Activities of The First Ukrainian Representation in Istanbul: State Mission of Diplomats

  • Post category:Issue XXII

Iryna Matiash
Doctor of History, Full Professor, Leading Researcher, Department of History of International Relations and Foreign Policy of Ukraine, Institute of History of Ukraine of the NAS of Ukraine, Head of the Board, Scientific Society of the History of Diplomacy and International Relations
ORCID: 0000-0002-7565-1866

DOI: 10.37837/2707-7683-2021-1

Abstract. The article offers an insight into the foundations and main directions of work of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Istanbul through the prism of the personalities of its leaders. The author paid particular attention to the problems that Ukrainians had to face at the first stage of the formation of Ukrainian-Turkish diplomatic relations. The article was prepared on the basis of archival information contained in documents, which are mainly stored in the Central State Archives of the High Authorities and Administration of Ukraine. The results of studies of Ukrainian and Turkish scientists are taken into account. Based on the documents revealed and historiography, it was stated that the activity of the first Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Turkey lasted more than three years. During April 1918 – June 1922, there were five heads of the diplomatic mission, namely Mykola Levytskyi, Mykhailo Sukovkin, Oleksandr Lototskyi, Jan Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz, Lev Lisniak, each of whom exerted best of their strengths, intelligence and devotion to the national idea to implement the state mission. Mykhailo Sukovkin inflicted harm on the image of Ukraine maintaining contacts within the White Guard and demonstrating a non-Ukrainian position.
The author states that the main areas of activity of the diplomatic mission were to establish political and economic relations, disseminate truthful information about Ukraine, achieve recognition of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, popularize and institutionalise the idea of the Black Sea Union, organise aid to Ukrainian prisoners of war and refugees in Istanbul, form them into Ukrainian army units. The termination of the activities of the Embassy of the UPR was the result of the signing of interstate treaties between Turkey and the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR in 1922. The mutual diplomatic presence of the UPR and the Ottoman Empire in 1918 and the extension of the stay of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Istanbul in June 1922 give grounds to suggest that after the restoration of Ukraine’s state independence in 1991, the Ukrainian-Turkish diplomatic relations were not established but restored.
Keywords: Ukrainian People’s Republic, Ukrainian State, Embassy of the UPR in the Ottoman Empire, Brest Peace Treaty.

Download Article (ukr)

References

1. Datskiv, I. (2010). Dyplomatiia ukrainskykh natsionalnykh uriadiv u zakhysti derzhavnosti (1917–1923) [Diplomacy of Ukrainian National Governments in the Protection of Statehood (1917–1923)]. Synopsis of doctoral thesis in history: 07.00.02. Kyiv: Diplomatic Academy at the MFA of Ukraine. [in Ukrainian].
2. Datskiv, I. (2009). Dyplomatiia ukrainskykh derzhavnykh utvoren u zakhysti natsionalnykh interesiv 1917–1923: monohrafiia [Diplomacy of Ukrainian National Entities in the Protection of National Interests 1917–1923: A Monograph]. Ternopil: Aston. [in Ukrainian].
3. Serhiichuk, B. (2011). Ukrainsko-turetski vidnosyny v pershii chverti XX st. [Ukrainian-Turkish Relations in the First Quarter of the 20th Century]. Synopsis of PhD thesis in history: 07.00.02. Kyiv. [in Ukrainian].
4. Serhiichuk, B. et al. (2011). Na mezhi dvokh svitiv. Ukrainsko-turetski vidnosyny v seredyni XVI – na pochatku XXI st. [Between Two Worlds. Ukrainian-Turkish Relations in mid-16th – early 21st Century]. Kyiv: PP Serhiichuk M. I. [in Ukrainian].
5. Ucrainarma forum (2012). Hakan Kırımlı. Dyplomatychni vidnosyny mizh Osmanskoiu imperiieiu i Ukrainskoiu Demokratychnoiu Respublikoiu, 1918–21 rr. [online]. Available at: http://www.ucrainarma.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=17&start=20 [in Ukrainian].
6. Makhmet Farkhi Furat (2018). ‘Opryliudneni dokumenty ottomanskyh arkhiviv ta ikh vazhlyvist dlia dyplomatychnykh vidnosyn mizh Ukrainoiu i Chetvernym Soiuzom’ [Published Documents of Ottoman Archives and Their Importance for Diplomatic Relations between Ukraine and the Quadruple Alliance], in Verstiuk, V. et al. (eds). Ukraina ta Nimechchyna: mizhderzhavni vidnosyny: zb. nauk. prats. [Ukraine and Germany: Interstate Relations: A Collection of Scientific Works]. Chernihiv: Siverskyi Graduate Centre, pp. 165–172. [in Ukrainian].
7. Serhiichuk, B. (2013). Dokumenty z Osmanskoho arkhivu pro vidnosyny Ukrainskoi Derzhavy i Turechchyny v 1918 rotsi [Documents from the Ottoman Archive on Relations between the Ukrainian State and Turkey in 1918]. National and Historical Memory: A Collection of Scientific Works. Issue 7. Special Issue: Pavlo Skoropadskyi – ostannii hetman Ukrainy (140-richchia vid dnia narodzhennia). Kyiv: DP NVTs Priorytety, pp. 226–232. [in Ukrainian].
8. Serhiichuk, B. (2013). Dokumenty z Osmanskoho arkhivu pro rozvytok konsulskykh vidnosyn mizh UNR i Turechchynoiu v 1920–1921 rokakh [Documents from the Ottoman Archive on the Development of Consular Relations between the UNR and Turkey in 1920–1921]. Collected Works of the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine, Issue 20, Part 1, pp. 156–160. [in Ukrainian].
9. Central State Archive of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine (hereinafter – TsDAVO of Ukraine). F. 2592. Op. 1. Spr. 52. [in Ukrainian].
10. TsDAVO of Ukraine. F. 3766. Оp. 1. Spr. 111. [in Ukrainian].
11. Nakazy pro pryznachennia ta zvilnennia (1918). State Gazette, no. 62, p. 1. [in Ukrainian].
12, Doroshenko, D. (2007). Moi spomyny pro nedavnie mynule (1914–1920) [My Recollections about the Recent Past (1914–1920)]. Kyiv: Tempora. [in Ukrainian].
13. Komirenko, I. (2004). ‘Mudroske peremyria’ [Armistice of Mudros], in Huberskyi, L. et al. (eds). Ukrainska dyplomatychna entsyklopedia: u 2-kh t. [Ukrainian Diplomatic Encyclopedia: 2 Volumes]. Vol. 2. Kyiv: Znannia Ukrainy. [in Ukrainian].
14. Kobylianskyi, L. (1925). Ukrainske posolstvo v Turechchyni (1/ХІ 1918–22/ІV 1919) [Ukrainian Embassy in Turkey (1/ХІ 1918–22/ІV 1919)]. Prague: Nova Ukraina, pp. 77–91. [in Ukrainian].
15. TsDAVO of Ukraine. F. 3696. Оp. 2. Spr. 285. [in Ukrainian].
16. Muhtar Bey u Chekhivskoho (1919). Trybuna, 4 January, p. 3. [in Ukrainian].
17. TsDAVO of Ukraine. F. 3696. Оp. 1. Spr. 126. [in Ukrainian].
18. Koroliv-Staryi, V. (1928). Yuvilei halytskoi ‘Prosvity’ [Jubilee of Galician ‘Prosvita’]. Literary Scientific Herald, vol. 96, book 9, pp. 21–34. [in Ukrainian].
19. Dublianslyi, A. (1983). ‘Proholoshennia avtokefalii Ukrainskoi Pravoslavnoi Tserkvy 1 sichnia 1919 r. v Kyievi i rolia v tsiomu O. Lototskoho’ [Declaration of Autoсephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Chuch on 1 January 1919 in Kyiv and the Role of O. Lototskyi in It], in Hoshovskyi, B. (ed.). Lytsar pratsi i oboviazku: zb. prysviach. pamiati prof. Oleksandra Lototskoho-Bilousenka [Knight of Labour and Duty: A Compilation Devoted to the Memory of Prof. Oleksandr Lototskyi-Bilousenko]. Toronto: Shevchenko Scientific Society. P. 53. [in Ukrainian].
20. Lototskyi, O. (1939). V Tsarhorodi [A Constantinople]. Warsaw: Ukrainian Scientific Institute. [in Ukrainian].
21. Trembitskyi, V. (1965). Znosyny Ukrainskoi Derzhavy 1918–1922 rokiv z Tsarhorodskoiu Patriiarkhiieiu [Relations of the Ukrainian State with the Constantinople Patriarchate in 1918–1922]. Bohosloviia, vol. 29, books 1–4, pp. 63–88. [in Ukrainian].
22. Karmanskyi, P. (1934). ‘Kardynal P. Gaspari i Ukraina’, Dilo, 27 November, p. 2. [in Ukrainian].
23. Tokarzhevskyi-Karashevych, Ya. (1952). ‘Iz storinok ukrainskoi dyplomatii – Oleksandr Lototskyi (1870–1939)’, Ukrainets i chas, 23 March, part 12 (275), pp. 3–5. [in Ukrainian].
24. Matviienko, V. (2004). ‘Baltiiski konferentsii 1919–20. Balto-Chornomorskyi soiuz’ [Baltic Conferences in 1919–20. Baltic-Black Sea Union], in Huberskyi, L. et al. (Eds). Ukrainska dyplomatychna entsyklopedia: u 2-kh t. [Ukrainian Diplomatic Encyclopedia: 2 Vol.]. Vol. 1. Kyiv: Znannia Ukrainy, pp.101–103. [in Ukrainian].
25. Koroliov, H. (2011). Ideiia chornomorskoi federatsii u pohliadakh Mykhaila Hrushevskoho [Idea of the Black Sea Federation in Works of Mykhailo Hrushevskyi]. Ukrainian Historical Journal, no. 6, pp. 68–79. [in Ukrainian].
26. Domashchenko, L. (2008). Kontseptsii chornomorskoi orientatsii Ukrainy u vitchyznianii politychnii dumtsi persko polovyny XX stolittia [Concepts of Ukraine’s Black Sea Orientation in Domestic Political Thought of the Early 20th Century]. Synopsis of PhD thesis: 23.00.01.Kyiv: Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. [in Ukrainian].
27. TsDAVO of Ukraine. F. 3696. Оp. 2. Spr. 311. [in Ukrainian].
28. Serhiichuk, B. (1997). Uriad UNR i Vselenskyi prestol: z istorii vidnosyn [UPR Government and the Ecumenical Patriarchate: From History of Relations]. Liudyna i svit, no. 2, p. 36. [in Ukrainian].
29. TsDAVO of Ukraine. F. 3696. Оp. 2. Spr. 97. [in Ukrainian].
30. Trembitskyi, op. cit., p. 79.
31. Andrusyshyn, B. (1997). Tserkva v Ukrainskii Derzhavi 1917–1920 rr. (doba Dyrektorii UNR): navch. posibnyk [Church in the Ukrainian State in 1917–1920 (Period of the UPR Directory): A Study Manual. Kyiv: Lybid. [in Ukrainian].
32. Kuras, H. (2007). Dyplomat, istoryk, patriot (Ivan Tokarzhevskyi-Karashevych) [Diplomat, Historian, Patriot (Ivan Tokarzhevskyi-Karashevych)]. Naukovi zapysky NaUOA, Issue 9, pp. 184–189. [in Ukrainian].
33. TsDAVO of Ukraine. F. 3696. Оp.1. Spr. 126. [in Ukrainian].
34. Ibid. Оp. 3. Spr. 50.
35. Ibid. Оp. 2. Spr. 270.
36. Ibid. Spr. 558.
37. See: Hai-Nyzhnyk, P. (2017). Ukrainsko-hruzynski dyplomatychni vzaiemyny za chasiv UNR i HDR (hruden 198 r. – lystopad 1921 r.) [Ukrainian-Georgian Diplomatic Relations in the Period of the UPR and the GDR (December 1918 – November 1921). Collected Works of the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine, Issue 24. Foreign policy and diplomacy: institutionalisation, transformation, traditionalism. Part 1, pp. 82–91. [in Ukrainian].
38. Petliura, S. (2006). Statti. Lysty. Dokumenty [Articles. Letters. Documents]. Vol. 4. Kyiv: PP Serhiichuk M. I. [in Ukrainian].