Cretan state
|
Cretan State Κρητική Πολιτεία Kritiki Politia 1898–1913 |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||
|
|||||
| Constitution | no | ||||
| Official language | Greek | ||||
| Capital | Chania | ||||
| Form of government | republic | ||||
| Government system | British-French-Russian-Italian protectorate | ||||
| Head of State and Government |
High Commissioner George of Greece (1898–1906) Alexandros Zaimis (1906–1913) |
||||
| surface | 8,336 km² | ||||
| Residents | 310,000 (1907) | ||||
| Population density | 37.2 inhabitants / km² | ||||
| currency | Greek drachma | ||||
| founding | December 9, 1898 (Proclamation of the Cretan State) |
||||
| resolution | December 1, 1913 (union with the Kingdom of Greece) |
||||
| National anthem | Criticism Ymnos | ||||
| Time zone | UTC + 2 EET | ||||
The Cretan State ( Greek Κρητική Πολιτεία Kritiki Politia , Turkish Girit Devleti ) on the Mediterranean island of Crete was formed after the peace treaty of December 4, 1897 as a result of the Cretans' uprising in the Turkish-Greek War under pressure from the great European powers France , Russia and Great Britain . From 1898 it was de facto a British-French-Russian-Italian protectorate dissolved from the Ottoman Empire .
From 1897 to 1899 the four powers administered the island. The four protecting powers formed an advisory body, which initially had its seat in Rome and whose approval on certain issues had to be obtained from the (Greek) high commissioner entrusted with the government of the island. The last Ottoman Governor General Georg Berowitsch Pasha , who was popular with the local Cretans, handed the keys to the fortress of Chania to the first High Commissioner, Prince George of Greece . As the new head of state, Prince Georg received his formal confirmation from the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II. Greece had previously committed to large reparations payments to the Ottoman Empire. In 1907 the seat of the allied advisory body was moved to Athens .
Immediately after the Young Turkish nationalist overthrow in the Ottoman Empire, Greek nationalists overthrew the previous Cretan government in 1908, and a new Cretan government under Eleftherios Venizelos unilaterally declared a union with Greece . However, this was not recognized until October 1912 by Greece and internationally in 1913 after the Balkan Wars .
According to the Treaty of London , the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Mehmed V had to formally renounce all of his claims on Crete. In December 1913, the Greek flag was hoisted in the Ottoman fort in Chania in the presence of the Greek King Constantine I and the now Greek Prime Minister Venizelos . The Muslim minority initially stayed on the island, but was later relocated to Turkey as agreed in the Lausanne Treaty .
literature
- Jost Dülffer : Islands as focal points of international politics. Conflict Management in the Change of the International System 1890–1984. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-8046-8651-6 .
- Pinar Şenişik: The transformation of Ottoman Crete. Revolts, politics and identity in the late nineteenth century. (= Library of Ottoman studies , 26) Tauris, London 2011, ISBN 978-1-8488-5541-0 .
- Wilhelm Wulsch: The public legal status on the island of Crete: presented on the basis of the constitutional document of April 28, 1899. Borna-Leipzig 1908, pp. 20–90. on-line