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During the following ten years the focus turned onto the battle between the crown prince of Egypt, Mohammed Ali, and the Ottoman rule. Mohammed Ali, with the help of the influential France, caused heavy losses for the Turks, and went on to occupy Syria. The sultan, left with no alternative, called on Russia for help and signed the Hunkiar Iskelessi Treaty (1833), according to which Russia was granted wide influence in the Ottoman Empire.

The diplomacy of England, however, was constantly active to keep the Ottoman Empire intact and alive. England, with support from the Austrian government, forced Russia to refrain from realising the clauses in the Hunkiar Iskelessi Treaty, thus saving the Bosporus from the Russian threat. In other Ottoman territories, the British focused their efforts on destroying the French influence over Egypt, always keen to prevent France from gaining control over the key area en route to India. England created a European coalition (1839-1840) against Mohammed Ali, the Egyptian crown prince, thwarting his claims to Syria, in which France had supported him. Fearing lest the whole of Europe should turn against her, France withdrew from the issue; as Gladstone pointed out a half century later, by this move, if not saving her reputation, France was at least able to secure her existence. 32

Finally in 1835, due to an insignificant dispute between France and Russia 33, the Crimean war began, which eventually resulted in the Congress of Paris and the Paris Treaty of 1856, according to which the Ottoman government for the first time was allowed into the group known as the "European Coalition".



According to men in power in Paris and London, the Ottoman Empire, which had been rescued in Sevastopol by the western powers, should pledge to implement reforms within the government and the organization of the state and to liberate the Christian people from its oppressive regime and violence. As Renand points out, however, the Ottoman rule abused the English and French trust, instead expanding their oppression and violence against the Christian people in the empire: "The Crimean war, which could only be regarded as the beginning of the liberation of the local people from Turkish mercy, did nothing else but intensify the violence and the oppression of the Ottoman rule." 34

It has been claimed, therefore, that the inevitable and necessary decay of the Ottoman Empire was averted due to the power struggle between the mightiest European nations, a competition which held the dead body of the Ottoman Empire on its feet. According to Lord Bryce: "the envy of the major powers prevented the natural course of extinction of the deficient powers." 35

The destruction of the Ottoman Empire was difficult precisely because no major power was willing to see Constantinople and the Bosporus fall into the hands of a competitor nation. 36

Thus the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, against all odds, remained in Turkish hands whilst receiving the aid of different major powers..