THE PORTE ABANDONS ITS UKRAINIAN PLAN

After the return of the Ottoman envoys from Poland with their inconclusive reply to Ali Pasha’s proposal concerning the Cos­sacks, the Grand Vizir began to grow impatient with the protracted negotiations.

Matters took a turn for the worse when, in December of 1713 and the early months of 1714, Horlenko and his men, disoriented by Orlyk’s policy and exposed to renewed Polish pressure, were forced to abandon the Right Bank.⁴¹ Even more importantly, Khan Kap­lan Girei, encouraged by August IΓs heavy bribes, entered into secret negotiations with the Polish King.⁴² As a result, his support of the Cossacks weakened considerably. In Europe, the great Bour­bon-Habsburg conflict was coming to an end and the threat of unhampered Habsburg activity in the Balkans loomed before the Porte. Ali Pasha realized that, as far as Ukraine was concerned, the time had come to make a final and decisive effort to secure his goal.

In the middle of January 1714, Chomentowski was summoned to renew the negotiations. As expected, when the question of Ukraine arose, the Polish envoy replied that he did not have the authority to make any decisions in this matter. In replying to this argument, the Porte made what appeared to be a harmless request. Ali Pasha asked that Chomentowski sign, ostensibly as proof of the Commonwealth’s good will, the following statement:

Ukraine, which at the last treaty of Karlowitz was conceded to the Commonwealth (and) now when the Porte has forced the Muscovite armies to abandon it, is now requested as a habita­tion for the Cossacks. Whereas we have no plenipotentiary rights in this matter, but for the sake of friendship with the Porte...

When Chomentowski was about to sign this declaration, the Grand Vizir demanded that it be attached to the pact signed at Karlowitz. This, in effect, would amend or at least question the Polish Com­monwealth’s right to Ukraine as acknowledged at Karlowitz. Real­izing the Ottoman trick, Chomentowski refused to sign the declara­tion. This infuriated Ali Pasha and he issued orders for the Otto­man army to prepare for war.

But the Poles were not intimidated, for they had recently learned of a development which would have a decisive impact on the Ukrainian issue: the Khan, tempted by a huge subsidy from the Polish king and hoping that August II would join him in an anti­Russian alliance, agreed to withdraw support from the Porte’s Ukrainian plans. He even hinted that he would help the Poles regain the Left Bank.⁴⁴ The Khan’s offer to the Poles concerning the Left Bank was quite similar to one which Orlyk had made pre­viously and which he continued to make to August II and his gov­ernment. However, rather than consider the Khan’s or the Het­man’s proposals seriously, the Poles wished only to defuse a joint Cossack-Tatar-Ottoman effort to establish Orlyk in the Right Bank. Thus, while they did not openly reject either the Khan’s or Orlyk’s offers, they also did not make any move to act upon them.

In the spring of 1714, Ali Pasha realized that all opportunities, so numerous and promising since Prut, to gain control of the Right Bank and/or at least establish Orlyk there, were gone. On 22 April 1714, Chomentowski finally fulfilled his mission when a treaty was signed between the Porte and the Polish Commonwealth. Essen­tially it liquidated all the issues raised between the Porte and the Commonwealth in the course of the Northern War and renewed the terms of the Treaty of Karlowitz. As far as Ukraine was con­cerned, the Grand Vizir declared:

The Sublime Porte, seeing that its demands as to Ukraine are causing great difficulties and although it expelled the Musco­vite troops from Ukraine at the cost of its own blood, gra­ciously bestows it (Ukraine) to the Commonwealth at the request of the Khan.⁴⁵

However, even this statement did not conclusively settle the Ukrain­ian issue. Both Tatar and Ottoman envoys continued to insist that the Commonwealth accept Ali Pasha’s proposal that Orlyk and his men be allowed to settle in the Right Bank under Polish protection. But, as the Porte turned its attention west and became involved in a war with Venice, it was obvious that these demands were merely pro forma gestures and that, in effect, the Porte’s last major engage­ment in Ukrainian Cossack affairs was over.