Austrian Diplomacy During the 1877-1878 Ottoman-Russian War

1877-1878 The Ottoman-Russian War (93 War), in the last quarter of the 19th century, revealed the competition and conflict of the great states on the legacy of the Ottoman Empire, which the Europeans called the in Sick Man. In this way, the sharing of the heritage caused by the war had great consequences not only in the liquidation of the Ottoman Empire, but also in the shaping of the 19th century European power balance and order. Austrian diplomacy has been one of the significant elements of this process. In this context, Just as Austria does not leave its active politics of Count Andrassy in 1875 Herzegovina and 1876 Bulgaria rebellions, which opened the way of 1877-1878 Ottoman-Russian War, so it has also become a key state with the relationships it established with the Britain and Russia in order to protect itself from the crisis and to take its share. Austria played an important role on the outbreak of 1877-1878 Ottoman Russia war, releasing Russia on the condition that it does not establish a large Slavic state in the Balkans in exchange for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Budapest Treaty. In addition, Austria was the single allied force that Britain needed to enter the war against Russia, as British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and Queen Victoria desired. This article aims to reveal the role of the Austrian diplomacy in the course of the problem of the liquidation of the Ottoman State called the “EastProblem”, during the on going of the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878 and the Treaty of Ayastefanos and the Berlin Congress at that time. Ottoman and British documents and Basiret newspaper were used in the study