The Ottomans' bizarre theory had nothing to do with Ferdinand. By this point in the fighting, it could basically be declared that the first stage of the strategy had been achieved!
The Greeks had become exceedingly unpleasant to look at. The Northern Sporades Islands, the Cyclades Islands, and the Kounoupia Islands were all in their hands, along with the most crucial prize of all—Crete.
"A common man commits no crime, yet he is punished for possessing jade." That was Greece's true predicament now. In the Mediterranean Sea, the Greeks occupied Corfu, threatening Epirus; in the Aegean Sea, they held a whole string of islands, obstructing Bulgaria's strategy to control the waters of the Aegean Sea.
The Greek question was also exceptionally thorny for Ferdinand. Ever since the Balkan Wars, George I had kept his head down, proactively easing diplomatic relations with Bulgaria.
They had even redirected the anti-Bulgarian hatred within Greece toward the Ottoman Empire. Trying to manufacture a pretext for war would find no one willing to believe it.
Put on the airs of a great power and simply force the issue?
That was not Ferdinand's style. He had always opposed wars of aggression!
Whatever the essence of the matter might be, the surface had to be convincing enough to make people accept it willingly. Otherwise, the hatred would only deepen!
Take the war between Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire. Even now, it was still a war between Bulgarians and Turkish aristocrats. The other ethnic groups within the Ottoman Empire, including ordinary Turkish citizens, all regarded it with complete indifference. This war had nothing to do with them!
Everyone continued doing what they ought to do—those who rebelled kept rebelling, those who sought independence kept seeking independence. There was not the slightest sign that the Ottoman Empire's domestic conflicts