- Pact of Halepa
The Pact of Halepa was an agreement made in
1878 between theOttoman Empire (then ruled by theSultan Abdul Hamid II ) and the representatives of several European states. It was signed atChalepa (now a district ofChania ), the Cretan town where foreign consulates were established.Crete became a semi-independent parliamentary state within the Ottoman Empire under an Ottoman Governor who must be a Christian. The first Christian Pasha was
Kostis Adosidis Pasha , followed byAlexander Karatheodori Pasha ,Giannis Fotiadis Pasha and others. These ruled the island until the late 1880s, presiding over a parliament in which liberals and conservatives contended for power.It was also agreed that in future Crete would be policed by native-born Cretans, Christian and Muslim; a new body of Gendarmerie (see
Cretan Gendarmerie ) would be formed, recruited only from Cretans.In
1889 , in response to the rebellion of that year, the Pact of Chalepa was abrogated byShakir Pasha . Some of its provisions continued to be observed, however. Several of the governors of Crete in the 1890s were Christian.ee also
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History of Crete
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