The Paris Peace Treaties were signed on 10 February 1947 following the end of World War II in 1945. The Paris Peace Conference lasted from 29 July until 15 October 1946. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of peace treaties with those former Axis powers, namely Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland, which had switched sides and declared war on Germany during the war. They were allowed to fully resume their responsibilities as sovereign states in international affairs and to qualify for membership in the United Nations. Nevertheless, the Paris Peace Treaties avoided taking into consideration the consequences of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially known as the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, whose secret clauses included the division of Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the occupation of the Baltic States, and the annexation of parts of Finland and Romania. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact changed the borders agreed after the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), and was signed on August 23, 1939. One week later, World War II started with Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, followed three weeks later by the Soviet invasion of Poland, which was completely erased from the map. In the following years, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union changed the borders established by the peace treaties at the end of World War I.
The Tito–Stalin split or the Soviet–Yugoslav split was the culmination of a conflict between the political leaderships of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, under Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin, respectively, in the years following World War II. Although presented by both sides as an ideological dispute, the conflict was as much the product of a geopolitical struggle in the Balkans that also involved Albania, Bulgaria, and the communist insurgency in Greece, which Tito's Yugoslavia supported and the Soviet Union secretly opposed.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1244, adopted on 10 June 1999, after recalling resolutions 1160 (1998), 1199 (1998), 1203 (1998) and 1239 (1999), authorised an international civil and military presence in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and established the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). It followed an agreement by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević to terms proposed by President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari and former Prime Minister of Russia Viktor Chernomyrdin on 8 June, involving withdrawal of all Yugoslav state forces from Kosovo.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 12, adopted on December 10, 1946, decided that Greece and Yugoslavia will be invited to participate without the right to vote, that Albania and Bulgaria will be invited to make declarations before the Council and that at a later stage Albania and Bulgaria may be invited to participate without the right to vote.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 15, adopted unanimously on December 19, 1946, established a commission to investigate the nature of, and recommend a solution to, the alleged border violations along the frontier of Greece with Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. The commission was to arrive on site no later than January 15, 1947, and issue a report to the Council as soon as possible.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 17, adopted on 10 February 1947, determined that the Commission of Investigation created by Security Council Resolution 15 was not empowered to request the governments of Greece, Albania, Bulgaria or Yugoslavia to postpone the executions of any of their political prisoners unless the Commission believed they could give testimony that might assist it in its work.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 19, adopted on February 27, 1947, created a sub-committee of three members to examine all the facts involved in the dispute between the United Kingdom and Albania over the Corfu Channel incident and to make a report to the Council no later than March 10, 1947. Two British vessels were sunk by mines in the Straits on October 22, 1946.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 22, adopted on April 9, 1947, recommended that the United Kingdom and Albania take their dispute involving the sinking of two British vessels by mines in the Straits of Corfu on October 22, 1946 to the International Court of Justice.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 29 was adopted unanimously on 12 August 1947. Upon having reviewed – and, in some cases, re-reviewed – applications for membership in the United Nations by Albania, Mongolia, Transjordan, Ireland, Portugal, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Austria, the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, Bulgaria and the Dominion of Pakistan, the Council recommended that the General Assembly admit Yemen and Pakistan.
Resolution 82 was adopted by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 25 June 1950. It condemned the "armed attack on the Republic of Korea by forces from North Korea", while calling for "the immediate cessation of hostilities" and for "the authorities in North Korea to withdraw forthwith their armed forces to the 38th parallel". The measure was adopted with 9 voting for, none opposed, and one abstention by the Soviet Union, who was boycotting the UN at the time for its recognition of the Republic of China as China's representative to the organization.
The People's Socialist Republic of Albania, officially the People's Republic of Albania from 1946 until 1976, was the one-party communist state in Albania from 1946 to 1991. It succeeded the Democratic Government of Albania (1944–1946).
During and after the Greek Civil War of 1946–1949, members and or supporters of the defeated Communist forces fled Greece as political refugees. The collapse of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) and subsequent evacuation of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) to Tashkent in 1949 led thousands of people to leave the country. It has been estimated that by 1949, over 100,000 people had left Greece for Yugoslavia and the Eastern Bloc, particularly the USSR and Czechoslovakia. These included tens of thousands of child refugees who had been forcefully evacuated by the KKE. The war wrought widespread devastation right across Greece and particularly in the regions of Macedonia and Epirus, causing many people to continue to leave the country even after it had ended.
United Nations Security Council resolution 795, adopted on 11 December 1992, after expressing concern about possible developments which could undermine confidence and stability in the Republic of Macedonia and welcoming the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Macedonia, the Council recalled Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter and authorised the Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to deploy a presence of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in the border areas of Macedonia.
United Nations Security Council resolution 908, adopted unanimously on 31 March 1994, after reaffirming all resolutions on the situation in the former Yugoslavia and in particular Resolution 871 (1993), the council extended the mandate of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) until 30 September 1994 and declared its intention to increase the number of personnel in the peacekeeping force.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1105, adopted unanimously on 9 April 1997, after recalling Resolution 1082 (1996), the Council decided to suspend reduction of the military component of the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) in Macedonia until the end of its current mandate, until 31 May 1997.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1160, adopted on 31 March 1998, after noting the situation in Kosovo, the council, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, imposed an arms embargo and economic sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, hoping to end the use of excessive force by the government.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1199, adopted on 23 September 1998, after recalling Resolution 1160 (1998), the Council demanded that the Albanian and Yugoslav parties in Kosovo end hostilities and observe a ceasefire.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1203, adopted on 24 October 1998, after recalling resolutions 1160 (1998) and 1199 (1998) on Kosovo, the Council demanded that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia comply with previous Security Council resolutions and co-operate with the NATO and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) verification missions in Kosovo.
United Nations Security Council resolution 1345, adopted unanimously on 21 March 2001, after reaffirming resolutions 1160 (1998), 1199 (1998), 1203 (2000), 1239 (1999) and 1244 (1999) on the situation in the former Yugoslavia, the council condemned extremist violence and terrorist activities in parts of Macedonia and southern Serbia and called upon Kosovo Albanian leaders to condemn the violence.
The Greek Civil War took place from 1946 to 1949. The conflict, which erupted shortly after the end of World War II, consisted of a communist-dominated uprising against the established government of the Kingdom of Greece. The opposition declared a people's republic, the Provisional Democratic Government of Greece, which was governed by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and its military branch, the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE). The rebels were supported by Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. With the support of the United Kingdom and United States, the Greek government forces ultimately prevailed.
