Ahmed Fevzi Pasha

Ahmed Fevzi Pasha (Ottoman Turkish: احمد فوزى پاشا; known as "Firari" lit. 'fugitive'; died 1842) was an Ottoman admiral who served as Kapudan Pasha from 1836 to 1839. He is known for having voluntarily surrendered the Ottoman naval fleet to Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1839.

Early life

Details of Ahmed Fevzi's early life are unknown. He was of Greek origin, from the island of Crete, and moved to Istanbul at a young age. Initially working as a boater, he subsequently entered the Ottoman Navy and rose the ranks to become the deputy of the Kapudan Pasha.

In 1834, he led the Ottoman delegation that signed the Treaty of Saint Petersburg with the Russian Empire. He was subsequently implicated in the Churchill affair when he refused to release William Nosworthy Churchill, a British-Ottoman journalist who had been imprisoned in the Tersane-i Amire on the charge of shooting a child while hunting illegally in Kadıköy. Upon being notified of Churchill's imprisonment, the British ambassador Lord Ponsonby demanded his immediate release from Akif Efendi, Ottoman Minister of Foreign Affairs, who initially rejected but subsequently accepted the demand upon learning that Churchill had been beaten. The request was conveyed to Ahmed Fevzi via Esvâbcı Mehmed Ağa, but he rejected on the basis of a lack of a Ministry brief (tezkire). Subsequently, Lord Ponsonby sent a note to the Ottoman government on 10 May 1836 expressing his unrecognition of Akif Efendi's ministership, and separately authored a report on 15 May 1836 addressed to the British government in which he implicated both Akif and Ahmed Fevzi for having received bribes from Russia. On 27 May 1836, Lord Ponsonby held an audience with Serasker Hüsrev Pasha, a personal and political opponent of Ahmed Fevzi, where he conveyed the British government's desire for the removal of both from their offices. Whereas Akif Efendi was retired from his post, either due to or with the pretext of his illness, Ahmed Fevzi was promoted to the rank of Kapudan Pasha by Mahmud II on 10 November 1836.