All this took an ugly turn in 1911 with the founding in Serbia of the pan-Serbian highly-secret organization "Union or Death" or so-called Black Hand, which attracted many Bosnian Serbs and was responsible thereafter for a number of assassinations of Austrian officials and police. It promoted the notion of a Greater Serbia to be achieved through methods of terrorism and exercised considerable influence on high officials within Serbian government circles and in the army. Agitation reached boiling-point in 1912 when the Balkan states (Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece) went to war against Turkey. This arose out of Slavic concern for the Orthodox Christians in Macedonia (part of remaining Turkish territory in the Balkans) who were suffering persecution by the Turks. To everyone's surprise, the Turks were routed on all sides and a preliminary peace was eventually concluded in May 1913 which gave great territorial gains to Serbia and the others. Turkey, after 400 years of occupation of the region, was finally driven out of Europe, retaining only a small strip of land on the western side of the Turkish Straits which, thanks to the rivalry of the great powers, still allowed her to deny passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean to Russian warships. Now, however, it was the turn of the great powers to intervene to ensure that their own interests would not be compromised in the settlement. Thus, while some territorial changes were allowed, Austria-Hungary insisted that Serbia, already greatly enlarged by her victory over the Turks, be prevented from absorbing Turkish Albania, which was made an independent state. A great victory had therefore been denied Serbia by Austrian intervention, for she would not have the access to the sea that she desired. Defiantly, Serb army units occupied parts of Albania. Though Russian public opinion was in support of Serbia's ambitions, the Russian government, chastened by firm German support of Austria even to the point of war, refused to come to her aid.
