ABSTRACT
Aehrenthal countered by circulating extracts from the Austro-Russian confidential negotiations of the summer. For the Austrians, at least, the international problem had been simplified. No longer did they have to weigh the advantages of alternative alignments, German, British, or Russian, as in the days of the Three Emperors' Alliance or the Austro-Russian Entente. The Austro-Serbian crisis was all the more serious in that it coincided with and exacerbated a deterioration in Austro-Russian relations. The Young Turks, whose relations with Britain and Russia were deteriorating sharply as a result of Turkish interference in Persia and Egypt and Anglo-Russian criticism of the militarism and the brutal Ottomanization policies emanating from Constantinople, were in any case anxious to lean on Vienna. The Turks were by no means ready to accept the renunciation of Austro-Hungarian rights in the Sanjak as sufficient compensation for their loss of their sovereign rights in Bosnia and the Herzegovina.
