Alexander Karatheodori Pasha

Who was Alexander Karatheodori Pasha?

Alexander Karatheodori Pasha was a Greek statesman of the Ottoman Empire.

Born in Constantinople as a child of a leading Constantinople Phanariote family. His father, Stefanos Karatheodori, was personal physician to Sultan Mahmud II. After law studies in Paris, like many Phanariote Greeks he pursued a career in the civil service of the Ottoman Empire. In 1874 he was appointed ambassador to Rome, and in 1878 he took part in the preliminary negotiations with Russia over the Treaty of San Stefano. Several months later was sent to Germany as the head commissioner of the Porte to the Congress of Berlin. There he was successful in changing the San Stefano peace terms in favour of the Ottoman Empire.

In November 1878, he was appointed Governor-General of Crete with the task of calming the island's tense situation, which had descended into near-civil war due to tensions between the Christian and Muslim inhabitants of the island. Soon however, in December 1878, he was recalled and became Ottoman Minister of Foreign Affairs, a post he held until he resigned from it in 1879.

Karatheodori finished his career as the Porte-appointed Prince of the autonomous Greek island of Samos for a full decade. In May 1895 he was again appointed Governor of Crete amidst renewed inter-communal tension, but was unsuccessful in restoring order and resigned in December.