The Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi (less correctly spelled as Unkiar Skelessi) was a treaty signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire in 1833, following the Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829.
Muhammad Ali of Egypt, ostensibly only a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, was seeking to increase his personal power and gain control over Palestine, Syria, and Arabia. In late 1831, he took his newly-reformed army into Syria, resulting in the Egyptian–Ottoman War (1831–1833) against the Ottoman Sultan, Mahmud II. Ali easily defeated Ottoman forces and threatened Constantinople itself. While Britain and France were sympathetic to Muhammad Ali, Nicholas I sent a Russian army to the assistance of the Ottoman Empire. This intervention led to the Convention of Kutahya in May 1833, which left Muhammad Ali in control of Syria and Arabia.
On 8 July 1833, the Russians and Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi. This treaty amended certain articles of the Treaty of Adrianople of 1829. Under the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi the annual indemnity payments required of Turkey were curtailed.[1] However, the Treaty bound Turkey and Russia to a promise of mutual assistance should either be attacked by a foreign power--a defensive treaty.[2] A secret article exempted Ottoman from sending military forces; instead, they were to close the Dardanelles to all non-Russian ships--possibly an offensive treaty.[3][4]
Britain and France were suspicious of the treaty, fearing that Ottoman had given Russia freedom of action to send warships through the Dardanelles. These doubts were however quelled in 1841 by the London Straits Convention.
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