CHAPTER IV.
SIEGE OF SILISTRIA—1829.
The part taken by Russia in the destruction of the Turkish fleet at Navarino was by no means disinterested. Russia was then at war with Persia, in which the latter was defeated and obliged to ask for terms of peace. By this war and another which terminated in 1813, Persia lost the provinces of Georgia, Mingrelia, Erivan, Nakhitcheven, and the greater part of Talish, the Russian frontier being advanced to Mount Ararat and the left bank of the Aras River. The treaty which closed the second war was signed February 22, 1828. Russia pressed the conclusion of the treaty with great earnestness, as she was then involved with Turkey in such a manner that a war on a large scale was in the immediate future. In fact, hostilities had almost commenced between the Russian and Ottoman powers before the terms of peace between Persia and Russia had been arranged.
Since the beginning of 1826, Russia had been strengthening her armies on the Turkish frontiers and evidently making preparations for important military movements. Preliminary to an invasion of Turkish territory, Russia presented several demands, which related chiefly to the Danubian principalities and their mode of government, together with the responsibilities of the Porte for the piracies on the Barbary coast, in which Russia, in common with other Christian nations, had suflercd considerably. Turkey was then engaged with the suppression of the
47
