In this study, the reaction of the Ottoman Empire to the declaration of independence of Bulgaria, the first ambassador of the Ottoman Empire in Bulgaria, Mustafa Asım Bey and his activities are discussed. The study examines the diplomatic activities of the Ottoman Empire against Bulgaria in the period between the autonomy process of Bulgaria and the independence process, the process of recognition of Bulgaria’s independence, the diplomatic relations established with Bulgaria, the biography of Mustafa Asım Bey, the first Ambassador of the Ottoman Empire to Sofia, and his approach to the problems between the two countries. In the article, documents from the Ottoman Archive of Directorate of State Archives (BOA), documents from the Bulgarian State Archives, periodicals and literature were used.

This study largely drawing upon the established conceptual framework of Orientalism in Saidian terms shall analyse the British perceptions and representations of the Bulgarian Crisis of 1876, a salient feature of the Eastern Question, as they appeared in British parliamentary debates. It will also make occasional yet instructive references to the coverage of the Crisis as well as the image of the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans which were organic parts of the Crisis, in some influential periodicals of the era such as the Times and the Contemporary Review in order to better contextualize the debates in the parliament. The main point this article shall make is that the Bulgarian Crisis worked as a catalyst in reinforcing the hegemony of the Orientalist discourse in the political construction of the Ottoman Empire as an absolute external Other in Britain at the time. It shall also delve into the construction of the Balkans as an "intimate other" whose Oriental and European features were alternately accentuated during the Crisis with a view to enlist the British public in either supporting or denouncing the Bulgarian uprising. All in all, it will suggest that the Orientalist rhetoric was embedded at the very core of the Victorian British elites' cognitive map, and was also unsparingly employed in negating the domestic political opponents swamping them with negative Orientalist stereotypes.