Kuchuk Kainarji (1)

Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji

From: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition  |  Date: 2008

Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji , 1774, peace treaty signed at the end of the first of the Russo-Turkish Wars undertaken by Catherine II of Russia against Sultan Mustafa III of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). It was signed at the village of Kuchuk Kainarji, now Kaynardzha, NE Bulgaria, in the Dobruja, near the Danube and SE of Silistra. The treaty ceded Kerch and several other Black Sea ports in the Crimea to Russia and declared the rest of the khanate of Crimea independent. Russian trading ships were allowed to navigate in Turkish waters. Moldavia and Walachia were restored to the suzerainty of the sultan, but Russia obtained the right of intervening with the Sublime Porte (the sultan's court) on behalf of those two principalities. Russia furthermore acquired certain rights of representation on behalf of the Greek Orthodox subjects of the sultan. By a separate treaty (1775) Turkey ceded Bukovina to Austria. The Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji facilitated the eventual Russian annexation (1783) of the Crimea and was the basis of the later claims of Russia as protector of the Christians in the Ottoman Empire. The Russian ascendancy over Turkey, of which the treaty was a symptom, made the Eastern Question acute. Varied spellings include the forms Kutchuk and Kainardji.

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The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press

Kuchuk Kainarji (2)

The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (also spelled Kuchuk Kainarji) was signed on July 21, 1774, in Küçük Kaynarca, Dobruja (today Kaynardzha, Silistra Province, Bulgaria) between the Russian Empire (represented by Field-Marshal Rumyantsev) and the Ottoman Empire after the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774^[1].

The treaty was by far the most humiliating blow to the once-mighty Ottoman realm. The Ottomans ceded the part of the Yedisan region between the Dnieper and Southern Bug rivers to Russia. This territory included the port of Kherson and gave the Russian Empire its first direct access to the Black Sea. The treaty also gave Russia the Crimean ports of Kerch and Enikale and the Kabarda region in the Caucasus.

The most significant aspect of this treaty to naval history is that it gave Russia access to warm water ports and passage through the Dardanelles.

"Here at 10-21 July 1774 was signed the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca between the representative of Catherine the Great, Count Peter Rumyantsev and the representative of Sultan Abdul Hamid I, the Grand Vizier Musul Zade Mehmed Pasha. Clause 7 of this treaty reads as follows: The Sublime Porte promises permanent protection of the Christian religion and its churches."

The Ottomans also lost the Crimean Khanate, to which they were forced to grant independence. The Khanate, while nominally independent, was dependent on Russia and was formally annexed into the Russian Empire in 1783. The treaty also granted Russia several non-geographic items. It eliminated restrictions over Russian access to the Azov Sea (the 1739 Treaty of Belgrade had given Russia territory adjacent to the Azov Sea but had prohibited it from fortifying the area or using the sea for shipping.)

It also granted Russia some economic and political rights in the Ottoman Empire, such as allowing Ottoman Eastern Orthodox Christians to sail under the Russian flag and providing for the building of a Russian Orthodox Church in Istanbul (which was never built). Russia also interpreted the treaty as giving them the right to protect Orthodox Christians in the Empire, notably using this prerogative in the Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia) to intervene during the last Phanariote rules and after the Greek War of Independence. The treaty also gave the Ottoman Caliph the right to protect Muslims in Russia, such as those in Crimea. This was the first time the powers of the Ottoman caliph were exercised outside of Ottoman borders and ratified by a European power.

See also

·        History of the Russo-Turkish Wars

·        List of treaties

Kuchuk Kainarji (3)

Kuchuk Kainarji, Treaty of (kOOchOOk' kīnär'jē, Turk. küchük' kī"närjä') [key], 1774, peace treaty signed at the end of the first of the Russo-Turkish Wars undertaken by Catherine II of Russia against Sultan Mustafa III of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). It was signed at the village of Kuchuk Kainarji, now Kaynardzha, NE Bulgaria, in the Dobruja, near the Danube and SE of Silistra. The treaty ceded Kerch and several other Black Sea ports in the Crimea to Russia and declared the rest of the khanate of Crimea independent. Russian trading ships were allowed to navigate in Turkish waters. Moldavia and Walachia were restored to the suzerainty of the sultan, but Russia obtained the right of intervening with the Sublime Porte (the sultan's court) on behalf of those two principalities. Russia furthermore acquired certain rights of representation on behalf of the Greek Orthodox subjects of the sultan. By a separate treaty (1775) Turkey ceded Bukovina to Austria. The Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji facilitated the eventual Russian annexation (1783) of the Crimea and was the basis of the later claims of Russia as protector of the Christians in the Ottoman Empire. The Russian ascendancy over Turkey, of which the treaty was a symptom, made the Eastern Question acute. Varied spellings include the forms Kutchuk and Kainardji.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.