Born in Constantinople, Hangerli received a thorough education, was trained to speak several European languages, as well as Ottoman Turkish and Arabic, and prepared for a high-ranking position in the Danubian Principalities.

[1] Although coming into conflict with Ottoman officials on several occasions,[1] Hangerli was advanced to the position of Dragoman of the Porte in 1805, and maintained the office for the following two years, until Sultan Selim III appointed him Prince of Moldavia in place of the deposed Alexander Mourousis.

[1][2] Sources diverge in respect to the reason for this measure: according to the 1858 Nouvelle biographie générale, feeling insecure of his position as opposition to Sultan Selim mounted throughout the Empire, he had asked for his own deposition;[1] a French traveler to the region, Captain Aubert, recorded that pressures had been made on him by the Porte to provide it with more income, and he had been ousted after not being able to fulfill the requirements.

[1] He was allegedly warned by the Russian ambassador to the Porte, Alexander Grigoriyevich Stroganov, that, as a prominent Greek in Istanbul, he risked being assassinated, and decided to flee the country.

[1] Hangerli and his family (including his two sons, Gregory and Telemach),[1] embarked on a small ship and took sail across the Black Sea, taking harbor in Odessa (where they were given asylum by Novorossiya's governor, Alexandre Langeron).