Greece and Serbia maintain diplomatic relations established in 1879. From 1918 to 2006, Greece maintained relations with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) (later Serbia and Montenegro), of which Serbia is considered shared (SFRY) or sole (FRY) legal successor.
Greece and Serbia enjoy close diplomatic relations, which have traditionally been friendly due to cultural, religious and historical ties between the Serbs and Greeks.
History Middle Ages
During the Early Middle Ages, Principality of Serbia was a subject of the Byzantine Empire. The ethnogenesis of Serbs began in the Byzantine-Slavic environment, part of the wider Byzantine commonwealth. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Serbs began fighting for independence, revolting against the Byzantines. In the following centuries, Serbia's independence was recognized by the Byzantines, and the two were mostly in friendly relations. The Serbs aided the Byzantines at the Battle of Sirmium in 1167 and Battle of Gallipoli in 1312. Most of the Serbian queen consorts were Byzantine women (such as Eudokia Angelina, Simonida, Maria Palaiologina, Irene Kantakouzene, Helena Palaiologina). Manuel I of Constantinople recognized Sava as the first Archbishop of the Serbs. Hilandar on Mount Athos became one of the most important cultural and religious centres of the Serbian people. Some Byzantine families found refuge in Serbia at the end of the 14th and early 15th century, following Ottoman conquests, such as the Angeloi and Kantakouzenos; notable statesmen in the Serbian Despotate of Greek origin include Janja Kantakouzenos, Dimitrije Kantakuzin and Mihailo Anđelović. The two last Byzantine Emperors were of Serbian maternal descent.
The Serbs were greatly influenced by the Hellenic culture of the Byzantine Empire, particularly under the reign of Serbian emperor Stefan Dušan. Dušan, who had himself crowned as "Emperor of Serbs and Greeks," made both Serbian and Greek the official languages of his empire, wrote charters and signed in Greek, and adopted Eastern Roman law as the foundations of his empire. He sought to synthesize the Byzantine Empire into a Serbian-Greek empire. Dušan, therefore, "took pains to woo the Greek inhabitants of those provinces [that he had acquired in Macedonia and northern Greece]. His code of law, or Zakonik, proclaimed the equality of Serbs and Greeks in all his dominions and confirmed the privileges bestowed on Greek cities by Byzantine Emperors of the past whom Dušan was pleased to regard as his imperial predecessors. His administrators were adorned with the Byzantine titles of Despot, Caesar and sebastokrator and his court was a model of that in Constantinople. He minted a silver coinage in the Byzantine style; and churches and monasteries in the Slav as well as the Greek provinces of his empire were decorated by artists of the best Byzantine school."
19th century During the First Serbian Uprising, the Serbian rebels were joined by Greeks and Greek-Aromanians, among others, with notable examples being fighter Giorgakis Olympios, diplomat Petar Ičko, secretary Naum Krnar, fighter Konda Bimbaša, and others. Greek armatolos Nikotsaras (d. 1807) planned to cross Mount Olympos to join the Serbian rebels. Military cooperation between the two nations was forged in the semi-autonomous Danubian Principalities, which were governed mostly by Phanariote Greek voivodes. There are indications that communication and cooperation between Serbs and Greeks of the Greek mainland had also been established early. For example, in 1806 the French consul in Thessaloniki reported that "the Turks are very furious against the Greeks because of their communications with the Serbs".Ministėre des Affaires Etrangėres, Correspondance Consulaire, Salonique, vol. 15 bis (1795-1809) 312a. Cited by Vakalopoulos, p. 11. It was reported that many Slav and Greek peasants were arrested suspected of aiding the Serbian rebels. The klephts and armatoloi were encouraged by the Serbian rebels and Russian actions. The Serbian rebels were important allies to the Greeks; after the suppression of the First Uprising, Karađorđe fled to Bessarabia, where he joined the Greek national liberation movement Filiki Eteria, becoming an active member. The Greeks were primarily interested in using the Serbian lands as base for Greek operations. Miloš Obrenović, the leader of the Second Serbian Uprising 1815–17 was fully uncooperative. The first historian of the Serbian Revolution was a Greek, Triantafillos Doukas. Many Serbs joined the Greek War of Independence, such as Hadži-Prodan and Vasos Mavrovouniotis.
Dimitrios Karatasos sought to establish a Greek-Serbian alliance in 1861, but died traveling to Belgrade. Lambros Koutsonikas, a Greek veteran and historian, dreamt in 1863 of a Greek–Serbian federation of "two sisters".
The Treaty of Vöslau, signed between Greece and Serbia in 1867, bound the two countries in an alliance.
Balkan Wars In the First Balkan War, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria (Balkan League) defeated the Ottoman Empire and divided the former territories of European Turkey among themselves. The division of the geographical area of Macedonia became a major point of contention among the allies. Greece had captured Thessaloniki and much of western Macedonia, while Serbia had captured most of northern Macedonia, both areas also coveted by Bulgaria.
In June 1913 Serbia and Greece signed a defensive pact opposing Bulgaria's expansionist goals. Eventually on 16 June of the same year Bulgaria attacked both countries, starting the Second Balkan War. Being decisively defeated by the Greeks in the Battle of Kilkis-Lahanas and by the Serbs in the Battle of Bregalnica, Bulgaria retreated into defensive positions until Romania entered the war by attacking Bulgaria and threatening Sofia, resulting in the latter's defeat. Greece and Serbia found themselves being the winner parties by having successfully fought the war side by side.
World War I
Despite its defensive alliance with Serbia, Greece remained neutral in the early part of the World War I, due to the dissension between Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, who was pro-Entente and favoured entering the war, and King Constantine I, who was pro-German and favoured neutrality. The resulting National Schism was resolved only in 1917, when Constantine was forcibly deposed by the Entente Powers and Greece entered the war under Venizelos.
Corfu served as a refuge for the Serbian Army that retreated there by the Entente forces ships from the homeland occupied by the Austrians and Bulgarians. During their stay, a large portion of Serbian soldiers died from exhaustion, food shortage, and different diseases. Most of their remains were buried at sea near the island of Vido, a small island at the mouth of Corfu port, and a monument of thanks to the Greek Nation has been erected at Vido by the grateful Serbs; consequently, the waters around Vido island are known by the Serbian people as the Blue Graveyard, after a poem written by Milutin Bojić.Serbs in Corfu , at the Embassy of Serbia website
World War II In 1941, during the Helleno-Italian War, when Hitler demanded passage around the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to attack Greece, the Regent Prince Paul attempted to appease Hitler by offering a non-aggression pact but, ultimately, signed the Tripartite Pact that would allow German passage. In return, the Greek city of Thessaloniki was promised to Yugoslavia. Two days later the army, aided secretly by the UK and the USSR, overthrew the regime with the popular support of both the Serbian people. Although it is arguable that this had more to do with the Serbian anti-German sentiments rather than a love for Greece, the fact remains that the Serbian people still remembered Venizelos' response to Vienna's suggestion for Greece to attack and invade Serbia decades earlier: "Greece is too small a country to do such big malice". Despite the fact that the new Yugoslav government again tried to appease Hitler (given that the country was surrounded on three sides) with neutrality and promises of adhering to previous agreements, the Serbian people were enthusiastic in denouncing the Tripartite Pact and Serb crowds paraded the streets of Belgrade shouting slogans like "Better War than the Pact".L.S. Stavrianos, The Balkans since 1453, page 756. Hitler was not pleased and, immediately following the coup had decided to invade Yugoslavia—no longer trusting their proclamations—and divide the Yugoslav territories of the Adriatic coast, Banat, and Macedonia between Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria, respectively. After the fall of Yugoslavia, the Serbian people were punished with genocide by the pro-German Croatian Ustaše.
Yugoslav Wars In 1992, the UN responded to Serbian offensives in Bosnia and Herzegovina by declaring a full embargo on trade with Serbia by all member nations. The sanctions placed Greece, which had recognized the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina shortly after its declaration in 1992, in a difficult position. Serbia was an important trading partner with strong religious and historical ties to Greece, and Serbia had initially supported the Greek position on the Macedonia naming dispute. Beginning in 1992, the Konstantinos Mitsotakis and Andreas Papandreou governments, fearing that the Bosnian war would spread in a direction that would involve Turkey, Albania and Greece, undertook long series of peace-negotiations with Serbia's president, Slobodan Milošević, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić, and the Bosnian government without results. Meanwhile, food, oil, and arms were reported moving from Greece into Serbia in violation of the UN embargo. Before, during, and after its 1994 presidency of the EU, Greece was the only EU nation to back the Serbian position that Serbian forces had entered Bosnian territory. In early 1994, Greece incurred the displeasure of its European allies by voting against NATO air strikes on Serbian positions. Greece also refused the use of its NATO air bases at Preveza Air Base on the Ionian Sea for such attacks and refused to supply Greek troops to the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. In late 1994, after official talks with Milošević in Athens, Papandreou reiterated that the positions of Greece and Serbia on the Bosnia issue were virtually identical. According to University of Amsterdam professor C. Wiebes, the Hellenic National Intelligence Service (EYP) systematically sabotaged NATO operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in an attempt to aid Bosnian Serb. In his report for the Dutch government, Wiebes claims that during the summer of 1995 EYP leaked classified NATO military plans to the Serb Bosnian leadership, and often to General Ratko Mladić himself. Eventually, Wiebes states in the report, NATO allies ceased sharing NATO military plans with the Greek authorities. A dozen Greek volunteers, members of the Greek Volunteer Guard (ΕΕΦ), fought alongside the Serbs at Srebrenica.AFP; "Greek Volunteers Fought Alongside Bosnian Serbs." OMRI Daily News Digest, 13 July 1995 ;. Retrieved 31 July 2010. The Greek volunteers were motivated by the desire to support their "Orthodox brothers" in battle.Grohmann, Karolos; "Greece starts probe into Srebrenica massacre"; Reuters, 27 June 2006 They raised the Greek flag at Srebrenica after the fall of the town at Mladić's request, to honour "the brave Greeks fighting on our side.""Greek role in Srebrenica massacre investigated" , The Independent, 29 June 2005