Constantinople Conference

The 1876–77 Constantinople Conference ( "Shipyard Conference", after the venue ''Tersane Sarayı'' "Shipyard Palace") of the Great Powers (Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia) was held in Constantinople (now Istanbul) from 23 December 1876 until 20 January 1877. Following the beginning of the Herzegovinian Uprising in 1875 and the April Uprising in April 1876, the Great Powers agreed on a project for political reforms in Bosnia and in the Ottoman territories with a majority- Bulgarian population. The Ottoman Empire refused the proposed reforms, leading to the Russo-Turkish War a few months later.

Participants

The Great Powers were represented at the conference respectively by:

* United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland:
: Lord Salisbury and Sir Henry Elliot;
* Russian Empire:
: Count Nikolay Ignatyev (historical spelling Nicolai Ignatieff);
* French Republic:
: Count Jean-Baptiste de Chaudordy and Count François de Bourgoing;
* German Empire:
: Baron Karl von Werther;
* Austro-Hungarian Empire:
: Baron Heinrich von Calice and Count Ferenc Zichy;
* Kingdom of Italy:
: Count Luigi (Lodovico) Corti.

Of these, Lord Salisbury, Count de Chaudordy and Baron von Calice were Ambassadors Plenipotentiary to the conference, while Count Ignatyev, Sir Henry Elliot, Count de Bourgoing, Baron von Werther, Count Zichy and Count Corti were the resident Ambassadors of their countries in Constantinople.

The US Consul General in Constantinople, Eugene Schuyler also took an active part in drafting the conference decisions.

The Ottoman Empire was represented at the conference by:
* Midhat Pasha, Saffet Pasha and Edhem Pasha.

Midhat Pasha was the Grand Vizier (First Minister), and Saffet Pasha the Foreign Minister of the Ottoman Empire. Although the Ottoman representatives participated in the plenaries of the conference, they were not invited to the preceding working sessions at which the Great Powers negotiated and elaborated their agreement.

Lord Salisbury and Count Ignatyev played a leading role in the process. Ignatyev was trying to dispel British misgivings about Russia's assumed role of a protector of the Eastern Orthodox Slavs being but a disguise of its drive to take over the Black Sea Straits and Constantinople itself and thus – as Prime Minister Disraeli feared – potentially threaten the vital Mediterranean routes to British India via the Suez Canal, completed in 1869. On his part, Salisbury saw the conference as a promising opportunity for mapping out a comprehensive deal with Russia over their conflicting territorial ambitions in Central Asia.

Gallery

File:Marqués de salisbury.jpg, Lord Salisbury
File:Sir-Henry-Elliot-2.png, Sir Henry Elliot
File:N.P.Ignatiev by Kustodiev.jpg, Count Ignatieff
File:Hottinger Volksblatt 1878 065 Bild1.jpg, Sultan Abdul Hamid II
File:Nadar - Portrait of Midhat Pasha.jpg, Midhat Pasha
File:Photo of Eugene Schuyler, American Consul-General in Constantinople.jpg, Eugene Schuyler

Decisions

Bosnia

The conference envisaged the creation of an autonomous province including Bosnia and most of Herzegovina, while a southern part of the latter was to be ceded to the Principality of Montenegro.

Bulgaria

The Great Powers agreed on a substantial Bulgarian autonomy to take the form of two new Ottoman provinces ( vilayets) established for the purpose: Eastern, with capital Tarnovo, and Western, with capital Sofia.

The conference determined that, as of the late 19th century, the Bulgarian ethnic territories within the Ottoman Empire extended to Tulcea and the Danube Delta in the northeast, Ohrid and Kastoria in the southwest, Kirklareli and Edirne in the southeast, and Leskovac and Niš in the northwest. These territories were to be incorporated into the two Bulgarian autonomous provinces as follows:

* Eastern Bulgarian autonomous province, including the Ottoman sandjaks – second level administrative divisions – of Tırnova, Rusçuk, Tulça, Varna, Sliven, Filibe (bar the kazas – third level administrative divisions – of Sultaneri and Ahıçelebi), and part of the Edirne sandjak including the kazas of Kırkkilise, Mustafapaşa and Kızılağaç.Conference de Constantinople. Reunions Préliminaires. Compte rendu No. 8. Scéance du 21 décembre 1876. Annexe III Bulgare. Règlement organique. (in French)Further Correspondence respecting the affairs of Turkey. (With Maps of proposed Bulgarian Vilayets). Parliamentary Papers No 13 (1877).
* Western Bulgarian autonomous province, including the sandjaks of Sofya, Vidin, Niş, Üsküp, Manastır (bar the kazas of Debre and Korça), the Nevrokop, Melnik and Demirhisar kazas of the Serez sandjak, and the kazas of Ustrumca, Köprülü, Tikveş and Kesriye.

The Great Powers elaborated in detail the constitutional, legislative, executive, defense and law enforcement arrangements, cantonal administrative system, taxation, international supervision etc. for the proposed autonomous provinces.

Conclusion

The agreed decisions of the six Great Powers were formally handed over to the Ottoman Government on 23 December 1876, dismissing the opening Ottoman suggestions that the Conference's mission might be unnecessary, given a new Ottoman Constitution approved by Sultan Abdul Hamid II that same day. In the subsequent conference's plenary sessions, the Ottoman Empire submitted objections and alternative reform proposals that were rejected by the Great Powers, and attempts to bridge the gap did not succeed. Eventually, on 18 January 1877 Grand Vizier Midhat Pasha announced the definitive refusal of the Ottoman Empire to accept the conference decisions.N. Ivanova
1876 Constantinople Conference: Positions of the Great Powers on the Bulgarian political question during the Conference.
Sofia University, 2007. (in Bulgarian)

Legacy

The rejection by the Ottoman Government of the decisions of the Constantinople Conference triggered the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War, depriving at the same time the Ottoman Empire – in contrast to the preceding 1853–1856 Crimean War – of Western support.

Tsarigrad Peak in Imeon Range on Smith Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after the conference (‘ Tsarigrad’ being the old Bulgarian name for Constantinople).

Bulgarian historiography treats the conference as the most reliable international evidence for the Bulgarian character of the local Slavic population of Macedonia due to the fact that the Ottoman Empire and the 6 European Great Powers, regardless of the differences in their geopolitical interests, recognized the majority of the area as such with a predominantly Bulgarian population, although the April Uprising, which drew international attention to the Bulgarian national question, hardly broke out in Macedonia.Quo vadis, Македонио!
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Maps

Bulgaria in the borders after the Treaties of Constantinople, San-Stephano, Berlin, London, Bucharest and Neuilly.
Scale 1:1600000 map. (in German)

See also

* April Uprising of 1876
* Congress of Berlin
* Eastern question
* Great Eastern Crisis
* Herzegovina uprising (1875–1877)
* International relations (1814–1919)
* Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)

Notes

References

* R.W. Seton-Watson. ''Disraeli, Gladstone and the Eastern Question: A Study in Diplomacy and Party Politics''. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1972. p. 108.
* .

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1876 in the Ottoman Empire
1877 in the Ottoman Empire
1876 conferences
1877 conferences
December 1876
January 1877
19th century in Istanbul
History of Europe
Politics of the Ottoman Empire
Great Eastern Crisis
Bulgarian National Revival
Macedonia under the Ottoman Empire
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury