kryzys bułgarski (1)

\k: CHAPTER 9

constitution: its first article affirmed the empire's territorial integrity and thus directly chal-lenged any plans entertained by the Constantinople conference for pressuring the Porte into territo-rial concessions.

No matter how detective from a stylistic or an organizational point of view, the Ottoman constitution is of considerable interest. First, the Russo-Turkish war of 1877 gave the Porte the excuse to suspend it. It was reinstated only in 1908 as a result of the Young Turks' revolt against the autocracy of Sułtan Abdul Hamid (Documents 11.9 and 11.11 ). Second, the con-stitution’s promise of political rights to Ottoman subjects has a bearing on at least one facet of the twentieth-century Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the 1980s, supporters of the right-wing Is-raeli Likud bloc asserted that Palestinians were not entitled to "political" rights, as the Balfour Declaration, written into intemational law by the 1922 mandate treaty for Palestine, spoke only of the “civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine."¹² A closer look at the protocol of the inter-Allied conference of San Remo of April 1920, however, suggests otherwise. At San Remo, the World War I Allies agreed on the guiding principles for their mandates in the Middle East. Britain accepted that the mandate for Palestine "would not involve the surrender of the rights hitherto enjoyed by the non-Jewish communities in Palestine."'³ Among "the rights hitherto enjoyed" were, of course, those bestowed by the Ottoman constitution of 1876.

leged provinces. It forms an indivisible whole from which no part may be detachedf for whatever reason....

Art. 8: Ali subjects of the empire are called Ottomans, without distinction, what-ever faith they profess....

Art. 17: Ali Ottomans are equal in the eyes of the law. They have the same righ and owe the same duties towards their country, without prejudice to religion....

Art. 42:The General Assembly is composed of two chambers: the Chamber of N tables or Senate, and the Chamber of Deputies. . . .

Art. 65: The number of deputies is fixed at one deputy for every 50,000 małe toman subjects....

Art. 69: The generał elections for the Chamber of Deputies shall take place eve four years....

—SP, 67:6834

9.5

TREATY OF BUDAPEST, 15 JANUARY 1877

Austro-Russian Treaty of Budapest, 15 January 1877 • Ądditional Connention (18 March 1877)

now embarked on a diplomatic campaign to ensure it a free hand against the Otto)

^1JSee, for instance, Sidney Zioń, "Is Jordan Palestine? Of Course," New York Times, 5 October 1 ''Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919-1939, 1 st Series (London, 1958), 8:176-77.

Empire. Any Russian strike against the Ottoman Empire, however, required that Russia first se-cure the support of Austria-Hungary, the power in the Balkans that would be most affected by a Russo-Turkish war and its attendant political changes.

•)

Austro-Russian Treaty of Budapest, 15 January 1877

Art. 1: The High Contracting Parties, considering that the Christian and Mohammedan populations in Bośnia and in Her2egovina are too much intermingled for it to be per-, missible to expect from a mere autonomous organization a real amelioration of their , lot, are agreed with one another to ask for these provinces in the conference of Con-I stantinople only an autonomous regime. ... As Bułgaria is placed under morę : javourable conditions for the exercise of autonomous institutions, they mutually en-igage to demand for this province in the conference a larger autonomy, buttressed by Isubstantial guaranties.

Art. 2: In the case that the negotiations should not succeed, and should result in a Tiupture followed by war between Russia andTurkey, the Imperial and Royal [ = Aus-hio-Hungarian] Govemment formally pledges itself to observe an attitude of benevo-flent neutrality in the presence of the isolated action of Russia, and by its diplomatic Uction to paralyze, so far as this lies in its power, efforts at intervention or collectiye pediation which might be attempted by other Powers.

Art. p If the Government of the Emperor and King is invited to assist in putting Stto force the treaty of April 15,1856,¹⁴ it will, in the event foreseen by the present fconvention, refuse its co-operation, and, without contesting the validity of the said ,Treaty, it will proclaim its neutrality....

Art. 6: The Austro-Hungarian Government will not obstruct the commissioners agents of the Russian Government in making in the limits of the Austro-Hungarian fetes purchases and contracts for objects indispensable to the Russian Army, with the 'eption of articles of contraband of war prohibited by international laws. The Gov-lent of His Imperial and Royal Majesty, however, engages in the application and in interpretation of these laws to show the broadest good will towards Russia.

Art. 7: His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, etc., and Apostolic King of Hungary re-7es to himself the choice of the moment and of the modę of the occupation of ia and of Herzegovina by his troops....

Art. 8: The High Contracting Parties reciprocally engage not to extend the radius their respective military action: His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, etc., and Apos-King of Hungary, to Rumania, Serbia, Bułgaria, and Montenegro; and His Majesty Emperor of Ali the Russias to Bośnia, Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro. Serbia, ^tenegro, and the portion of Herzegovina which separates these two principalities to form a continuous neutral zonę, which the armies of the two Empires may not 5, and intended to preserve these latter from all Immediate contact. It remains un-ood, however, that the Imperial and Royal Government will not oppose the com-action of Serbian and Montenegrin forces outside of their own countries with Kussian troops.

Art. 9: The consequences of war and the territorial modifications which would ^,4Document 5.7d.