The intelligence activities of consulates in the Black Sea region in period of II. Abdulhamid (1876-1909)

The reason of this study as a scientific study is to clarify the intelligence studies of Ottoman Consulates which have not been investigated until now. Our aim is to prove that the importance of consulates as well as military attache and ataşenaval should not be ignored in the Ottoman foreign military intelligence and to create an infrastructure that can be the source of the works that can be done later. We have limited the chronological order of this research as II. Abdulhamid period. Moreover, we have narrowed down the area to be studied to the Black Sea Region. This is due to the fact that the European States particularly Bulgaria and Russia tried to capture the opportunities of the historical aspirations of the Ottoman Empire over the Black Sea, especially for Istanbul on the dates which were mentioned. Despite these ambitions of the Russians and Bulgarians the Ottoman Empire also followed the military and naval operations of Russia, which were considered as a threat by their consulates, which they assigned in important areas. In addition, consulates who are in the important areas sent reports on the activities of foreign societies against the Ottomans, as well as reports on the current internal situation of the Russians. As understood from the intelligence reports by the consulates of the Ottoman State, which are external military intelligence channels, possible hot conflicts are foreseen, but due to the lack of infrastructure such as logistics, the information available has often not been used in the battlefield.