Constantinople, Treaty of 1879

between Russia and Turkey; concluded after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78.

The treaty was signed in Constantinople on January 27 (February 8) by the Russian ambassador Prince A. B. LobanovRostovskii and the Turkish minister of foreign affairs A. Karatheodory. It proclaimed “peace and friendship” between both powers (art. 1) and confirmed those conditions of the “San Stefano Treaty which were not abolished or altered by the Berlin Treaty” (art. 3). The treaty determined the military compensation due Russia and the sum to be paid to Russian subjects for “losses borne by them during the war” (arts. 4, 5). A special point ensured amnesty to Ottoman subjects who took part in the liberation movement of the Balkan peoples against Turkish dominion (art. 9). All former “treaties, conventions, and obligations … relative to the commerce, jurisdiction, and status of Russian subjects in Turkey” were restored.