The Treaty of Constantinople was concluded on 13 July 1700. The Tsardom of Russia and the Ottoman Empire agreed on a truce set to expire in thirty years. The sultan recognized Russia’s possession of the Azov area, including Asov and the newly built fortresses of Taganrog, Pavlovsk, and Mius. Russia dropped its claims to the Kerch Strait but was relieved from paying the annual tribute to the Crimean Khanate paid since the occupation of Muscovy by the Golden Horde. [Since 1238!!]. Brian Davies in ‘Warfare, state and Society on the Black Sea Steppe, 1500-1700′ describes the events that preceded the Treaty: “In April 1698 Peter learned that Leopold I and Poland’s new king, August II, were negotiating treaties of separate peace with the sultan through Dutch and English mediators. It was now unlikely that continued Muscovite campaigning for the Kerch straits and the lower Dnepr would receive any support from the League allies. Peter therefore decided to join in the peace negotiations underway at Karlowitz and on 26 January 1699, his envoys signed a two-year armistice with the Ottomans. The Treaty of Constantinople (3 July 1700) extended this armistice to thirty years, formally recognized the Tsar’s sovereignty over Azov, and finally freed Muscovy from tribute obligations towards the Khan. But to achieve this Peter’s diplomats had to drop all demands for the cession of the Kerch Straits and pledge that the captured Ottoman fortresses on the Dnepr would be evacuated and demolished. The Dnepr south of the Zaporozhian Sich and the steppe east of Perekop as far as Miusskii Gorodok were to become demilitarized zones, and while the Sultan promised to restrain the Tatars from raiding, the Tsar was equally bound to restrain the Don and Zaporozhian hosts.”
