DIPLOMACY AND RIVALRY -- BULGARIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS (1878 -- 1925).

The article traces the long journey to the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the Tsardom of Bulgaria and the Republic of Turkey. It examines the background of the Bulgarian-Turkish diplomatic relations and attempts to clarify some details related to the chronology and ranks of the respective diplomatic missions. The earliest contacts, which took place in a legally unregulated environment and under inequitable conditions are presented, and so are the transformations that unfolded after 1896, when Prince Ferdinand I gained international recognition as the ruler of Bulgaria. In 1909 the Tsardom of Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire established regular diplomatic relations, already as equal entities in international relations, suspended over the period of the Balkan Wars 1912 -- 1913, and subsequently at the end of World War I. Last but not least, the article discusses the Treaty of Friendship of 1925, under which the two countries have maintained diplomatic relations to this day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]