Turkey, Russia renew 250-year debate over Crimea

Istanbul Turkey's World Bulletin ^ | 30 January 2014

[cunning_fish]

The current political crisis in Ukraine which sees the country divided on its allegiance to Russia is showing signs of developing into a civil war.

Thousands of pro-EU anti-government protesters have been demonstrating against the Ukrainian government since it decided to pull out of an economic agreement with the EU in November.

The government was forced to introduce a protest ban which came into effect over the weekend, but this did not deter protesters. Instead, it only spurred them on more. After days of clashes with police, protesters successfully occupied the Justice Ministry in Kiev.

Following the violence, which left 6 people dead, the Ukrainian justice minister warned to issue an order for a 'state of emergency' if the protesters did not leave the building, which they eventually did.

The government later took a step back on its decision to ban protests, with the prime minister Mykola Azarov resigning. Although the opposition was offered concessions, including taking over the position of prime minister, the opposition rejected the offer and instead demanded that president Viktor Yanukovych also resigns.

All of this chaos has raised new questions over the status of Crimean peninsula located in Ukraine’s southern Black Sea coast. The peninsula, which is the homeland of the Crimean Tatars, was hotly contested between the Ottoman Empire and Russia during the Turkish-Russian wars of the 18th and 19th centuries.

There are already some analysts saying that in the event of Ukraine breaking up, Crimea would be ceded to Russia. However, should this happen, Turkey has a card up its sleeve in the Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca of 1774, which states that Crimea, which was Ottoman territory at the time, would not become independent from the empire, nor would it be annexed by another country.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Turkey had better pay attention. Russia has dreamt of control of the Bosphorus and the Dardenelles since the fall of Byzantium

[Gen.Blather]

A 240 year old treaty between two parties, neither of which exists? Give me a break.

[AnAmericanAbroad]

That was my first thought as well; while the Treaty is an interesting historical footnote, the two powers who signed it simply no longer exist. The Russian Empire bit the dust in 1917 and the Ottoman Empire followed suit six years later.

[BuffaloJack]

The Crimea is a bad place.
Henry Moseley, one of the most brilliant physicists of the early 1900s, was killed in the Crimean war at the age of 27, shot in the head by a Turkish sniper.
It was because of Moseley’s death that the practice of “not allowing prominent and promising scientists to enlist for combat duty in the armed forces..”
Isaac Asimov speculated that if he had not been killed while in the service of the British Empire, Moseley might very well have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1916.

[wally_bert]

Thanks for the history lesson. Never heard of the fellow who was shot.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

It does look a little weak...

[NathanR]

The Crimea War was in 1855. You must mean WWI.

[cunning_fish]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War The Crimean War (pronounced /kraɪˈmiːən/ or /krɨˈmiːən/) (October 1853 – February 1856) [7][5]:7 was a conflict in which Russia lost to an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. While neutral, Austria played a role in stopping the Russians. The immediate issue involved the rights of Christians in the Holy Land, which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. The French promoted the rights of Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Orthodox. The longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire, and the unwillingness of Britain and France to allow Russia to gain territory and power at Ottoman expense. Russia lost and the Ottomans gained a twenty-year respite from Russian pressure. The Christians were granted a degree of official equality and the Orthodox gained control of the Christian churches in dispute. [8]:415 Russia survived, gained a new appreciation for its religious diversity, and launched a reform program with far-reaching consequences. [9] According to Shepard Clough, professor of history at Columbia University, the war: "was not the result of a calculated plan, nor even of hasty last-minute decisions made under stress. It was the consequence of more than two years of fatal blundering in slow-motion by inept statesmen who had months to reflect upon the actions they took. It arose from Napoleon's search for prestige; Nicholas’s quest for control over the Straits; his naïve miscalculation of the probable reactions of the European powers; the failure of those powers to make their positions clear; and the pressure of public opinion in Britain and Constantinople at crucial moments." [10] Russia and the Ottoman Empire went to war in October 1853 over Russia's rights to protect Orthodox Christians. Russia gained the upper hand after destroying the Ottoman fleet at the Black Sea port of Sinope; to stop Russia's conquest France and Britain entered in March 1854. Most of the fighting took place for control of the Black Sea, with land battles on the Crimean peninsula in southern Russia. The Russians held their great fortress at Sevastopol for over a year. After it fell, peace became possible, and was arranged at Paris in March 1856. The religion issue had already been resolved. The main results were that the Black Sea was neutralised —Russia would not have any warships there—and the two provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia became largely independent under nominal Ottoman rule. There were smaller campaigns in eastern Anatolia, Caucasus, the Baltic Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the White Sea. In Russia, this war is also known as the "Eastern War" (Russian: Восточная война, Vostochnaya Voina). The war transformed the region. Because of battles, population exchanges, and nationalist movements incited by the war, the present-day states of Ukraine, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, and regions such as Crimea and the Caucasus all changed in small or large ways due to this conflict. [11] The Crimean War is notorious for logistical, medical and tactical failure on both sides. The naval side saw both a successful Allied campaign which eliminated most of the ships of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, and a successful blockade by the Royal Navy in the Baltic. It was one of the first "modern" wars because it saw the first use of major technologies, such as railways and telegraphs. [12](Preface) It is also famous for the work of Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, who pioneered contrasting modern medical practices while treating the wounded. The Crimean War was one of the first wars to be documented extensively in written reports and photographs: notably by William Russell (writing for The Times newspaper) and the photographs of Roger Fenton. [8]:306–309 News from war correspondents reached all nations involved in the war and kept the public citizenry of those nations better informed of the day-to-day events of the war than had been the case in any other war to that date. The British public was very well informed regarding the day-to-day realities of the war in the Crimea. After the French extended the telegraph to the coast of the Black Sea during the winter of 1854, the news reached London in two days. When the British laid an underwater cable to the Crimean peninsula in April 1855, news reached London in a few hours. The daily news reports energised public opinion, which brought down the Aberdeen government and carried Lord Palmerston into office as prime minister.

[deks]

[BuffaloJack]

Henry Moseley was killed at Gallipoli in the Crimea area during WW1. I didn’t say he was killed in the Crimean War. The Crimea still has a lot of war history.

In 1913 Moseley constructed what he called an atomic battery. Two photocells placed face to face with a small air gap between. Thorium Hexafluoride (radioactive) gas was sealed into the space between the 2 photocells and the edges sealed against leakage.
Moseley made about a little over a dozen of these devices and most of them are still functioning today. The others were broken or damaged by various people while examining them over the years. From what I have read, they have been putting out about a milliamp at about a volt for the past hundred years. Impressive for a device made over a hundred years ago. Talk about the energizer bunny.

[OldNewYork]

Good luck, Turkey.