 In the earlier 20th century the relations were affected by periods of intense mutual hostility.Since Bulgaria's independence in 1908, Greece and Bulgaria took part in three major wars in opposite coalitions, the Second Balkan War (although they were allies at the First Balkan War), the First World War and the Second World War, plus the Cold War, and they even fought a "Stray dog war" in 1925.After the Second World War, the relations between Greece and Bulgaria have been flourishing, and as the Greek President Konstantinos Tsatsos said during the Bulgarian leader Todor Zhivkov's visit to Athens in April 1976, ""the old controversies have been forgotten and the hatchet buried forever"".