On January 22, 1873, Sultan Abdul Aziz confirmed the death sentence of Vasil Levski. He was the 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He succeeded his brother Abdul Mejid on June 25, 1861, recalls dariknews.bg.
In 1867, he undertook a trip to Great Britain, France and Austria-Hungary, in 1869 he attended the opening of the Suez Canal. During his reign, the Bulgarian church question was resolved. On February 27, 1870, Sultan Abdul Aziz signed a firman for the establishment of an independent Bulgarian church hierarchy in the form of the Bulgarian Exarchate, semi-independent from the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople.
In May 1875, Abdul Aziz declared the financial bankruptcy of the Ottoman Empire. He was overthrown in a coup and was dethroned on May 30, 1876 due to failures in governance, the April Uprising and the murder of the consuls in Thessaloniki.
A curious fact is that Abdul Aziz's carriage is kept in Ruse. The luxury vehicle is the pearl of the National Museum of Transport. The luxury carriage “Sultanie” was built in Brussels in 1866 especially for the visit of Sultan Abdul Aziz to Bulgaria. The Turkish dignitary arrived in Ruse a year later to inaugurate the first railway line in our country, connecting the Danube city with Varna. This line was the missing link between Europe and Constantinople.