TRENDEFRARAtlas of the Sultans · Cities and countries
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The most important Ottoman point on the soil of today's Russia was the fortress of Azov at the mouth of the Don.
Azov was taken in 1475 and became the main Ottoman fortress north of the Black Sea. Tsar Peter I besieged and took it in 1696; the Ottomans recovered it after the Pruth campaign of 1711, but it was lost again in the Russian war of the mid-18th century.
Gedik Ahmed Pasha's fleet took Azov and its surroundings together with Kaffa, ending the Italian colonies.
The Don Cossacks seized the fortress.
When Sultanzade Mehmed Pasha and the Crimean khan approached, the Cossacks set the fortress on fire and fled.
The Russian army besieged the fortress and took it on 6 August 1696; the Treaty of Constantinople (1700) ceded it to Russia.
After the victory on the Pruth the fortress was recovered; the 1713 Treaty of Adrianople confirmed it.
Azov passed to Russia again; the 1739 Treaty of Belgrade left it to Russia on condition its fortifications be razed.
Source: TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, article “AZAK” (in Turkish) and the atlas's city pages. Present-day borders are used.