Consul Zohrab's Report

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“Further Papers Related to the Conditions of Christians in Turkey” is a set of reports that were written to correct the misunderstanding of the conditions of Christians living in Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Ottomans rule. The reports were dispatched by Vice-consul James Zohrab’s who was an interpreter, investigator as well as a diplomat of the Britain government to consul W. R. Holmes. Consul Holmes collected these reports and wrote a letter admitting that all the information stated in Consul Zohrab’s reports regarding the incident of Gasko were correct and true. Consul Holmes dispatched the full reports along with his letter to the Foreign Office and specifically to the Prime Minister of Britain at that time, Lord John Russell. The …show more content…

The massacre and profanation of churches were attributed to the Turkish troops in Gasko, where they were as consul James Zohrab concluded, not guilty of such offenses. It is important to note that these reports came four years after the Crimean war, in which Russia lost to the alliance of Britain, France, Sardinia and the Ottoman Empire. The Russian empire tried to influence the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina to weaken the alliance. Consul Holmes mentioned in his report how people in Mostar (Bosnia) “look for Russia to inspiration to what they shall say, or how they shall …show more content…

After Russia lost in the Crimean war to the alliance, one of its goals was to destroy this alliance or at least try to weaken it. The reports created by consul Zohrab to consul Holmes show in details why the Turkish troops could not have committed these offenses and why Russia was meddling with the alliance to secure its power.
Observing the incident of Gasko, consul Zohrab stated that he went to the lactations of these incidents and asked people of interest to comment and to discuss what truly had happened. Whereas Colonel Zekee Bey, Aide-de-camp of the Grand Vizier – Ali Riza Pasha-, investigated only some Christians in the expeditionary force of the headquarters at Metokhia. Although Zekee Bey showed affiliation to the Christians and allowed them to grieve, he seemed to be fed incorrect information regarding the number of Christians who lost their lives in the massacre.
The inconsistency of the observations of the events was led by Mr. Bezobrazoff, the Russian consul at Mostar. He investigated only the pillaged chapels and reported on it. In one of his reports to the Russian Government, he stated that the number of Christians who were massacred was 150 people, and the houses that were burnt were double than what the village contained. He misguided the Austrian consul of Mostar with this incorrect

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