Pact of Halepa


The Pact of Halepa or Halepa Charter was an agreement made in 1878 between the Ottoman Empire and the representatives of the Cretan Revolutionary Committee, which secured wide-ranging autonomy for the island of Crete. It was named after the place where it was signed, Halepa.

History

Following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 and the Treaty of Berlin, the Ottoman government pledged to carry out reforms in the Empire's administration to remove discrimination against the Christian population. The island of
Crete, an Ottoman province since 1669, was a particular case. Since the Greek War of Independence broke out in 1821, the Christian Cretans had repeatedly risen in revolt against the Ottoman Empire, seeking union with Greece, most notably in the Cretan Revolution of 1866–69. More recently, since 1875, the island had been again in a state of revolt, and a revolutionary committee of leading Christian Cretans had been formed.
As a first gesture of conciliation, the Sultan had for the first time appointed a Christian Greek, Kostakis Adosidis Pasha, as Governor-General of the island, and following the Treaty of Berlin, Muhtar Pasha was sent to the island for negotiations with the Revolutionary Committee.
On 15 October 1878, a final agreement was reached and signed at the home of the journalist at Halepa. Its stipulations were:
The agreement was considered as superseding any future or past Ottoman legislation, or even contradictory provisions of the Ottoman Constitution. As a result, Crete became an autonomous state within the Ottoman Empire. The treaty was by and large enforced until 1889, when it was abrogated by Shakir Pasha. This led to the outbreak of another Cretan uprising in 1895–98, and the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, after which the Ottoman army withdrew from the island and Crete was recognized as an autonomous state under international guarantee, leading eventually to its union with Greece in the Balkan Wars of 1912–13.