The Second Battle of Çatalca fought between 3 February 1913 and 3 April 1913 was a major "continuous skirmish" of the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...

Background

The Bulgarian advance at the beginning of the First Balkan War stalled at the Ottoman fortifications at Çatalca in November 1912 at the

First Battle of Çatalca The First Battle of Çatalca was one of the heaviest battles of the First Balkan War fought between . It was initiated as an attempt of the combined Bulgarian First and Third armies, under the overall command of lieutenant general Radko Dimitri ...

. A two-month

ceasefire A ceasefire (also known as a truce or armistice), also spelled cease fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be between state act ...

(armistice) was agreed to on 3 December .S. 20 November1912 to allow for peace talks to proceed in London. The talks there stalled when on 23 January .S. 10 January1913 an Ottoman

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

returned Unionists to power, with their non-negotiable stance on retaining

Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis ( Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders ...

. Hostilities resumed upon expiration of the armistice, on 3 February .S. 21 January1913, and the Second Battle of Çatalca began.

Battle

The battle consisted of a series of thrusts and counter-thrusts by both the Ottomans and the Bulgarians. On 20 February the Ottomans, in coordination with a separate attack from Gallipoli, charged the Bulgarian positions. Although the Bulgarians repulsed the initial attack, they were weakened enough that they withdrew over fifteen kilometers to the south and twenty kilometers to the west to secondary defensive positions; but eventually the lines returned to essentially the originals. The separate siege of Edirne resulted in its loss to the Bulgarians on 26 March, sapping Ottoman morale; and with heavy Bulgarian losses to both fighting and cholera, the battle dwindled down and ceased by 3 April 1913. On 16 April a second ceasefire (armistice) was agreed to, ending the last fighting in the war.

Results

The Ottomans held the "Çatalca Line", but failed to advance. The loss of Edirne ended the major Ottoman objection to peace and the Treaty of London on 10 June 1913 codified the Ottoman loss of territory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Catalca, Second Battle of Battles of the First Balkan War Conflicts in 1912 1912 in the Ottoman Empire Battles involving the Ottoman Empire Battles involving Bulgaria History of Istanbul Province February 1913 events March 1913 events April 1913 events Battle of Çatalca, Second