3-052-508 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene of the assassination of Colonel Koumerow, near Pera, 1880. 'The murder of Colonel Koumarow, military attaché to the Russian Embassy at Constantinople, by a Mussulman fanatic named Veli Mohammed, a native of Bosnia...The unfortunate Russian officer was riding out at Pera, in company with M. Onou, Chargé d' Affaires of the Embassy. They were encountered by Veli Mohammed, who had conceived a furious hatred of foreigners since the Austrian occupation of Bosnia. He had just declared to two other Turks, or Mussulman companions...that he would shoot the first Christian he met. These men say that they kept close to him for the purpose of disarming him; but Colonel Koumarow and M. Onou rode past, and the Colonel's horse brushed against Veli Mohammed, who instantly fired a pistol at the Colonel, inflicting a wound that caused his death. The assassin was at once seized by his own companions, who tried to take the pistol from him, but he fired again and wounded one of them. It is alleged that he is insane, and great efforts have been made by the Turks to get his life spared from the capital sentence for his crime...A special commission, of which Hobert [sic] Pasha was a member, was appointed by the Sultan to try the wretched man by court-martial'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.