Treaty of Çanak

Treaty of Çanak, (Jan. 5, 1809), pact signed between the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain at Çanak (now Çanakkale, Tur.) that affirmed the principle that no warships of any power should enter the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus. The treaty anticipated the London Straits Convention of 1841, by which the other major powers committed themselves to this same principle.

Implicitly directed against Russia, which had signed the Tilsit (1807) and Erfurt (1808) agreements with Napoleonic France, the Treaty of Çanak offered security to the British against the entry of the Russian fleet from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean. It also reaffirmed in full Great Britain’s capitulary rights (trading and consular privileges) in the Ottoman Empire, while its secret provisions provided that the British assist the Ottomans in the event of a French declaration of war against them.