923, between Greece and Italy under the newly empowered dictator, Benito Mussolini.

Contents 1 Background 2 The incident in Greece 3 Italian reaction 4 Resolution 5 See also

[edit] Background

Greece and Albania were quarrelling over their boundary. The two nations took their dispute to the Conference of Ambassadors. Meanwhile the League of Nations (an organization established by the Allies of World War I to deal with problems arising out of the peace treaties following the war) had appointed a commission set up by the Conference of Ambassadors to determine the boundaries. Several groups of soldiers had been called upon to help settle the situation.

[edit] The incident in Greece

The groups of soldiers were split up. On August 27, 1923, four Italian soldiers drove in one vehicle on the Greek side of the border. They stopped at a road where a tree had fallen down, and were killed as they got out to move it, presumably by Albanian bandits. Among the soldiers was General Enrico Tellini.

[edit] Italian reaction

The Italian government, lead by Benito Mussolini, sent an ultimatum to the Greek government on August 29, 1923, demanding the payment of 50 million lire in reparations and that the assassins be executed. The Greeks were unable to identify the assassins, so Italian forces bombarded and occupied the Greek island of Corfu on August 31, 1923, killing at least fifteen civilians. The location of Corfu, in a strategic position at the head of the Adriatic Sea, provided Mussolini with an ulterior motive for the invasion, for which Tellini's assassination was a convenient pretext.

[edit] Resolution

Greece appealed to the League of Nations, which initially condemned the Italian occupation. The dispute was handed over to the Conference of Ambassadors, an organization established by the allies in 1919 to deal with problems arising out of the peace treaties following the First World War, and Italy and Greece agreed to be bound by its decision. The Conference of Ambassadors largely followed the Italian demands, ordering Greece to apologise and pay reparations, a decision that Greece accepted.

Italy left Corfu on September 27, 1923.

The decision was internationally criticized - it submitted to the aggression of a bigger world power instead of protecting the smaller Greece from attack.

[edit] See also

• Stylianos Gonatas, Greek Prime Minister during incident