The Southern Europe Transformation

1939-1940
=== The POD is at the beginning of the WW2, where The Bulgarian Tsardom joins the war on the side of the Axis early on near the beginning of the war on October 3rd. Bulgaria starts an surprise assault on Greece on October 12th and takes some of the Greek Border. Bulgaria then decides to strike a deal with The Kingdom of Albania, which was under Italian control since April 12th 1939, to attack and take Greece. On the 16th October, Bulgaria and Albania attacked the North and West of Greece. This conquest would take several weeks. A few weeks into the crusade, Bulgaria made a treaty with Romania (who was neutral at this moment in time) which was if Romania helped with the conquest of Greece, Bulgaria would protect Romania with their military. Romania agreed and joined on October 26th. They sent their soldiers through Bulgaria. Anti Greek propaganda was being spread throughout Romania and Bulgaria and Romanian soldiers marching towards Greece and Romanian and Bulgarian citizens claiming that the soldiers were heroes didn&amp;apos;t help. Greece was losing this several week invasion and contacted Britain for support. Britain was busy so Greece contacted Turkey. Turkey joined forces with Greece on November 10th and sent military support through Istanbul. This would be known as 'The War on Four Fronts' (Romanian/Bulgarian and Albanian vs Turkish and Greek). This conflict would greatly affect the war as a whole. On December 3rd, Turkey invaded the coast from Turkey and not Istanbul. This was a suprise to Bulgaria so some of the Bulgarian coast was lost. Meanwhile Albania and Greece was locked in a stalemate until December 29th when Albania takes most of mainland Greece. It was at this point when Italy couldn&amp;apos;t fund the Albanian military and was leading the kingdom rebelled. Italy settled this by making a treaty with Albania that it could be it&amp;apos;s own nation as long as Italy had some say in what happens. Albania agreed so The Kingdom of Albania became the Axis Republic of Albania. On January 20th, a Nazi submarine sank a Algerian ship which used to belong to Greece. This creates tension between the two powers. Bulgaria and Romania went on a full assault against Istanbul and finally captured it on January 23rd. Turkey fortifies its coasts but Romania and Bulgaria have the upper hand. Meanwhile in Greece, Axis Republic of Albania (ARA) has pushed the Greeks back to small islands. On 14th February, the remains of Greece surrender. ARA puts up a puppet government to govern Greece. Italy contacts ARA and tries to put down laws in Greece but ARA refuses saying that the ARA does not bow down to Italy. Italy threatens ARA and ARA says that they have Bulgaria and Romania behind them. Italy said they would invade ARA however (as Albania used to be controlled by Italy) ARA called Italy&amp;apos;s bluff and refused to give in. Meanwhile, Bulgaria and Romania made a temporary peace treaty with Turkey on 16th February. The ARA demolishes many old staples of Greek culture including the capital, Athens. They build a new one on the border near Albania. Meanwhile in Bulgaria, the people, who were loyal to Hitler, started turning on the Tsar Boris III, who disagreed with deportation of Jews. They captured the Tsar and shot him and his family on 23rd of February. Bulgaria demolishes the monarchy and becomes a Fascist country. It switches from The Third Bulgarian Tsardom to The Third Bulgarian Empire. Hitler ordered German troops into Bulgaria for another attack on Turkey. Meanwhile, a political conflict was going on between Italy and the ARA. Italy was threatening a full scale invasion as the ARA broke the treaty. It didn't help that the leader of the ARA burnt a copy of the treaty on national television to show their revolution. This conflict was so dangerously close to a full-scale war that Nazi Germany put an end to it. Hitler met with Mussolini and the leader of the ARA and discussed the events. Hitler agreed with the ARA as they were a valuable resource and Hitler knew of Italy's many weaknesses ===