RUSSIA’S POLICY OF RAPPROCHEMENT WITH THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN THE ERA OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC WARS, 1792-1806 A Ph.D. Dissertation By VALERIY MORKVA Department of International Relations Bilkent University Ankara September 2010 i ii To my family iii RUSSIA’S POLICY OF RAPPROCHEMENT WITH THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN THE ERA OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC WARS, 1792-1806 The Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University by VALERIY MORKVA In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BİLKENT UNIVERSITY ANKARA September 2010 iv I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations. ---------------------------------- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hakan Kırımlı Supervisor I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations. ---------------------------------- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mark Almond Examining Committee Member I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations. ---------------------------------- Assist. Prof. Dr. Sean McMeekin Examining Committee Member I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations. ---------------------------------- Assist. Prof. Dr. Evgeni Radushev Examining Committee Member I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations. ---------------------------------- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gümeç Karamuk Examining Committee Member Approval of the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences ---------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Erdal Erel Director v ABSTRACT RUSSIA’S POLICY OF RAPPROCHEMENT WITH THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN THE ERA OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC WARS, 1792-1806 Morkva, Valeriy Ph.D., Department of International Relations Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hakan Kırımlı September 2010 This thesis examines the Ottoman-Russian relations in late 18 th – early 19 th centuries. Chronologically it covers the years between the two Ottoman-Russian wars, the starting and final points of the thesis being the Peace Treaty of Jassy (1792) and the proclamation of war against Russia by the Porte in late 1806. These years not only became an inter-war period in relations between the two empires, but also faced a short-lived phenomenon of cooperation and a defensive alliance between the Sultan’s and the Tsar’s governments. The primary aim of this work was to study the circumstances of the Ottoman-Russian rapprochement at the time and the diplomatic strategies of the Porte and St. Petersburg within a wider context of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. The thesis argues that during the time under discussion Russia conducted towards the Ottoman Empire the policy of preserving a ‘weak neighbour’, trying to prevent the domains of the Sultan from falling into the hands of a strong European power. Keywords: Kutuzov, Mustafa Rasih Pasha, Ottoman-Russian relations, Ottoman- Russian alliance, War of the Second Coalition, Ionian Republic. iii ÖZET FRANSIZ İHTİLÂLİ VE NAPOLYON SAVAŞLARI DÖNEMİNDE RUSYA’NIN OSMANLI İMPARATORLUĞU İLE YAKINLAŞMA SİYASETİ , 1792-1806 Morkva, Valeriy Doktora, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hakan Kırımlı Eylül 2010 Bu çalışma 18. yüzyıl sonu ve 19. yüzyıl başı Osmanlı-Rus münasetbetlerini incelemektedir. Kronolojik olarak çalışma iki Osmanlı-Rus savaşı arasındaki dönemi kapsamaktadır; Yaş Barış Antlaşması (1792) ve Bâb-ı Âli’nin 1806 yılı sonunda Rusya’ya savaş ilanı teze konu olan dönemin başlangıç ve bitiş tarihlerini oluşturmaktadır. Söz konusu yıllar Osmanlı ve Rus İmparatorlukları arası münasebetlerde iki savaş arası dönem olmasının yanı sıra, Sultan ve Çarlık yönetimlerinin kısa süreli bir işbirliği ve savunma ittifakına da tanıklık etmektedir. Bu çalışmanın birincil amacı söz konusu dönemde Osmanlı-Rus yakınlaşmasının koşullarını ve Bâb-ı Âli ile St. Petersburg’un diplomatik stratejilerini Fransız İhtilâli ve Napolyon Savaşları bağlamında ele almaktır. Bu tez, Rusya’nın ilgili dönemde Sultan’ın topraklarının Avrupa devletlerinin eline geçmesini engelleme yolunda Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’na karşı “zayıf komşuyu” koruma politikası güttüğünü savunmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Kutuzov, Mustafa Rasih Paşa, Osmanlı-Rus münasebetleri, Osmanlı-Rus ittifakı, İkinci Koalisyon Savaşları, Yedi Ada Cumhuriyeti. iv ACKOWLEDGEMETS I would like to acknowledge my advisor, Hakan Kırımlı, who became the first attentive reader of this thesis, for his constant support throughout many years of my stay at Bilkent. I also owe special thanks to M. S. Buryan, my advisor and teacher in Ukraine, without whom not only this study, but my whole academic career might never have happened. Apart from that, I would like to thank all my jury committee members, Sean McMeekin, Mark Almond, Evgenii Radushev and Gümeç Karamuk for sparing their time to the careful reading of this thesis and very useful criticisms and suggestions. I am also very indebted to Ibrahim Köremezli and Özhan Kapıcı for their friendship and invaluable help both in Moscow and St. Petersburg. My work in Odesa, while collecting research materials for this study, would be impossible without the help of Oleksandr Sereda and Olena Bachynska, for which I am very grateful to them. I would like to thank Ali Yaycıoğlu for sharing with me some precious archival materials, Kahraman Şakul and Veysel Şimşek for sharing their own researches, Mark Merlino for his help in reading of some archival documents in Italian, and Aslı Yiğit, who helped with translation of the abstract of the thesis into Turkish. In the end, I wish to thank Nimet Kaya, the Head of the Dorm 15 in Bilkent University, whose caring help and attention had greatly facilitated the process of the writing of this thesis. All errors are mine. v TABLE OF COTETS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iii ÖZET........................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER II: SOURCES AND HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE SUBJECT ............. 5 2.1. Sources .............................................................................................................. 5 2.2. Historiography .................................................................................................. 8 CHAPTER III: REESTABLISHING OF THE DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE PORTE AFTER THE PEACE TREATY OF JASSY (1792-1794) ................................................................................................... 21 3.1. Two empires after the Peace Treaty of Jassy .................................................. 21 3.2. Extraordinary Embassies of Mustafa Rasih Pasha and M.I. Golenishchev- Kutuzov .................................................................................................................. 33 3.2.1. General observations ................................................................................ 33 3.2.2. The Envoy of the Russian Empire ........................................................... 36 3.2.3. The Envoy of the Sublime Porte .............................................................. 39 3.2.4. Exchange of Embassies ............................................................................ 44 3.3. Ottoman Embassy in the Russian Empire ....................................................... 49 3.4. Russian Embassy in the Ottoman Empire ....................................................... 64 3.5. Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 80 CHAPTER IV: WAR CANNOT BE PEACE, 1794-1798 ........................................ 84 4.1. Arrival of V. P. Kochubei to Istanbul and the Polish-Lithuanian question .... 84 4.2. Diplomatic struggle at the Ottoman capital throughout 1795-1796................ 97 4.3. Two empires after the death of Catherine II: A thaw in relations, 1797-1798 .............................................................................................................................. 114 4.4. Arrival of V. S. Tomara, the new Russian ambassador at the High Porte .... 127 4.5. On the way towards further Ottoman- Russian rapprochement .................... 133 4.6. Conclusions ................................................................................................... 142 CHAPTER V: BIRTH OF THE ALLIANCE .......................................................... 144 5.1. Russian fleet visits the Ottoman capital ........................................................ 144 vi 5.2. Start of the Mediterranean Campaign ..........................................................