page_title: Mehmed Rashid Pasha
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Mehmed Rashid Pasha / Death
caption_attribution_description: English: Cherkess Hasan was a brother-in-law of the Ottoman Sultan. His claim to fame is to break into a cabinet meeting and assasinate several Ottoman officials in 1876 Türkçe: Çerkes Hasan Osmanlı padişahı Abdülaziz'in kayınbiraderiydi. Abdülaziz'in intiharından sonra Midhat Paşa'nın evine giderek hükümet toplantısını basmış, 5 kişiyi öldürmüştür.
context_page_description: Mehmed Rashid Pasha was an Ottoman statesman who served as the vali of Syria Vilayet in 1866–1871 and as minister of foreign affairs of the Ottoman government in 1873–1874 and 1875 until his death. Rashid Pasha was raised in Egypt where his father was an aide of the governor Muhammad Ali and was educated in Paris before joining government service in Istanbul in 1851. There he became a protege of the grand vizier Ali Pasha, a key figure in the empire-wide Tanzimat reforms. After the latter was reappointed grand vizier in 1866, Rashid Pasha was appointed governor of the Damascus-centered Syria Vilayet which extended from Tripoli and Hama in the north to Palestine and Transjordan in the south.
  As governor, Rashid Pasha enacted numerous administrative reforms, including the creation of the Damascus and Beirut municipal councils, the Syrian provincial council and the Syrian parliament, while ensuring that the office of amir al-hajj be only filled by a local. He launched numerous public works projects, significantly expanding Syria's road and telegraph networks.
context_section_description: During a meeting of senior cabinet officials in the Istanbul home of Midhat Pasha on 15 June 1876, Rashid Pasha was gunned down with a revolver by Cerkes Hassan Bey, the Circassian brother-in-law of Sultan Abdülaziz. Hassan Bey was apparently motivated by vengeance at his target, War Minister Huseyin Avni Pasha, who was killed immediately. Rashid Pasha died in the ensuing scuffle, along with Midhat's servant Ahmad Agha. As Hassan Bey fled the scene, police gendarmes and regular troops engaged him in a running battle in which two soldiers were killed before Hassan Bey was apprehended. After a brief trial, he was hanged on 17 June or 18 June. Hassan Bey had been angry and aggrieved at the dismissal and subsequent suicide of Sultan Abdulaziz in May 1876 and the death of his sister Nesrin Kadın during an abortion at the same time. In the aftermath of these events, Hassan felt he was consequently mistreated by Huseyin Avni Pasha who, believing Hassan was dangerous, assigned him to a faraway army post in Baghdad.
caption: Portrait of Cerkes Hassan Bey, who gunned down Rashid Pasha in 1876
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