Ahmed Fevzi Pasha (Ottoman Turkish: احمد فوزى پاشا; died 1842) was an Ottoman Navy officer and politician who served as Kapudan Pasha from 1836 to 1839. He is best known for his role in the Churchill affair and surrendering an Ottoman fleet to Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1839 during the Egyptian–Ottoman War.
Early life
Details of Ahmed Fevzi's early life are unknown. He was of Greek descent, and was born on the island of Crete before moving to Istanbul at a young age. Initially working as a boater, he subsequently entered the Ottoman Navy and rose the Navy's ranks to become deputy Kapudan Pasha.
Churchill affair
In 1834, Fevzi Pasha was assigned to lead the Ottoman delegation which negotiated the Treaty of Saint Petersburg with the Russian Empire. He was subsequently implicated in the Churchill affair, a diplomatic crisis between the Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom. The crisis began when British journalist William Nosworthy Churchill was imprisoned in the Imperial Arsenal after accidentally wounding a local child with his gun while out hunting in Kadıköy. Upon being notified of Churchill's imprisonment, British ambassador Lord Ponsonby demanded his immediate release from prison. The Ottoman Minister of Foreign Affairs, Akif Pasha, initially rejected Ponsonby's demand but changed his mind upon being informed that Churchill had been brutally assaulted by a local mob. The order to free Churchill was conveyed to Fevzi Pasha, who rejected it citing the lack of an official brief from the ministry, as well as the uncertainty of the Churchill's condition, which would influence the decision to press charges against him.
Lord Ponsonby subsequently sent a note to the Ottoman government on 10 May 1836 stating that Britain did not recognize Akif Pasha's ministership, and separately authored a report on 15 May 1836 to the British government in which he claimed that both Akif Pasha and Fevzi Pasha had received Russian bribes in relation to the Treaty of Saint Petersburg. On 27 May 1836, Lord Ponsonby held an audience with Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha, a rival of Fevzi Pasha, where he conveyed the desire of the British government for the removal of both Akif Pasha and Fevzi Pasha from their offices. Whereas Akif Pasha was forcibly retired, either due to or with the pretext of his illness, Fevzi Pasha was promoted to the rank of Kapudan Pasha by Mahmud II on 10 November 1836. Academic Nedim İpek suggests that Lord Ponsonby's attempts to remove Fevzi Pasha was primarily motivated by a desire to curtail the increasing levels of Russian influence over the Ottoman Empire following the 1829 Treaty of Adrianople and 1833 Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi.
Footnotes
- Gülen, Nejat (2007-09-27). "Şanlı Bahriye: 1773 - 1973". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2024-05-29.
- İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, pp. 172 ff. Türkiye Yayınevi (Istanbul), 1971. (in Turkish)
- Iorga, Nicolae (1948). Osmanlı Tarihi [Ottoman History] (in Turkish). Vol. V. Translated by Baykal, Bekir Sıtkı. Ankara University. p. 378.
- Pınar, Hayrettin (1 February 2013). "Ahmed Fevzi Paşa'nın Petersburg Seyahati ve Petersburg Anlaşması" [The Journey of Ahmed Fevzi Pasha to Petersburg and the Treaty of Petersburg]. Selçuk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi (29): 179–189 – via DergiPark.
- Dönmez, Ahmet (24 November 2016). "Babıâli'de Hizip Çatışmaları: Ahmed Fevzi Paşa'nın Osmanlı Donanmasını Mısır Valisine Teslimi Olayı" [Faction Conflicts at the Sublime Porte: the Case of Ahmed Fevzi Pasha's Surrender of the Ottoman Navy to the Governor of Egypt]. Selçuk Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi. 1 (40): 43–57. doi:10.21563/sutad.268916. ISSN 1300-5766 – via DergiPark.
Works cited
- İpek, Nedim (December 1995). "Churchill Vak'ası" [Churchill affair (1836)]. Belleten. 59 (226): 661–714. doi:10.37879/belleten.1995.661 – via belleten.gov.tr.
