Eastern question

The appearance of the Ottoman Turks in Europe and the formation of a powerful Muslim state in the Balkan Peninsula seriously changed the relationship between Christians and Islam : the Ottoman state became one of the factors of the international political life of Europe; they were afraid of him, and at the same time they sought union with him. The beginning of diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire was laid by France at a time when other European powers were shunned to have any relations with the Ottomans.

Equally hostile relations of France and Turkey to the Austrian Empire in the person of Charles V contributed to the conclusion in 1528 of the first alliance between France and Turkey . Soon the religious union joined the political union. The French King Francis I wished that one church in Jerusalem , turned into a mosque, be returned to Christians. Sultan refused to do this, but in his solemn letter he gave the king a promise to preserve and maintain all the Christian churches and chapels set up in Turkish territory.

In 1535, capitulations were concluded, which ensured religious freedom for French nationals in Turkey, as well as unimpeded visits to the Holy Places not only by the French, but by all foreigners under the auspices of France. Because of these capitulations, France has long been the only representative of the Western European world in Turkey.

In the middle of the seventeenth century, the Ottoman Empire entered a period of long-term decline. After the defeat of the Turks by the Austrians and Poles near Vienna in 1683, their advance into Europe was stopped. The weakening of the empire contributed to the rise of the national liberation movement of the Balkan peoples ( Greeks , Bulgarians , Vlachs , Serbs , Montenegrins ), mostly Orthodox. On the other hand, in the 17th century, the political and economic positions of France and Great Britain strengthened in the Ottoman Empire, and, wishing to retain their influence and prevent territorial gains by other powers (especially Austria and Russia), began in their real politics to advocate for the preservation of its territorial integrity and against the liberation of the conquered Christian nations.

From the middle of the 18th century, the role of the main enemy of the Ottoman Empire passed from Austria to Russia. The victory of the last in the war of 1768-1774 led to a dramatic change in the situation in the Black Sea region .

The Treaty of Kuchuk-Kaynardzhi in 1774 established for the first time the beginning of Russia's intervention in the affairs of Turkey. Under article 7 of this treaty, the Port promises firm protection of Christian law and its churches; likewise, allows Russian ministers “to do, in all circumstances, in favor of both the church erected in Constantinople and those who serve it in various ways. The port promises to accept these ideas, supposedly made by a trusted special neighboring and sincerely friendly power. ” In addition, paragraph 10 of the Article 16 of the Treaty, Turkey agreed that, in the circumstances of the principalities of Moldavian and Valassky, the ministers of the Russian court at the brilliant Port could speak in favor of these principalities.

Catherine II (1762-1796) had a project for the complete expulsion of the Turks from Europe , the restoration of the Greek Empire (she planned to build her grandson Konstantin Pavlovich on her throne), the transfer of Austria to the western part of the Balkan Peninsula and the creation of the Dacia buffer state from the Danube principalities. At the same time, Porta (the Ottoman government), hoping to take revenge for defeat in the war of 1768-1774, with the active support of Great Britain and France, launched a new war against Russia ( Russian-Turkish war of 1787-1791 ), on the side of which in 1788 Austria . In 1788, Anglo-French diplomacy succeeded in provoking an attack on Sweden by Russia (the Russian-Swedish war of 1788-1790 ). But the actions of the anti-Russian coalition were unsuccessful: in 1790, Sweden (the Peace of Verelia ) emerged from the war, and in 1791 Turkey had to agree to conclude the Yassy peace , which confirmed the terms of the Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhiy treaty and moved the Russian-Turkish border back to Dniester; The port refused claims on Georgia and recognized the right of Russian intervention in the internal affairs of the Danube principalities.

The following treatises: Bucharest in 1812 and others confirmed the special rights of Russia. The sole protectorate of Russia over Christians in Turkey could not be pleasant to other European powers, although in the last century Russia has never exercised this right, but having done everything possible to encourage other European powers to jointly influence Turkey. Even at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which, by the way, banned the trade of blacks , Emperor Alexander I believed that the Eastern Question equally deserves the attention of the great powers who have taken the trouble to establish a long-lasting peace in Europe. The circular note on this subject (February 1815), however, had no consequences. The uprising of the Greeks, which broke out soon after that, and the terrible barbarism of the Turks, while suppressing it, prompted Russia to intervene in this war together with other powers. Thanks to the policy of Canning (British Prime Minister) , an agreement was reached, though not for long, between England, Russia and France.

After the Peace of Adrianople in 1829, Emperor Nicholas I ordered a special secret committee, chaired by Prince Kochubey , to study the position of Turkey and find out the position of Russia in the event of the collapse of Turkey. John Kapodistrias proposed at that time to form five minor states from the Turkish Empire, namely: 1) the principality of Dacia - from Moldova and Wallachia; 2) the Kingdom of Serbia - from Serbia, Bosnia and Bulgaria; 3) the Kingdom of Macedonia - from Thrace, Macedonia and several islands: Propontida, Samothrace , Imbros , Tazos; 4) the kingdom of Epirus - from the upper and lower Albania, and finally 5) the kingdom of Greece, in the south of the Balkan Peninsula from the river and the city of Arta. Constantinople , the key of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits , he intended to declare a free city and a center of confederation, which the five states would constitute. Whether the committee has entered into consideration of this project is unknown; but the committee decided unanimously that maintaining the existence of the Turkish Empire in Europe is much more beneficial for Russia than its abolition and the formation of a free city from Constantinople.

Emperor Nicholas I, at the beginning of his reign, was fond of hoping to fulfill Catherine II’s cherished dream - to drive the Turks out of Europe - abandoned this thought and not only did not contribute to the speedy demise of the “ sick man of Europe ” (the so-called Emperor Nicholas of Turkey in an intimate conversation) and decomposition his remains, but he maintained and protected his existence. When the uprising of the Egyptian plow Megmet-Ali almost crushed Turkey, Russia in 1833 entered into a defensive alliance with her and sent her army and navy to help the Sultan. In his conversation with the Austrian envoy Fikelmon, Emperor Nicholas said, "that he will come to the aid of Turkey if necessary, but that it is not in his power to give life to the dead." “If Turkey falls, I don’t want anything from its ruins; I need nothing". The Unkar-Iskelesi Treaty of 1833, which intervened in Turkish affairs behind Russia alone, gave way to the London treatise of 1840, which established a joint protectorate of Russia, England, Austria and Prussia (which France also soon joined).

The followers of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches have long fought each other in the East and vied over the various benefits and advantages of Christians visiting Holy Places. The resolution of these disputes often made Porto difficult, incurring the displeasure of one of the parties, and sometimes of both, in a matter alien to her. As early as 1740, France managed to grant some privileges to the detriment of Orthodoxy for the Latin Church. Later, the followers of the Greek confession succeeded in obtaining from the sultan several firms who restored their ancient rights. The beginning of the complications was the note in 1850 of the French envoy, in which he, basing himself on the treaty of 1740, sought to return to the Catholic clergy some of the holy places in Jerusalem and its environs. The Russian government made demands incompatible with French harassment. During this period, a coalition of European powers came out against Russia in the Eastern Question. The Austrian ambassador to Constantinople, Baron Prokesch-Austen, shortly after the Crimean War, declared: “What is usually called the Eastern question in relation to Turkey is nothing other than a question between Russia and the rest of Europe .” ^[2] .

A firm was prepared, favorable for Russia; but Turkey was slow with its promulgation. Hence the rupture of Russia, first with Turkey (1853), and then with the Western powers, and the Crimean War , which ended in the Paris world on March 18, 1856 . One of its main conditions was the abolition of the sole protectorate of Russia over Christians in Turkey; instead, it appeared the collective protection of the great Christian nations by all the great powers.

Thus, the European powers chose the path outlined by Russia in the 18th century and recognized for their representatives in the East the right that was first proclaimed by Empress Catherine II in favor of the Russian agents in 1774. Reasons for intervention were not slow to introduce themselves. Already in 1860, Muslims carried out a terrible massacre of Christians in Syria . Five great powers decided to intervene in this matter not only by diplomatic notes, but also in arms. The French army was sent to the East, and the Port acknowledged that such interference of the powers in its internal affairs is neither an attempt on its independence, nor an insult to its dignity. The uprising that erupted shortly thereafter in Kandia in 1866 again caused European intervention, and, however, not one of the powers took up arms, leaving the population of Kandia to sacrifice to the fanaticism of the Turks. The same failure befell the intervention of the powers in the uprising of Herzegovina in 1875 and then of Serbia in 1876 ; all ideas, advice, insistent demands of European cabinets (European concert) remained without success due to the lack of resolute and energetic will to force Turkey, if necessary, to fulfill the requirements by force of arms, as well as the lack of agreement between the powers. From the very beginning of the uprising in Herzegovina, Russia loudly announced its intention to do everything that it could, with the general consent of the signatories of the Paris Treaty, to alleviate the suffering of Christians in Turkey and to put an end to the shedding of blood. The intention of Russia to act in concert with other powers, Porta took for an equivalent decision in no case to turn to arms.

This assumption was not justified: the war broke out in 1877-1878 . The exploits of the Russian troops led them to Constantinople itself. By the preliminary San Stefano Tract, the Port recognized the independence of Romania , Serbia and Montenegro ; from Bulgaria it was decided to form a self-governing, paying tribute to the principality with the Christian government and the territorial army; in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey has pledged to introduce the proposals of the European powers to the Turkish government earlier (at the first meeting of the Constantinople conference ), with the changes that will be established by mutual agreement between Porto, the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian government. These rulings were substantially modified by the Berlin Treatise . Protecting the interests of the Christian population and this treatise was recognized as a pan-European affair. Porta expressed a strong intention to respect the principle of religious freedom in the broadest sense. Religious distinctions cannot give a reason, in any part of the Ottoman Empire, to the non-recognition of someone’s legal capacity in all matters relating to the enjoyment of civil and political rights, access to public office and the administration of various free activities and crafts. Freedom of worship is ensured for all, and no constraints can be made in the hierarchical structure of various religious communities and in their relations with their spiritual heads. The right of official patronage is recognized for the diplomatic and consular agents of the powers in Turkey, both in relation to the clergy, pilgrims and monks of all nations traveling in European and Asian Turkey, as well as institutions of spiritual, charitable and other places in the Holy and other places.

At the end of the 19th century, the Russian military-political leadership was actively developing plans for the landing of a Russian landing force on the Bosporus .

During the reactionary reign of Abdul-Hamid ( 1876-1909 ), Turkey’s internal decay progressed. Powers one by one, first Austria, then Italy, then small Balkan states used Turkey’s predicament to reject the territories from it: Austria - Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908 , Italy - Tripoli in 1911 - 1912 , and four secondary powers of the Balkan Peninsula began in 1912, the war with Turkey .

The Eastern Question became aggravated due to the mass annihilation of the Armenian and Greek population in 1915-1917 . At the same time, the Allies on the Entente on March 18, 1915 made it clear to the Russian government that if the Dardanelles operation was victorious, Constantinople and the Black Sea straits would be transferred to Russia ^[3] . The capitulation of Turkey in the world war in October 1918 and the fall of the Orthodox monarchy in Russia, the national-bourgeois revolution that began in Turkey, which abolished the caliphate , radically changed the situation in the region.

After the victory of the Kemalists in the Greek-Turkish war of 1919–22, at the Lausanne Peace Conference in 1923, new borders of Turkey and the countries of the former Entente were identified, and a number of other issues were resolved, including population exchanges , which led to the legal elimination of the Eastern relationship.

• Armenian question
• Great Idea (Greece)
• Greco-Bulgarian schism
• Russian-Turkish wars
• Black Sea Straits
• Formation of the territory of the Russian Empire

• Eastern Question // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 extra.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• S. Zhigarev. Russian Policy in the Eastern Question (Its History in the 16th — 19th Centuries, Critical Assessment and Future Tasks). Historical and legal essays. M., 1896, T. I — II.
• Lebedev A.A. Constantinople "drama" 1853 St. Petersburg., 2012. ISBN 978-5-904180-58-4
• Ulyanitsky V.A. Dardanelles, the Bosphorus and the Black Sea in the 18th century M .: A. Gattsuli, 1883.
• Chikhachev P. A. Great Powers and the Eastern Question. M .: Science, 1970.

• Eastern question article by Ivan Krivushin