LordKalvert
Banned
Probably pretty easily- Salisbury basically offered it to them in OTL but the Russians didn't want it
An execution preempted: A lethal Otsu incident, Russian empire centered TL
- Thread starter yboxman
- Start date
- Status
Probably pretty easily- Salisbury basically offered it to them in OTL but the Russians didn't want it
Who's going to win TTL Sino-Japanese War?
Will Japan win as in OTL or will China(and Russia) come out on top?
Will Japan win as in OTL or will China(and Russia) come out on top?
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I can think of couple reasons (too much bother for too little gain), but what was their rationale?
In my understanding, the reasoning was not to rock the boat of European relatively balanced power politics by a) putting a fellow, albeit infidel, reactionary plurinational autocracy into trouble that could play into the hands of (infidel) radicals (or even worse, competent reformers) before they have the ability take proper care of the situation on their terms b) messing into a very sensitive area while busy with another, equally sensitive but apparently less dangerous one (the Far East).
There is long-term precedent for this (the treaty of Hunkar Iskelesi for one). The reasoning is actually farily clearly explained in a post of this TL upthread.
LordKalvert
Banned
The Russians didn't want Armenia in OTL because
1) They enjoyed very good relations with the Sultan who was adamantly anti-British by this time (Egypt, Cyprus, Salisbury's proposal to depose him among others)
2) They felt that if they occupied Armenia, the Turkish Armenians would join with the Russian Armenians and revolt against them
3) The Armenians were widespread and the Russian would have the difficult task of suppressing the Kurds and other muslims
4) Nicholas would do it only if Salisbury threw in the straits
1) They enjoyed very good relations with the Sultan who was adamantly anti-British by this time (Egypt, Cyprus, Salisbury's proposal to depose him among others)
2) They felt that if they occupied Armenia, the Turkish Armenians would join with the Russian Armenians and revolt against them
3) The Armenians were widespread and the Russian would have the difficult task of suppressing the Kurds and other muslims
4) Nicholas would do it only if Salisbury threw in the straits
yboxman
Banned
Pretty much. I don't think #3 was much of a concern. The Russians had a better understanding of how much of a Minority the Armenians really were in the Six Vilayets than Britain was but I think they were prepared to use the "circassian solution" on whatever territories they conquered. Doing so, however, would make an already marginal territory even more worthless economically- and in any event it was assumed that Any Russian move to absorb Ottoman Armenia would set off a general feeding frenzy in which Russia would spend the most blood and treasure to recieve the least rewards.
There also seemed to be a semi-irrational component of "anti-Armenianism" which developed both locally (in the administration of the viceroyalty of the Transcausacuas) and in court- that's part of why https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Loris-Melikov was fired. His suggestion to form an Armenian state (WHich would have been subordinate to Russia) out of Russian, Persian and Ottoman Armenia made him vulnerable
Basically, post 1829, the main thrust of Russian policy tended to seek to maintain the Ottoman empire as a friendly and semi-subordinate buffer state in Which Russia retained great influence (much as Russia succesfully did in Persia), rather than continue advancing southwards inexorably as Russia had hithero done.
This policy was challenged by slavophilic factions at court but those factions did not, usually, dominate the foreign ministry. They tended to gain dominance (in 1877 and 1911) Only when events outside Russia's control in the Balkans conspired with a percieved need within the RUssian court to support Slavophilic causes as a means of restoring internal prestige of the regime or to compensate for foreign and domestic policy setbacks elsewhere.
(The Crimean war was a miscalculation in which Russia sought to pressure the Ottomans into maintaining Russia's privileges without taking Napoleon IIIs erratic foreign policy into account. It lacked ideological fervor and that was why it was pursued so indifferently in it's opening phases Vs the Ottomans)
In 1895, OTL, there was no such perceived need- and in any event the non-Slavic Armenain heretics did not arouse the same passion of the Balkan Slavs.
TTL, George is:
a. Lending more of an ear to concerns of local representatives from the Transcaucaus.
b. Is reconsidering the wisdom of his father's Russification policies Vs non Orthodox subjects.
c. is seeking to use the crisis as an excuse to purge his ministers
d. is intrigued by the possibility of collaboration with Britain in a region where they have traditionally clashed (he's also hoping this collaboration will result in British neutrality in any future clash with Japan)
e. Feels more confident of Russia's position in the Far East.
f. Is less averse to war than his brother.
g. Is seeking to leave his mark.
h. Is actually considering the rationale behind Russia's Ottoman policy given the diplomatic reality created by the Franco-Russian alliance.
i. reconsiders Russia's aims in the straits and the Black sea given the effects of railways on the security of Russia's southern coasts in a Crimean War like scenario
yboxman
Banned
#16 Revised. Home front.
June 1895, St Petersburg
Married life was… not what she expected. She knew, of course, that her marriage must be political. Her homeland was small and its independence, wedged between Polyglot Austria, the declining but still mighty Ottoman empire, imperialistic Italy and ambitious Serbia precacious.
But she had still dreamed of romance. And, having belatedly given up on those girlish dreams, at least hoped for friendship.
George seemed at first to be all she could hope for. Handsome and intelligent, experienced in the ways of the world in a way she had not been permitted to be, and not at all shy. And of course, Sole autocrat of the largest land empire on the Planet, and the head of the Orthodox Church. A vanity, perhaps, but the thought of besting her elder sisters was a temptation. And of course George was no stranger and his capital a home far more familiar to her than her native hills.
His courtship was, in retrospect, wildly inappropriate and not only due to it's proximity to Alexander III's funeral. Nikola, her father, was clearly willing to overlook propriety in order to secure the marriage and had approved, following a few chaperoned events, George's invitation for an unchaperoned barge ride on the Oka.
It was the first time she had ever been kissed.
Carried away by the moment she had permitted him to take greater liberities than she had imagined he might, and did not insist he desist overmuch when his hands suffused unfamiliar sensations through her body (1). When he did withdraw, leaving her flustered and red faced she accepted his protestations of being overwhelmed by her beauty. The next day she breathlessly assented to his proposal.
Decency required she return to Montenegro for a interval before they wed and she pined away every day waiting for their reunion. She wrote to him every day long, sometimes tear stained letters. In retrospect his own responses seemed, though well written, to be dutiful, rote and almost perfunctory.
But of course, he was Tsar. He had an empire to govern. And it would be different, of course, when they lived together.
Their wedding day, when it finally occurred, was the most joyous day of her life. And the wedding night… she had been fearful of being unable to please him, and of the pain of course, but he skillfully calmed her fears. The pain was less than she expected, and far less than her pleasure both physical and at the validation of her womanhood. And if she grew to desire him, and the sexual act more than her upbringing said she must then what of it? Her mother and her priest was far away and she was in St.Petersburg, the Paris of the east.
And then, after their brief honeymoon cruise to Denmark and England he disappeared.
There were railways to build, reforms to oversee, armies to inspect. Aside from dinner and the long, torturously pleasant nights that followed she saw little of her husband. It did not bother her too much at first. Her sisters, and his own family were gracious and St Petersburg and it’s social and artistic events a marvel.
But he never seemed to want to talk with her overmuch, telling her little of his day, and showing only perfunctory interest in her own. Much as she sought to share her feelings, experiences and thoughts with him he never shared his own conflicts and insecurities with her. She knew there was more to his soul than he revealed to her. While they still slept together she would be awakened occasionally by his nightmares (2).
But he would not speak to her of them. And she realized, after a time, that he did not share with her his true concerns and dilemmas in the business of the state either. Not, at lease, as her father had done with her mother. Was it because he thought this was not a proper topic for women, let alone his own wife? Did he simply not value her mind, not view her as his equal? Or did he find her curiosity, her intelligence, her convictions offensive, even frightening?
She hungered for meaning, for purpose in her life beyond the façade of Ballet and the theater, beyond the social games and flirtation with the occult her sisters practiced. She wished she could return to he studies in the Smolny institute, perhaps even study in university... but that of course would be utterly inappropriate. When she found she was with child she thought, for a time, that this purpose had been found.
Her pregnancy had lifted her from the growing malaise she felt. Though they no longer shared a bedroom, out of concern for the development of the child, she felt a purpose in her life that her prior patronage of art and charity could not match.
She felt, too, that George now paid her greater attention and spent far more time in her company. She even felt that their conversations were growing less superficial, more significant.
And then she miscarried the child.
When was it, in the depression that followed, that she realized her husband was having an affair? Was it an innocent question asked by Olga about "the lady"? Was it an incongruity in the schedule he absentmindedly described to her with what she read in the papers?
Whoever she was, she did not wish to know. She knew, at least what she no doubt was. Petite and curvaceous rather than tall and gangly. Striking rather than plain. Chatty and alluring rather than shy and withdrawn. Sexually shameless, even aggressive, rather than passive. Probably older than him, and experienced rather than Naïve. Flighty where she was serious and focused. She was everything she could never be and she had no ability or desire to compete with.
But nor did she intend to wane away or waste her days pining for what could never be. She was Tsarina, wherever her Tsar spent his nights, and she would make the most of it.
"Have you heard from your father recently?"
The question startled her. Since the war had started George had taken to sifting over reports during breakfast, and often the entire meal would pass with little discourse. It was a blessing they often shared their meals with his family else she long since would have been driven mad by the solitude.
Today, however, they dined alone.
"I have. It seems Anna will soon be betrothed"
His head rises fully from the report.
"To Victorio Emanuel? I had thought there were… difficulties (3)?"
"There were. His family has consented to Anna keeping her faith provided their children are raised in accordance with the Catholic faith. Is this significant to the course of the war?"
"It's not a war yet. Haven't you heard? The British are still calling it a "Humanitarian intervention". Our men are dying in the mountains of the caucaus while their Indian mercenaries are marching up the blains of Babylon with no Ottoman interference."
He recollects his thoughts.
"Yes, this Italian concession is significant. It may mean that Italy is preparing to actualize their claims on Tripoli and wishes to guarantee Ottoman non-interference by the threat of an alliance with Montenegro and the other Balkan states."
"Could you not do the same? The Ottomans may be prepared to tolerate French and British boots on their soil, but they would surely be forced to draw troops to deal with the threat of war by Montenegro and the other Balkan states."
"They might- but that would involve Austria and Germany. I will not accept the same humiliation my Grandfather did. If this affair shall be settled by a second Berlin conference then our soldiers must make more progress and ensure there are no Turks in the lands we hold when the conference begins."
"Do the generals have hope for a breakthrough?"
"Kuropatkin, at least, is honest. He says he cannot hope to advance into the upper Euphrates before August. It will take him that long to marshal enough supplies and shells, and extend the railway sufficiently westward, to break through the Ottoman lines west of Erzurum. It would go much better, of course, if Alekseyev would cease delaying the Trebizon landings"
The place names were almost totally unfamiliar to Elena prior to the war. Now, like every literate Russian, she has eagerly pored over maps showing the advance of the double eagle into the lands of the crescent. That is unimportant now, however. What is important is that she has her opening.
"There have been reports of terrible suffering in the field hospitals at the front. A terrible lack in doctors and nurses"
George frowns.
"Indeed. We will need to undertake a general military reform after the war to correct errors uncovered during it. The hospitals are the least of it. Shell shortages, insufficient NCOs, outdated doctrines… It is as bad as the great Bulgarian war. But it is better that we learn our faults fighting against the Turk than against a Great Power".
"I have thought of going to Armenia."
George gapes like a fish.
"You? Whatever for?"
"To look after the wounded. And the displaced. Do you remember the refugee camps in Yerevan? Surely there are many more Christians fleeing the atrocities of the Turk. And they too need succor".
"But you have no experience in medicine!"
She meets his eyes head on and draws her chin up.
"I have cared for the wounded of the Great Turkish war when I was still a small girl. I too have seen the angel of death face to face. So too, have my sisters. What we are lacking in formal knowledge we can learn."
Is that a glimmer of respect in his eyes? Or is he simply calculating how much more time he would have for his amorous pursuits if she and her sisters were on the other side of the Empire?
"Besides" she continues in a firm voice "I am Tsarina am I not? The people expect that I should do my part in this war, limited as I am by my Sex. It will comfort them if they know I witness, even if I cannot share, the travails of their sons".
"While I remain at home knitting and looking after the affairs of the state?" he teases her, a hint of the old sparkle in his voice.
She carefully smears her bread with Jam and takes a bite, perhaps fuller than a lady should.
"Are you jealous?"
George smiles as he remembers the mountains of the Caucasus.
"Perhaps. We will discuss this… tonight."
A victory then. And not a small one. Now she only needs to convince her sisters.
(1) Victorian era. We're talking pretty elementary gropings here, but the erotic impact is that much higher for being forbidden and taboo. The modern world really lost something when nudity stopped being much of a muchness.
(2) PTSD. It's a bitch when left undiagnosed, let alone when it's unrecognized as an actual treatable condition.
(3) Religious differences.
June 1895, St Petersburg
Married life was… not what she expected. She knew, of course, that her marriage must be political. Her homeland was small and its independence, wedged between Polyglot Austria, the declining but still mighty Ottoman empire, imperialistic Italy and ambitious Serbia precacious.
But she had still dreamed of romance. And, having belatedly given up on those girlish dreams, at least hoped for friendship.
George seemed at first to be all she could hope for. Handsome and intelligent, experienced in the ways of the world in a way she had not been permitted to be, and not at all shy. And of course, Sole autocrat of the largest land empire on the Planet, and the head of the Orthodox Church. A vanity, perhaps, but the thought of besting her elder sisters was a temptation. And of course George was no stranger and his capital a home far more familiar to her than her native hills.
His courtship was, in retrospect, wildly inappropriate and not only due to it's proximity to Alexander III's funeral. Nikola, her father, was clearly willing to overlook propriety in order to secure the marriage and had approved, following a few chaperoned events, George's invitation for an unchaperoned barge ride on the Oka.
It was the first time she had ever been kissed.
Carried away by the moment she had permitted him to take greater liberities than she had imagined he might, and did not insist he desist overmuch when his hands suffused unfamiliar sensations through her body (1). When he did withdraw, leaving her flustered and red faced she accepted his protestations of being overwhelmed by her beauty. The next day she breathlessly assented to his proposal.
Decency required she return to Montenegro for a interval before they wed and she pined away every day waiting for their reunion. She wrote to him every day long, sometimes tear stained letters. In retrospect his own responses seemed, though well written, to be dutiful, rote and almost perfunctory.
But of course, he was Tsar. He had an empire to govern. And it would be different, of course, when they lived together.
Their wedding day, when it finally occurred, was the most joyous day of her life. And the wedding night… she had been fearful of being unable to please him, and of the pain of course, but he skillfully calmed her fears. The pain was less than she expected, and far less than her pleasure both physical and at the validation of her womanhood. And if she grew to desire him, and the sexual act more than her upbringing said she must then what of it? Her mother and her priest was far away and she was in St.Petersburg, the Paris of the east.
And then, after their brief honeymoon cruise to Denmark and England he disappeared.
There were railways to build, reforms to oversee, armies to inspect. Aside from dinner and the long, torturously pleasant nights that followed she saw little of her husband. It did not bother her too much at first. Her sisters, and his own family were gracious and St Petersburg and it’s social and artistic events a marvel.
But he never seemed to want to talk with her overmuch, telling her little of his day, and showing only perfunctory interest in her own. Much as she sought to share her feelings, experiences and thoughts with him he never shared his own conflicts and insecurities with her. She knew there was more to his soul than he revealed to her. While they still slept together she would be awakened occasionally by his nightmares (2).
But he would not speak to her of them. And she realized, after a time, that he did not share with her his true concerns and dilemmas in the business of the state either. Not, at lease, as her father had done with her mother. Was it because he thought this was not a proper topic for women, let alone his own wife? Did he simply not value her mind, not view her as his equal? Or did he find her curiosity, her intelligence, her convictions offensive, even frightening?
She hungered for meaning, for purpose in her life beyond the façade of Ballet and the theater, beyond the social games and flirtation with the occult her sisters practiced. She wished she could return to he studies in the Smolny institute, perhaps even study in university... but that of course would be utterly inappropriate. When she found she was with child she thought, for a time, that this purpose had been found.
Her pregnancy had lifted her from the growing malaise she felt. Though they no longer shared a bedroom, out of concern for the development of the child, she felt a purpose in her life that her prior patronage of art and charity could not match.
She felt, too, that George now paid her greater attention and spent far more time in her company. She even felt that their conversations were growing less superficial, more significant.
And then she miscarried the child.
When was it, in the depression that followed, that she realized her husband was having an affair? Was it an innocent question asked by Olga about "the lady"? Was it an incongruity in the schedule he absentmindedly described to her with what she read in the papers?
Whoever she was, she did not wish to know. She knew, at least what she no doubt was. Petite and curvaceous rather than tall and gangly. Striking rather than plain. Chatty and alluring rather than shy and withdrawn. Sexually shameless, even aggressive, rather than passive. Probably older than him, and experienced rather than Naïve. Flighty where she was serious and focused. She was everything she could never be and she had no ability or desire to compete with.
But nor did she intend to wane away or waste her days pining for what could never be. She was Tsarina, wherever her Tsar spent his nights, and she would make the most of it.
"Have you heard from your father recently?"
The question startled her. Since the war had started George had taken to sifting over reports during breakfast, and often the entire meal would pass with little discourse. It was a blessing they often shared their meals with his family else she long since would have been driven mad by the solitude.
Today, however, they dined alone.
"I have. It seems Anna will soon be betrothed"
His head rises fully from the report.
"To Victorio Emanuel? I had thought there were… difficulties (3)?"
"There were. His family has consented to Anna keeping her faith provided their children are raised in accordance with the Catholic faith. Is this significant to the course of the war?"
"It's not a war yet. Haven't you heard? The British are still calling it a "Humanitarian intervention". Our men are dying in the mountains of the caucaus while their Indian mercenaries are marching up the blains of Babylon with no Ottoman interference."
He recollects his thoughts.
"Yes, this Italian concession is significant. It may mean that Italy is preparing to actualize their claims on Tripoli and wishes to guarantee Ottoman non-interference by the threat of an alliance with Montenegro and the other Balkan states."
"Could you not do the same? The Ottomans may be prepared to tolerate French and British boots on their soil, but they would surely be forced to draw troops to deal with the threat of war by Montenegro and the other Balkan states."
"They might- but that would involve Austria and Germany. I will not accept the same humiliation my Grandfather did. If this affair shall be settled by a second Berlin conference then our soldiers must make more progress and ensure there are no Turks in the lands we hold when the conference begins."
"Do the generals have hope for a breakthrough?"
"Kuropatkin, at least, is honest. He says he cannot hope to advance into the upper Euphrates before August. It will take him that long to marshal enough supplies and shells, and extend the railway sufficiently westward, to break through the Ottoman lines west of Erzurum. It would go much better, of course, if Alekseyev would cease delaying the Trebizon landings"
The place names were almost totally unfamiliar to Elena prior to the war. Now, like every literate Russian, she has eagerly pored over maps showing the advance of the double eagle into the lands of the crescent. That is unimportant now, however. What is important is that she has her opening.
"There have been reports of terrible suffering in the field hospitals at the front. A terrible lack in doctors and nurses"
George frowns.
"Indeed. We will need to undertake a general military reform after the war to correct errors uncovered during it. The hospitals are the least of it. Shell shortages, insufficient NCOs, outdated doctrines… It is as bad as the great Bulgarian war. But it is better that we learn our faults fighting against the Turk than against a Great Power".
"I have thought of going to Armenia."
George gapes like a fish.
"You? Whatever for?"
"To look after the wounded. And the displaced. Do you remember the refugee camps in Yerevan? Surely there are many more Christians fleeing the atrocities of the Turk. And they too need succor".
"But you have no experience in medicine!"
She meets his eyes head on and draws her chin up.
"I have cared for the wounded of the Great Turkish war when I was still a small girl. I too have seen the angel of death face to face. So too, have my sisters. What we are lacking in formal knowledge we can learn."
Is that a glimmer of respect in his eyes? Or is he simply calculating how much more time he would have for his amorous pursuits if she and her sisters were on the other side of the Empire?
"Besides" she continues in a firm voice "I am Tsarina am I not? The people expect that I should do my part in this war, limited as I am by my Sex. It will comfort them if they know I witness, even if I cannot share, the travails of their sons".
"While I remain at home knitting and looking after the affairs of the state?" he teases her, a hint of the old sparkle in his voice.
She carefully smears her bread with Jam and takes a bite, perhaps fuller than a lady should.
"Are you jealous?"
George smiles as he remembers the mountains of the Caucasus.
"Perhaps. We will discuss this… tonight."
A victory then. And not a small one. Now she only needs to convince her sisters.
(1) Victorian era. We're talking pretty elementary gropings here, but the erotic impact is that much higher for being forbidden and taboo. The modern world really lost something when nudity stopped being much of a muchness.
(2) PTSD. It's a bitch when left undiagnosed, let alone when it's unrecognized as an actual treatable condition.
(3) Religious differences.
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Nice touch for the human, there.
Also, typo watch- Polyglot Austria, not Polglot Austria.
Also, typo watch- Polyglot Austria, not Polglot Austria.
Maybe that's why Putin is doing what he is doing,he's secretly possessed by Czar Peter the Great.
I just went through this on a weekend. Good to see you back Comrade yboxman, I have been following your work since "Mound of spring", which was excellent. I will be following this closely.
As always I will offer my services when it comes to Bulgaria in case you need it, but I know you are already well informed yourself, considering how well you research your stuff.
Good luck.
As always I will offer my services when it comes to Bulgaria in case you need it, but I know you are already well informed yourself, considering how well you research your stuff.
Good luck.
yboxman
Banned
Thanks! as always if anyone spots a mistake or typo please call me out on it.
Thanks
! And I shall shortly require your advice.And he stayed fully dressed.
OOC: Ahh wait, I was thinking Ivan the Terrible. But yah, Pater doesn't seem that Great considering he made St. Petersburg so grand by forcing all other cities to rely on the old brick and shack method of building.
yboxman
Banned
Post #17: Endgame
AJP Taylor: The struggle for Mastery in Eurasia- the end of the Eastern question
None of the Great powers who intervened on the pretext of the Armenian question foresaw, or was interested, in the immediate breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Rather, Russia vaguely supposed that a Lebanese style arrangement might prevail in Eastern Anatolia, forcing on the Ottoman Empire a pacific attitude in any future European conflict. The Western powers aimed at no more than increased economic and political penetration of the southern provinces of the Empire.
Changes in the Balkans, or, indeed, any formal territorial losses to the Ottoman Empire were ruled out in the Convention of Paris. Such could only serve to reopen the Eastern question and involve the Central powers to the detriment of the interests of the Russia and the West.
It did not seem to occur to the third Salisbury ministry that Russian protestations of territorial disinterest might be less than genuine. Instead, it viewed the crisis as an opportunity to achieve French recognition of British predominance in Egypt and Mesopotamia, casually recognizing French predominance in Morrocco, Syria and Cilicia as a quid pro quo.
There can be little doubt that Russia’s brutal tactics in Eastern Anatolia were carried out with the ultimate aim of colonization and annexation in mind. As recently disclosed correspondences have unveiled, however, Russian diplomats seem to have been well prepared, and even anticipatory, of the possibility that these tactics would spark retaliatory massacres against Armenians and other Christians in Istanbul and throughout the empire and would necessitate allied occupation of the straits.
After Kuropatkin’s land assault broke the Ottoman lines west of Erzurum, and the Russian black Sea fleet bombarded and covered an amphibious landing in Trebizond, the trickle of Muslim refugees to Western Anatolia became a flood, with many reaching Istanbul and Izmir and blaming the local Armenian communities for their suffering.
The administration of Abdulhamid proved unequal to the task of containing the combustive situation. In the sweltering heat of August, student of the Islamic religious seminaries led an incursion across the Galatea bridge into the Armenian inhabioted sections of the city, setting us three days of mayhem which engulfed the Greek, as well as the Armenian community. Within a fortnight, The British and French fleets, aided by the Russian Meditiranian fleet under Admiral Makarov, had occupied the straits and landed marines in Istanbul itself.
To expect that such an occupation would not reopen the Eastern question seems beyond credulity- and yet, little seemed beyond the credulousness of the third Salisbury ministry. While Abdulhamid frenetically sought to negotiate a swift end to a war in which the Ottoman Empire faced utter defeat, other powers sought to capitalize on the situation.
Chief among them was Italy. Having secured a vague recognition of it’s interest in Tripolitania in 1878, it now sought to secure these promises in spite of ongoing skirmishes in Abyssinia. Italy, at least could be assuaged by face saving concessions which recognized it’s “paramountcy” over Tripoli and Cyrenaica. Germany’s belated show of force in Haifa bay, Jaffa and Tyre, nominally to protect the Templar German religious colonists (1) could be finessed in the same manner, and even used as a foil against British and French ambitions.
The Balkan powers could not. Greece, while barred from Crete by British occupation launched a naval invasion of the Aegean islands, sparking massacres of the Muslim communities on Lesbos and Chios and counter massacres of Greeks on the Asian mainland. The Hellenes proved less successful on Land, suffering severe casualties when attempting to cross the Peneios River and being repulsed back to the Vale of Tempe where their forefathers had failed to make a stand against the Persian Empire 2400 years previously.
Edhem Pasha was given no respite to enjoy his victory however. As soon as Greece been repelled the Macedonian countryside erupted in rebellion as the Internal Macedonian revolutionary organization launched an ill prepared uprising. It is unclear whether the uprising was launched at the urgings of King Ferdinand in an attempt to deflect internal unrest at the recent assassination of Stambolov or whether it was launched without his sanction. Either way, Ferdinand’s position was not sufficiently secure to abandon the revolutionaries.
Within a fortnight one Bulgarian army was besieging Adrianopole while the other Overran Thrace and advanced on the Styrmion river. Outnumbered, cut off from Reinforcements from Asia, his roads menaced by bandit and guerilla gangs and with the threat of Serbian intervention and Greek resurgence hanging over his head Edhem Pasha took the only step he could to preserve the lives and homes of the Muslims of Macedonia…
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Templers_(religious_believers)
AJP Taylor: The struggle for Mastery in Eurasia- the end of the Eastern question
None of the Great powers who intervened on the pretext of the Armenian question foresaw, or was interested, in the immediate breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Rather, Russia vaguely supposed that a Lebanese style arrangement might prevail in Eastern Anatolia, forcing on the Ottoman Empire a pacific attitude in any future European conflict. The Western powers aimed at no more than increased economic and political penetration of the southern provinces of the Empire.
Changes in the Balkans, or, indeed, any formal territorial losses to the Ottoman Empire were ruled out in the Convention of Paris. Such could only serve to reopen the Eastern question and involve the Central powers to the detriment of the interests of the Russia and the West.
It did not seem to occur to the third Salisbury ministry that Russian protestations of territorial disinterest might be less than genuine. Instead, it viewed the crisis as an opportunity to achieve French recognition of British predominance in Egypt and Mesopotamia, casually recognizing French predominance in Morrocco, Syria and Cilicia as a quid pro quo.
There can be little doubt that Russia’s brutal tactics in Eastern Anatolia were carried out with the ultimate aim of colonization and annexation in mind. As recently disclosed correspondences have unveiled, however, Russian diplomats seem to have been well prepared, and even anticipatory, of the possibility that these tactics would spark retaliatory massacres against Armenians and other Christians in Istanbul and throughout the empire and would necessitate allied occupation of the straits.
After Kuropatkin’s land assault broke the Ottoman lines west of Erzurum, and the Russian black Sea fleet bombarded and covered an amphibious landing in Trebizond, the trickle of Muslim refugees to Western Anatolia became a flood, with many reaching Istanbul and Izmir and blaming the local Armenian communities for their suffering.
The administration of Abdulhamid proved unequal to the task of containing the combustive situation. In the sweltering heat of August, student of the Islamic religious seminaries led an incursion across the Galatea bridge into the Armenian inhabioted sections of the city, setting us three days of mayhem which engulfed the Greek, as well as the Armenian community. Within a fortnight, The British and French fleets, aided by the Russian Meditiranian fleet under Admiral Makarov, had occupied the straits and landed marines in Istanbul itself.
To expect that such an occupation would not reopen the Eastern question seems beyond credulity- and yet, little seemed beyond the credulousness of the third Salisbury ministry. While Abdulhamid frenetically sought to negotiate a swift end to a war in which the Ottoman Empire faced utter defeat, other powers sought to capitalize on the situation.
Chief among them was Italy. Having secured a vague recognition of it’s interest in Tripolitania in 1878, it now sought to secure these promises in spite of ongoing skirmishes in Abyssinia. Italy, at least could be assuaged by face saving concessions which recognized it’s “paramountcy” over Tripoli and Cyrenaica. Germany’s belated show of force in Haifa bay, Jaffa and Tyre, nominally to protect the Templar German religious colonists (1) could be finessed in the same manner, and even used as a foil against British and French ambitions.
The Balkan powers could not. Greece, while barred from Crete by British occupation launched a naval invasion of the Aegean islands, sparking massacres of the Muslim communities on Lesbos and Chios and counter massacres of Greeks on the Asian mainland. The Hellenes proved less successful on Land, suffering severe casualties when attempting to cross the Peneios River and being repulsed back to the Vale of Tempe where their forefathers had failed to make a stand against the Persian Empire 2400 years previously.
Edhem Pasha was given no respite to enjoy his victory however. As soon as Greece been repelled the Macedonian countryside erupted in rebellion as the Internal Macedonian revolutionary organization launched an ill prepared uprising. It is unclear whether the uprising was launched at the urgings of King Ferdinand in an attempt to deflect internal unrest at the recent assassination of Stambolov or whether it was launched without his sanction. Either way, Ferdinand’s position was not sufficiently secure to abandon the revolutionaries.
Within a fortnight one Bulgarian army was besieging Adrianopole while the other Overran Thrace and advanced on the Styrmion river. Outnumbered, cut off from Reinforcements from Asia, his roads menaced by bandit and guerilla gangs and with the threat of Serbian intervention and Greek resurgence hanging over his head Edhem Pasha took the only step he could to preserve the lives and homes of the Muslims of Macedonia…
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Templers_(religious_believers)
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