page_title: Sanjak of Novi Pazar
section_title: Congress of Berlin (1878)
hierarchical_section_title: Sanjak of Novi Pazar / History / Congress of Berlin (1878)
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the Sanjak of Novibazar, nominal territory of the Ottoman Empire under Austro-Hungarian occupation in 1878. Српски / srpski: Mapa Novopazarskog sandžaka, nominalne teritorije Osmanskog carstva pod Austro-Ugarskom okupacijom 1878. godine.
context_page_description: The Sanjak of Novi Pazar was an Ottoman sanjak that was created in 1865. It was reorganized in 1880 and 1902. The Ottoman rule in the region lasted until the First Balkan War. The Sanjak of Novi Pazar included territories of present-day northeastern Montenegro and southwestern Serbia, also including some northern parts of Kosovo. The region is known as Raška, and also called Sandžak.
context_section_description: At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Andrássy obtained, in addition to the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the right to station garrisons in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, which remained under Ottoman administration. The Sanjak continued to separate Serbia from Montenegro, and it was envisaged that the Austro-Hungarian garrisons there would open the way for a dash to Salonika aimed at "bring[ing] the western half of the Balkans under permanent Austrian influence." "High [Austro-Hungarian] military authorities desired [an ...] immediate major expedition with Salonika as its objective."
  On 28 September 1878 the Finance Minister, Koloman von Zell, threatened to resign if the army, behind which stood the Archduke Albert, were allowed to advance to Salonika. In the session of the Hungarian Parliament held on 5 November 1878 the Opposition proposed that the Foreign Minister should be impeached for violating the constitution by his policy during the Near East Crisis and by the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The motion was lost by 179 to 95. The gravest accusations were raised against Andrassy were raised by the Opposition rank and file.
  On 10 October 1878 the French diplomat Melchior de Vogüé described the situation as follows:
  Particularly in Hungary the dissatisfaction caused by this "adventure" has reached the gravest proportions, prompted by that strong conservative instinct which animates the Magyar race and is the secret of its destinies. This vigorous and exclusive instinct explains the historical phenomenon of an isolated group, small in numbers yet dominating a country inhabited by a majority of peoples of different races and conflicting aspirations, and playing a role in European affairs out of all proportions to its numerical importance or intellectual culture. This instinct is to-day awakened and gives warning that it feels the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina to be a menace which, by introducing fresh Slav elements into the Hungarian political organism and providing a wider field and further recruitment of the Croat opposition, would upset the unstable equilibrium in which the Magyar domination is poised.
  This Austro-Hungarian expansion southward at the expense of the Ottoman Empire was designed to prevent the extension of Russian influence and the union of Serbia and Montenegro.
caption: Political situation in 1878
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