CRRC, American Councils and ARISC are pleased to announce the 9th session of the Fall 2024 Tbilisi Works-in-Progress series!
This week’s session will be in hybrid format in-person at CRRC Georgia and online.
The Ukrainian diplomats in Allied occupied Istanbul. Sovereignty, property and commerce, 1918-1922
Azat Bilalutdinov, Columbia University
Wednesday, December 18, 2024 at 18:30 Tbilisi time (9:30 am EST)
On July 4, 1918, the Naval Ministry of the Ukrainian People’s Republic appealed to the Ottoman authorities requesting restitution of the trade vessel “Queen Olga” that had formerly belonged to the Russian-Danuban Shipping Society, a semi-private corporation that had managed trade and postal connections between Russian and foreign ports since the mid-19th century. Like numerous other movables and immovables owned by enemy states and their subjects, “Queen Olga” had been sequestered by the Ottomans in the first months of WWI in 1914. The appeal was decided in the Ukrainians’ favor. “Queen Olga” was handed over to the Ukrainian Legation in Istanbul. Several months later, however, it changed hands again. In the wake of the Allied occupation of Istanbul, Mikhaylo Sukovkin, a Russophile Ukrainian ambassador in Istanbul leased “Queen Olga”, along with a dozen of other vessels, to the British and French. The latter used them for a landing offensive to take control over Odesa. Under the mounting pressure of the advancing Red Army, the French had to leave the Ukrainian port in April 1919 and the ships were transferred to the balance of the newly established Russian naval base in Istanbul. To remedy the wrongdoings of his predecessor Sukovkin, Oleksandr Lotots’kyi, a dedicated proponent of Ukrainian independence, filed multiple notes of protest to the Allies. None of them was seriously considered because the Allies supported the “United and indivisible Russia” cause and committed financial support to imperialist White Russian governments.
The story of «Queen Olga» reflects the bewildering political and legal diversity over discontinued Russian imperial sovereignty. This presentation focuses on Ukrainian diplomatic activity in Ottoman Istanbul on four major fronts: information campaigns for international recognition; repatriation of POWs and interned civilians; reclamation of property and revival of the Black Sea trade. The talk will elaborate on how the Ukrainian diplomats navigated the complexities of the Ottoman wartime legislation, the Allied occupation bureaucracy, and broader international politics of the post-WWI settlement.
Azat Bilalutdinov is a PhD Candidate in History at Columbia University. He is currently finishing his dissertation “The Black Sea Fragmented. The Post-Romanov States’ Diplomacy, Commerce and Property in Ottoman Istanbul, 1917-1923”.
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Works-in-Progress is an ongoing academic discussion series based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that takes place at the CRRC office at Chavchavadze Ave. 5 and online. It is co-organized by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). All of the talks are free and open to the public.
In observation of the spirit of the Chatham House Rule, the talks will not be recorded, and we courteously request that the other participants refrain from recording and/or distributing recordings as well. The opinions expressed in WiP talks are those of the speakers alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of CRRC, ARISC or of American Councils.
