Envoys from five Allied countries marked Saturday the first armistice of World War 1 in Thessaloniki, 100 years after Bulgaria's defeat hastened the end of the "Great War".
The Allies' first triumph "led progressively to the final victory", French state secretary Genevieve Darrieussecq noted during a ceremony at the Zeitenlik military cemetary in northern Greece.
Representatives from Britain, France, Italy, Russia and Serbia attended the event, which celebrated the armistice of September 29, 1918 at the final resting place of 20,000 Allied soldiers.
The unsung victory came almost three years after a Balkans front was launched to support Serb forces against Bulgaria, a German partner, with Allied troops forced to battle malaria and overcome logistic nightmares and inter-Balkan conflicts.
Just six weeks later, the remaining Central Powers, Austria-Hungary, Germany and the Ottoman Empire, capitulated and the "War to End all Wars" ended after some 10 million soldiers had died.