320 Chapter 3
MID#55
Dispute Number: 5 5
Date(s): August 29, 1923 to September 27, 1923
Participants: 325 Italy/350 Greece
Outcome (and Settlement): Yield by side A (Negotiated)
Fatalities: None
Narrative: On August 27, 1923, Italian General Enrico Tellini and three of his assis-
tants were murdered at Janina, on Greek soil. Tellini chaired a border commission for
the Council of Ambassadors that was examining the Albanian-Greece border dispute.
Italy promptly delivered an ultimatum to Greece to comply with its demands for com-
pensation on August 29, and Greece made a counterproposal the next day. On August
31, the Conference of Ambassadors sent a protest note to the Greek government, and
the Italian navy bombarded Corfu and landed marines.
Greece requested help from the League on September 1, and the League began
discussions three days later. The League then transferred the dispute to the Council
of Ambassadors, and Italy and Greece agreed to be bound by the council’s decision.
The council largely followed the outline of Italian demands and ordered Greece to
apologize for the attack on the commissioner and pay 50 million lira to Italy for the
deaths. Italy withdrew from Corfu on September 27, and Greece accepted the Coun-
cil’s decision to pay Italy two days later.
Coding changes: Outcome changed from Yield by side A.
MID#258
Started in March 1939. See the narrative in the 255 Germany/290 Poland dyad dispute list.
MID#418
Dispute Number: 418
Date(s): May 21, 1940 to October 25, 1940
Participants: 325 Italy/350 Greece
Outcome (and Settlement): Joins ongoing war (None)
Fatalities: Missing
Narrative: Italy began moving troops into Albania, which it controlled, to the Alba-
nian border with Greece. Greece responded by putting its armed forces on alert and
began mobilizing. Within a few months, Italy invaded. Stalemate followed over the
winter, but then German forces joined Italy against Greece and knocked Greece out
of the war.
325 Italy/355 Bulgaria
MID#257
Started in July 1914. See the narrative in the 300 Austria-Hungary/345 Yugoslavia
dyad dispute list.