 Unlike Germany and Italy, Bulgaria officially annexed the occupied territories, which had long been a target of Bulgarian nationalism.East Macedonia and Thrace was part of the Ottoman Empire until 1913, when it became part of Bulgaria, following the Balkan Wars.Six years later, in 1919, after the end of World War I, it was annexed by Greece, following the signing of the Treaty of Neuilly (Greece was on the winning side of World War I, while Bulgaria was on the losing side).