Keywords: Ottoman Empire, Circassians, immigration, Health Council, infectious diseases, mortality, Dr. Barozzi.

The Circassians exodus to the Ottoman Empire of 1863‑1864, which is one of the largest social catastrophes of modern history, is reflected in various documents and evidences of the era. The materials published for the first time in Russian in this paper provide an opportunity to evaluate this phenomenon primarily from health and humanitarian points of view. The reports of Dr. Barozzi, the special commissioner of the Ottoman Health Council at Trabzon and Samsun, the main points of landing of Circassians, contain a detailed description of the causes and process of the spread of infectious diseases, which were the main direct factor in the mass death of immigrants in the region during this period. Unlike the Ottoman documents, which rarely emphasize the mortality rate among Circassians or operate with its relatively low figures, Barozzi’s dispatches testify to human losses of at least 25‑30 % of the total number of arrivals, which, judging by the data he cites, by the middle of 1864 amounted to about 350 thousand people only in these two ports. Responsibility for the rapid deterioration of the epidemiological situation and the accompanying socio-economic problems is laid by Barozzi primarily on the provincial and partly Istanbul authorities, who ignored the recommendations of the competent (mainly European) medical staff of the said council. At the same time, the reports admit that the experience acquired by the Ottoman administration during this period contributed to a reduction in the incidence of morbidity and mortality among Circassians by the end of the time spell under consideration.

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