The Ottoman Sultan Selim II tried to squeeze the Russians out of the lower Volga by sending a military expedition to Astrakhan in 1569.

[5] The peace treaty between the two sides cemented Russia's rule on the Volga, but allowed the Ottoman Empire to obtain a number of commercial benefits.

[6] The latter's pro-Ottoman policy caused disapproval among many Ukrainian Cossacks, who would elect Ivan Samoilovich as sole Hetman of all Ukraine in 1674.

[8] In 1679–80, the Russians repelled the attacks of the Crimean Tatars and signed the Treaty of Bakhchisarai in 1681, which established the Russo-Turkish border on the Dnieper River.

After the Russians had defeated the Swedes and the pro-Swedish Empire Ukrainian Cossacks led by Ivan Mazepa in the Battle of Poltava in 1709, Charles XII of Sweden managed to persuade the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III to declare war on Russia on November 20, 1710.

Taking advantage of the situation, Russia and the Ottoman Empire conquered swaths of its territory comprising contemporary Dagestan, Azerbaijan, and Northern Iran, which was taken by Peter I in the Russo-Persian War (1722–1723); the Ottomans took the territory to the west, comprising modern day Armenia, parts of Eastern Anatolia, as well as western Iran.

These returned all Iranian territories gained since 1722 in the North and South Caucasus and Northern Iran, and avoided war with the emerging leader of Persia, Nader Shah.

The treaties had other diplomatically favourable aspects as they established a Russo-Iranian alliance against Turkey, as Persia was at war with the Ottoman Empire.

This, coupled with the imminent threat of Swedish invasion, forced Russia to sign the Treaty of Niš with Turkey on September 18, ending the war.

The Turks formed an alliance with the Polish opposition forces of the Bar Confederation, while Russia was supported by Great Britain, which offered naval advisers to the Imperial Russian Navy.

[18][19] The Polish opposition was defeated by Alexander Suvorov, who was then transferred to the Ottoman theatre of operations, where in 1773 and 1774 he won several minor and major battles following the previous grand successes of the Russian Field-Marshal Pyotr Rumyantsev at Larga and Kagul.

[21] On July 21, 1774, the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, which formally granted independence to the Crimean Khanate, but in reality it became dependent on Russia.

It also marked the first time that a foreign power directly interfered in the affairs of the Sublime Porte, as the treaty gave Russia protector status over Turkey's Orthodox Christian subjects.

The Turks drove back the Austrians from Mehadia and overran the Banat (1789); but in Moldavia Field-Marshal Pyotr Rumyantsev was successful and captured Iaşi and Khotyn.

Sultan Selim III was nervous to restore his country's prestige by a victory before making peace, but the condition of his military rendered this hope unavailing.

After the Battle of Navarino and the Russo-Turkish War (1828–29), in which the Russian army first crossed the Balkan Mountains and took Adrianople, Turkey recognized the independence of Greece and the transition of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus to Russia.

Russia had been forced by the Crimean War to give up its ambitions of conquering the Ottoman capital of Constantinople and taking control of the Bosphorus.

Even though they were not up to Western European standards, the army fought effectively and brutally; during the war, the Ottomans carried out the Batak massacre in 1876.

Januarius MacGahan, a journalist of the New York Herald and the London The Daily News wrote of the terrible happenings after his visit to Batak with Eugene Schuyler.

Even in Great Britain William Ewart Gladstone published his account of Ottoman atrocities in his Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East.

[42] The uprisings raised a chance for Russia, and (Prince Gorchakov) and Austria-Hungary (Count Andrássy), who made the secret Reichstadt Agreement on July 8, 1876, on partitioning the Balkan peninsula depending on the outcome.

In response to the Russian proximity to the straits the British, against the wishes of the new Sultan Abdul Hamid II, intervened in the war.

A large task force representing British naval supremacy entered the straits of Marmara and anchored in view of both the Dolmabahçe Palace and the Russian army.

The Treaty of San Stefano gave Romania and Montenegro their independence, Serbia and Russia each received extra territory, Austria-Hungary was given control over Bosnia, and Bulgaria was given almost complete autonomy.

While annoyed at British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, the Sultan had nothing but praise for Otto von Bismarck who forced many of the major concessions upon Russia.

The Russian extension in this century developed with the main theme of supporting independence of Ottomans' former provinces and then bringing all of the Slav peoples of the Balkans under Bulgaria or using Armenians in the east sets the stage.

During the Greek uprising, the Russian Empire reached the Ottoman borders in the Caucasus, which were located in the southwest of the region, as well as northeastern Anatolia.

Enver Pasha who pushed the Ottoman Empire into World War I, needed a victory against the Russians to defend his position.

The collapse of the Russian army after the 1917 revolution left only thinly spread Armenian units to resist the inevitable Ottoman counter-attack.

The commune later became the Centrocaspian Dictatorship, in turn conquered by the Ottoman Islamic Army of the Caucasus, then shortly by the Triple Entente and finally the Bolsheviks.