8vo. [3], 352 pp., half-title, modern quarter calf, title gilt on raised spine, original wrappers preserved, biblio, half title page has 2 marginal tears without any loss to text, original wrapper lightly soiled, light browning to pages, otherwise copy in very good condition, Librairie Plon, Paris, 1904.

Synopsis

The volume comprises documents from 5 June 1673 up till 25 March 1877. Secretary of the Bulgarian Exarchate, established on February 28, 1870 in Constantinople, Turkey, and ending in 1912, when Greece, Serbia and Romania expanded their territories at the expense of their neighbours. Catalogued at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
The instigators of both reforms and protection of the Ottoman Empire were of French origin. The result was that until nearly the end of the nineteenth century, France found herself in a uniquely privileged position of influence at the Ottoman court. During the three centuries of Crusades, which had been undertaken and supported mainly by France, the Christians of the East had grown accustomed to look to France for assistance during oppression or to gain more leverage in their dealings with the Ottomans, while France valued its increasingly important role in the region and the accompanying geopolitical benefits. There lies the germ of the early to mid- 20th century Protectorate of the Levant.
The massacres committed by the Young Turks against the Armenians were the results of the triumph of Turkish chauvinism over Ottoman liberalism and the ascendancy of the dictatorial element of al-Itihad wal Taraki.
This work is a major reference book on what was known as the “Eastern Question”. It lists a series of European-sponsored reforms and documents dating between 1673 and 1904. It was published after the Armenian massacres of 1896-1897.