Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates/Russian occupations of Beirut/archive1
The Russian occupations of Beirut were two military expeditions by squadrons of the Imperial Russian Navy's Mediterranean Fleet during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. Russia's main objective was to assist local forces led by Ali Bey al-Kabir, who declared Egypt's independence from the Ottoman Empire and sent an army to occupy Ottoman territory in the Levant in 1771. The army's leader, Abu al-Dhahab, unexpectedly returned to challenge Ali for control of Egypt, and Ali fled to Acre, south of Beirut. A Russian squadron bombarded Beirut in June 1772 and occupied it for five days. Ali formally allied himself with the Russian Empire and requested help recovering Egypt from Abu al-Dhahab. When a Russian squadron arrived in June 1773 and learned that Ali had died in prison, its commander made new allies, and in August began another campaign against Beirut. Jazzar Pasha surrendered the city after two months, and the Russians left a few hundred Albanian mercenaries as occupiers. (Full article...)
Pinging Fitzcarmalan; we're doing blurbs for articles promoted at FAC in June, July and August 2018. Thoughts and edits are welcome. - Dank (push to talk) 00:28, 3 December 2019 (UTC)