Murder in Salonika 1876 A Tale of Apostasy and International Crisis — Berke Torunoğlu

It all happened in 1876 during the Year of the Three Sultans when a Bulgarian girl named Stephana made a journey to Salonika to convert to Islam and was subsequently abducted by a group of Christians This event stoked tensions and stirred outrage within the Muslim community Public protests ensued culminating in the murder of the French and German consuls by a Muslim mob on May 6 1876 This Salonika Incident would consequently trigger a wave of hysteria throughout the West and among the Christian populations of the Ottoman Empire There was fear of an impending massacre of the Christians which would never take place A diplomatic war of words between the Sublime Porte and the Great Powers which held the former accountable for this double crime directly followed the incident Through a detailed and meticulous account of this neglected episode of Ottoman Balkan history this book aims to cast light on an often distorted and highly misunderstood event which is a manifestation of Western attitudes toward the Ottoman Empire during the climactic years of the Eastern Question