On April 25, 1852, the United Kingdom, France, and the Ottoman Empire held a high-level governmental meeting in Paris to discuss the Near East War. Napoleon III, impatient to restore France to the center of the world, personally chaired the meeting.
"The Russians are launching fierce assaults on Bulgaria and the Caucasus. Our forces have repelled their attacks many times.
However, our strength alone is still insufficient if we are to defeat the Russians.
What is more, the Austrians are eyeing us like tigers, tying down a large portion of our forces as well.
If there were only one enemy, we could still handle it. But facing two powerful enemies at once, we are truly stretched to the limit," Ottoman Foreign Minister Fuad said wearily.
It was truly difficult to phrase this. He had to persuade the United Kingdom and France to send troops as soon as possible, yet he could not expose the Ottoman Empire's underlying weakness.
This was not an easy act to put on. One careless step, and he would overdo it. If the United Kingdom and France thought the Ottoman Empire could hold out and chose to sit atop the mountain and watch the tigers fight, then they could only weep.
Conversely, if they exposed the Ottoman Empire's weakness and the United Kingdom and France decided it was not worth investing in them, then turned around and joined Austria and Russia in carving them up, they would be finished.
Besides the diplomatic troubles, the Ottoman Government's internal struggles gave Fuad no end of headaches. Abdulmejid I was no easy man to deal with.
Not long ago, under pressure from the Russians, Abdulmejid I had dismissed Fuad, the pro-British and pro-French foreign minister, and replaced him with the pro-Russian Rifat.
After the Constantinople negotiations failed, the pro-Russian