After the
Tarlis incident in which 17
Bulgarian peasants were killed by a Greek soldier on July 27, 1924, near the Greco-Bulgarian border, tensions between the two countries increased. As a result, on 29 September, 1924 a protocol was signed at the
League of Nations in Geneva by
Nikolaos Politis and
Hristo Kalfov, concerning the "Protection of the Bulgarian minority in Greece". This agreement constituted the first official acknowledgement by Greece that a Bulgarian minority existed there. The
Bulgarian National Assembly quickly ratified it in October. The protocol obliged Greece to treat all members of this minority according to the terms of the
Treaty of Sèvres. The Greeks agreed to sponsor Bulgarian-minority schools, to allow the presence of
Exarchist priests if they obtained Greek citizenship and to open a minority affairs bureau in
Thessaloniki and to administer minority rights. Meanwhile, in Greece, internal reaction against the Protocol arose because public opinion stood against the recognition of any "
Bulgarian" minority in
Northern Greece. Belgrade also was suspicious of Greece's recognition of a Bulgarian minority and was annoyed that would hinder its policy of forced “
Serbianisation” in
Serbian Macedonia. On February 2, 1925, the
Greek Parliament, claiming pressure from the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which threatened to renounce the
Greek–Serbian Alliance of 1913, refused to ratify the agreement. On 29 May 1925, the Greek government maintained that Greece was open to any suggestions concerning the "
Slavic-speaking linguistic minority" but that the existence of an ethno-religious (
Bulgarian Exarchist minority) was completely unacceptable. ==See also==