Page 241 - Le Operazioni Interforze e Multinazionali nella Storia Militare - ACTA Tomo I

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operational over long periods.
The establishment of the Kingdom of Greece in 1830 resulted in mounting problems
3
with those territories of the Ottoman Empire inhabited by Greek, and thus also the island
of Crete. Crete, a strategically important forward outpost of the Republic of Venice from
th
the 13 century onwards, had been occupied by the Ottomans in the 17 century. Dur-
th
ing and after the Greek War of Independence there were repeated uprisings of Christian
Cretans against Ottoman sovereignty. The large Greek-Orthodox majority living on the
island demanded independence from the Ottoman Empire and the union with the Greek
state. But the sultans were not willing to dispense with this strategically valuable territory
“due to its vital strategic importance for controlling communications and … as a base of
4
operations in the Mediterranean Sea” .
The Great Cretan Revolt from 1866 to 1868 led to discussions among the great powers
and the United States on a possible combined intervention, which finally resulted in a first
blockade operation at Suda Bay off the island of Crete. The Ottoman Empire was finally
able to suppress the uprising through its own efforts after having appeased the rebels
with promises of political concessions, especially with the introduction of the so-called
Organic Law, which was to give the Cretan Christians equal control of local admin-
istration. The Haleppa Convention of October 1878 following the Congress of Berlin
5
confirmed the concessions of the Organic Law of 1868 and enlarged the autonomy status
of Crete, making the island a semi-autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire with
6
specific privileges – in theory, as in practice the Convention was mostly simply ignored
by the Sublime Porte.
Thus, in 1886 once again an international intervention by a squadron of British, Rus-
sian, Italian, German and Austro-Hungarian ships off the island of Crete became neces-
sary to prevent yet another uprising against Ottoman rule on the island, which made a
war between Greece and Turkey likely. The great powers decided to blockade Greek
ports to be able to counteract possible operations by the belligerent parties on the one

2 Irmgard Pangerl, Participation of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Crete Operation 1897-1898 in Bilten
Slovenske vojske. Vojaškostrokovna publikacija Slovenske vojske, s.l. 2009, p. 135-149, here: p. 136. I would
like to thank Mrs. Pangerl, an archivist at the Austrian State Archive, very much for her very valuable advice
and support, which in fact made this paper and article possible.
3 For the Greek War of Independence see Matthew S. Anderson, The Eastern Question 1774-1923, London-
Melbourne-Toronto-New York, MacMillan/St. Marin’s Press, 1966, 53-76.
4 Efpraxia S. Paschalidou, Military Operations of the Great Powers during the Cretan Revolution (1897): The
Greek Perspective in Bilten Slovenske vojske. Vojaškostrokovna publikacija Slovenske vojske, s.l. 2009, p.
119-133, here: p. 119.
5 See Robert Wagner, Der kretische Aufstand 1866/67 bis zur Mission Aali Paschas, Berne, Gustav Grunau
Verlag, 1908; Irmgard Pangerl, Die Kreta-Mission der k.u.k. Kriegsmarine, unpubl. dipl. paper, Vienna 2008,
p. 16f.; Peter Handel-Mazzetti, Die Auslandsmissionen der einstigen k.k. Kriegsmarine von ihren Anfängen
bis zur Auflösung der Donaumonarchie in Nauticus. Jahrbuch für Deutschlands Seeinteressen, 26. Jg., Berlin,
E. S. Mittler & Sohn, 1943, p. 98-122, here: p. 114.
6 For the terms of the Convention see Daniel Nikolopulos, Die völkerrechts-historische Entwicklung Kretas,
thesis, Vienna 1966, p. 58f.; Stefan Verosta, Kollektivaktionen der Mächte des Europäischen Konzerts
(1886-1914) (Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Völkerrecht und internationale Beziehungen, vol. 1 =
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte, vol. 510,
Vienna 1988), p. 36.