ABSTRACT
A congress was hastily organized by Bismarck from 13 June to 13 July 1878 in Berlin with representatives from Russia, Austrio-Hungary, Germany, Britain, Italy, France and the Ottoman Empire. The resulting Berlin Treaty effectively ended the Ottoman 600 years rule of “Turkey in Europe,” surrendering a third of its territory and a fifth of its population, half of whom were Muslim. The Berlin Treaty also recognized the new alignment of the eastern powers of Russia, Austria and Germany. Austria began the military occupation of Bosnia, while the province of Kosovo was retained by the Ottomans. Concerns about the Armenians in the eastern Anatolia, raised by the Armenian National Assembly, prompted Article 61 of the Berlin Treaty that required the Ottomans, under the Great Power supervision, to enact the necessary reforms, and guarantee Armenian security against the Circassians and the Kurds.
