The International Herald Tribune
July 23, 2005 Saturday

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1905: Assassination Attempt

CONSTANTINOPLE: The explosion took place about one o’clock. Up to the
present, the news of the attack on the life of the Sultan is not
known to the mass of the public. The affair has made a deep
impression on the public, as it is the first of the kind in
Constantinople. It is true that the Armenians made use of bombs
during the troubles in 1896, but the present circumstances present
quite a different character. To judge by the number of people killed,
the majority of whom were soldiers who lined the route on either
side, the bomb must have been a very formidable one. Great surprise
is felt here that anyone was able to approach so near the Mosque for
all the streets are barred by troops the instant the Sultan leaves
the palace, and they remain closed until the return of His Majesty to
Yildiz Kiosk. The cordon of troops is, however, less vigorously
maintained when the Sultan is in the interior of the Mosque, and it
is supposed the assassin profited by this to slip between the lines
of soldiers.