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Akkerman fortress was for centuries a formidable link in a chain of fortresses that protected Istanbul and the Ottoman heartlands from invaders from the north. The garrison at Akkerman, as elsewhere on this frontier, was supported by Tatar clients of the Ottomans, particularly the Crimean Tatars who became Ottoman vassals from 1475. Once the Ottomans secured a foothold on the northern Black Sea shore it was only a matter of time before they established a permanent presence, and with the Ottoman sultan’s conquest of Akkerman, together with its sister fortress of Kilia on the Danube, in 1484, the fate of the Black Sea as an “Ottoman Lake” was sealed for much of the next 300 years.
The Akkerman Fortress Project (AFP) is funded by the Fondation Max van Berchem (FVB) and the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA). Until 2006 additional support was also provided by the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA).
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