List of the busiest airports in the Balkans
The following list is for all of the countries to occupy Balkan territory with the exception of and , the information contained is for all airports on those territories.
Sometimes the European part of is considered part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Istanbul Atatürk Airport is located there. It had 67,981,446 passengers in 2018, placing it on the top spot in the list. The ( ) Romanian airports that are considered to be on the Balkan Peninsula are Mihail Kogălniceanu International Airport in Constanța and Tulcea Airport in Tulcea. They have respectively 129,235 and 158 passenger traffic.
Serbia in the Balkan Wars
Serbia was one of the main parties in the Balkan Wars (8 October 1912 – 18 July 1913), victorious in both phases. It gained significant territorial areas of the Central Balkans and almost doubled its territory. During the First Balkan War, most of the Kosovo Vilayet was taken by Serbia, while the region of Metohija was taken by the Kingdom of Montenegro, its main allies. Over the centuries, populations of ethnic Serbs and Albanians tended to shift following territorial handovers. As a result of the multi-ethnic composition of Kosovo, the new administration provoked a mixed response from the local population. Whilst according to Noel Malcolm the Albanians did not welcome Serbian rule, the non-Albanian population in the Kosovo Vilayet (predominantly Serbs) considered this a liberation. Kosovo Vilayet was internationally recognised as a part of Serbia and northern Metohija as a part of Montenegro at the Treaty of London in May 1913. In 1918, Serbia transformed into the newly Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later named Yugoslavia. Disagreements regarding the territory of Macedonia among the members of the Balkan League led to the Second Balkan War. Here, Serbia and Greece fought against Bulgaria in 1913. Finalisations concerning which country took which parts were ratified at the Treaty of Bucharest the same year. Serbia came to control the land which became known as "Vardar Macedonia", which today stands independent as the Republic of Macedonia.Following Italy's victory in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912 the Young Turks fell from power after a coup. The Balkan countries saw this as an opportunity to attack the Ottoman Empire and fulfill their desires of expansion. With the initial encouragement of Russian agents, a series of agreements was concluded between Serbia and Bulgaria in March 1912. Military victory against the Ottoman Empire would not be possible while it could bring reinforcements from Asia. The condition of the Ottoman railways of the time was primitive, so most reinforcement would have to come by sea through the Aegean Sea. Greece was the only Balkan country with a navy powerful enough to deny use of the Aegean to the Ottoman Empire, thus a treaty between Greece and Bulgaria became necessary; it was signed in May 1912. Montenegro concluded agreements between Serbia and Bulgaria later that year. Bulgaria signed treaties with Serbia to divide the territory of northern Macedonia, but refused any similar agreement with Greece. Bulgaria's policy was that the agreement would limit Serbia's access to Macedonia, while at the same time Bulgaria could take as much as its army could regardless of Greek wishes. Bulgaria thought it could occupy the larger part of Aegean Macedonia and the important port city of Salonika before the Greeks could get there. This alliance between Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro became known as the Balkan League; its existence was undesirable for all the Great Powers. The League was loose at best, though secret liaison officers were exchanged between the Greek and the Serbian army after the war began. Greece delayed the start of the war several times in the summer of 1912, to better prepare her navy, but Montenegro declared war on 8 October (25 September O.S.). Following an ultimatum to the Ottoman Empire, the remaining members of the alliance entered the conflict on 17 October.The failure of the Şarköy-Bulair operation and the deployment of the 2nd Serbian Army together with its much needed heavy siege artillery sealed Adrianople's fate. On 11 March after a two weeks' bombardment which destroyed many of the fortified structures around the city, the final assault started with Allied forces enjoying a crushing superiority over the Ottoman garrison. Under the command of General Nikola Ivanov, the Bulgarian 2nd Army with 106,425 men and two Serb divisions with 47,275 men conquered the city, with the Bulgarians suffering 8,093 and the Serbs 1,462 casualties. The Ottoman casualties for the entire Adrianople campaign reached 23,000 killed. The number of prisoners is less clear. The Ottoman Empire began the war with 61,250 men in the Adrianople fortress. Richard Hall notes that 60,000 men were captured. Adding to the 33,000 killed, the Turkish historians note that 28,500 man survived captivity leaving only 10,000 men unaccounted for as possibly captured (including the unspecified number of wounded). Bulgarian losses for the entire Adrianople campaign amounted to 7,682. This was the last and decisive battle that was necessary for a quick end to the war, even though it is speculated that the fortress would have fallen eventually due to starvation. The most important result was that now the Ottoman command lost all hopes of regaining the initiative, which made any further fighting pointless.