Encampment of the Russians at Unkiar Skelessi (Sultan Mahmud II Departing from the Hunkar Dock after Visiting the Russian Military Camp in Beykoz, Istanbul in July 1833)

Description

In order to suppress the rebellion of the Governor of Egypt Mehmet Ali Pasha, in April 1833, with the approval of the Ottoman Empire, Russian Black Sea Fleet military units set up headquarters on the Beykoz coast of Istanbul. Following the agreement reached with Mehmet Ali Pasha in Kütahya, the Treaty of Hünkar Iskelesi was signed with the Russians on July 8, 1833. After the agreement, the Russian military forces left the Beykoz coast where they stayed for about 5-6 months and returned to their country. During this period, Sultan Mahmud II visited the Russian camp twice. In the engraving, after the signing of the Treaty of Hünkar Iskelesi, Hünkar Iskelesi II. Mahmud and his entourage are depicted leaving the region. In addition, the engraving depicts the tents of the Russian headquarters from the Beykoz Selvi Burnu towards the hills, the rock monument built by General Muravyev to commemorate the arrival of the Russians to the strait, with one side in Turkish and the other in Russian, which would later be called the "Moskof Stone" (the teachers and students of the Rehberi İttihadi Osmani School tore this monument apart when war was declared against the Russians during World War I in 1914), the Büyükdere Valley and the Bahçeköy Aqueduct.