The Pact of Halepa ( el, Σύμβαση της Χαλέπας) or Halepa Charter (Χάρτης της Χαλέπας) was an agreement made in 1878 between the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

(then ruled by the

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it c ...

Abdul Hamid II Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid II ( ota, عبد الحميد ثانی, Abd ül-Hamid-i Sani; tr, II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 10 February 1918) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 31 August 1876 to 27 April 1909, and the last sultan to ...

) and the representatives of the Cretan Revolutionary Committee, which secured wide-ranging

autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one' ...

for the island of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

. It was named after the place where it was signed,

Halepa Halepa or Chalepa ( el, Χαλέπα) was formerly a town in northern Crete. It is now one of the districts of Chania. Its name was once well known owing to the Pact of Halepa, an agreement of 1878 on the administration of Crete as part of the Ott ...

(now a district of

Chania Chania ( el, Χανιά ; vec, La Canea), also spelled Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno and west of Heraklion. The muni ...

History

Following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 and the

Treaty of Berlin (1878) The Treaty of Berlin (formally the Treaty between Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland, Italy, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire for the Settlement of Affairs in the East) was signed on 13 July 1878. In the aftermath of the ...

, the Ottoman government pledged to carry out reforms in the Empire's administration to remove discrimination against the Christian population. The island of

, an

Ottoman province The administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire were administrative divisions of the state organisation of the Ottoman Empire. Outside this system were various types of vassal and tributary states. The Ottoman Empire was first subdivided ...

since 1669, was a particular case. Since the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...

broke out in 1821, the Christian Cretans had repeatedly risen in revolt against the

, seeking union with Greece, most notably in the Cretan Revolution of 1866–69. More recently, since 1875, the island had been again in a state of revolt, and a revolutionary committee of leading Christian Cretans had been formed. As a first gesture of conciliation, the Sultan had for the first time appointed a Christian Greek, Kostakis Adosidis Pasha, as Governor-General ('' vali'') of the island, and following the Treaty of Berlin, Muhtar Pasha was sent to the island for negotiations with the Revolutionary Committee. Thomas Backhouse Sandwith, the British Consul in Crete, proposed to the British Ambassador in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

that he should seek to mediate between the Ottoman authorities and the armed Cretan Christian rebels. This he did, working closely with the British Ambassador who was able to exercise considerable over the Ottoman government. They communicated frequently, often several times a day by telegram. The Pact of Halepa was the outcome. On 15 October (27 October Gregorian) 1878, this final agreement was reached and signed at the home of the journalist (the namesake grandfather of the future Greek Prime Minister) at Halepa. Its stipulations were: * The island of Crete would be governed by a Governor-General with a five-year tenure; if the Governor-General was a Christian, he would have a Muslim Deputy, and vice versa * Public services would be staffed by native Cretans, while Greek became the language of the law courts * A portion of the island's tax proceeds would remain in Crete for local use, and a series of tax reductions were granted to Crete * The number of Christian sub-provincial governors would be greater than the Muslim ones * A new Cretan Gendarmerie would police the island, recruited by native inhabitants * The public use of the Greek language, the foundation of Greek-language associations, newspapers, etc. was sanctioned * A

general amnesty Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offic ...

for those who had taken part in the uprising was proclaimed, and the licensed carrying of arms by the populace was granted The agreement was considered as superseding any future or past Ottoman legislation, or even contradictory provisions of the Ottoman Constitution. As a result, Crete became an autonomous state within the Ottoman Empire. The treaty was by and large enforced until 1889, when it was abrogated by Shakir Pasha. This led to the outbreak of another Cretan uprising in 1895–98, and the

Greco-Turkish War of 1897 The Greco-Turkish War of 1897 or the Ottoman-Greek War of 1897 ( or ), also called the Thirty Days' War and known in Greece as the Black '97 (, ''Mauro '97'') or the Unfortunate War ( el, Ατυχής πόλεμος, Atychis polemos), was a w ...

, after which the Ottoman army withdrew from the island and Crete was recognized as an autonomous state under international guarantee, leading eventually to its union with Greece in the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and def ...

of 1912–13.

References

Stephen Boys Smith, ''Thomas Sandwith: A British Consul in the Levant, 1855-1891'', The Isis Press, Istanbul, 2020. Stephen Boys Smith, "Thomas Sandwith" in www.oxforddnb.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pact of Halepa Ottoman Crete History of Greece (1863–1909) 1878 in the Ottoman Empire 1878 in law Bilateral treaties of the Ottoman Empire Autonomy 1878 treaties

History

See also

References