Poland 🤝 Turkiye
Poland 🤝 Turkiye
Explanation From Original OP:
Despite the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth under John III Sobieski being instrumental to the Christian Coalition’s victory at the Battle of Vienna, relations afterwards improved as Austria, Prussia, and Russia participated in the partition of Poland. The Ottomans supported the Polish Bar Confederation against Russia, leading to the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774 which resulted in an Ottoman defeat, leading to the loss of Crimea and the first partition of Poland.
Later, the Ottomans remained the only major country that did not recognise the partitions of the PLC, continuing to maintain an embassy of the Commonwealth as Lehistan.
According to one anecdote whenever the diplomatic corps was received by the Ottoman sultan, on the sight of the empty Polish chair, the Ottoman chief of protocols would ask: “Where is the deputy from Lehistan?” and on each occasion, he would receive the same reply from his aide “Your Excellency, the deputy of Lehistan could not make it because of vital impediments”, as late as Sultan Abdulhamid II this still happened for every diplomatic visit to the annoyance of the three partitioning powers.
In the 19th century, many Polish veterans of the various Polish uprisings against Russia also arrived in Turkey and joined the Ottoman forces. A Polish legion later fought alongside the Turks in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, and Poland was the first country to recognise Turkey following its declaration of independence.
Furthermore, until its end, the Ottoman Empire maintained an open-door policy for all Polish refugees who moved to the territory of the Ottoman Empire from the partitioned Commonwealth