Osman Pasha, the Turkish commander of Anapa, had decided to surrender the fort, and Sefer Bey himself led the negotiations to avoid potential bloodshed.

The British spy James Bell would later write that if Sefer bey had decided not to surrender, opposing Osman Pasha's decision, then the garrison would have followed his example and could not have been taken by the Russian army easily.

Among other things, he put forward the idea of a possible reconciliation between the Circassians and Russia, on the stipulation that the Russians retreated behind the Kuban, however, this proposal was rejected.

British ships in the following period frequented the shores of Circassia, not only carrying agents and diplomats but also cargo filled with provisions and more importantly,gunpowder.

In November 1836, the Russian Ajax brig detained the British schooner Vixen in the Bay of Tsemez under the control of James Bell and his brother George, which was unloading 100 tons of gunpowder ashore.

Until 1839, the British D. Bell and D. Longworth were in Circassia, organizing the delivery of military supplies for the Circassians accompanying them in raids beyond the Russian lines, and coordinating their actions.

Due to increased militancy and effective diplomacy between Zhanonqo and the British, the Russians changed their strategy into a prioritized control of the Black Sea through building multiple forts in an attempt to minimize the aid received by Circassians.

The Ottoman agreed to secretly supply the Circassians with weapons and ammunition, while Muhammad Ali of Egypt refused to provide any assistance.

[13] There he met David Urquhart, one of the first people to espouse the Circassian cause in the west and major contributor to the rise of Rusophobic attitudes in British society.

In the summer of 1834, Urquhart visited Circassia where he received a petition signed by 11 chiefs requesting the British king to intervene into the conflict.

Lord Palmerston had previously blocked Ponsonby's initiative to include Circassia in the Eastern Question, on account of the feeble state of the Circassian resistance movement.

Encouraged by Urquhart a group of British adventurers unsuccessfully attempted to run the blockade of the Circassian coast, the Mission of the Vixen created a diplomatic scandal between Britain and Russia.

Unexpectedly, general Serebryakov supported Sefer's demand and requested form the commander-in-chief and viceroy of the Caucasus Prince Mikhail Simonovich Forintsov to approve it.

The representative of Great Britain, Count Clarendon, tried to insist on the provision that the Kuban River was a border between the possessions of Turkey and Russia, but the Turkish and French sides agreed with the opinion of the Russian commissioner Philip Brunnov that the Treaty of Adrianople designated the territory south of the Kuban as Russian possessions.

The Circassians remained politically divided and when Mohammed Amin replaced Zaneqo as the new governor, the two sides fought a second battle this time on the Sup river.

An intervention of tribal elders led to compromise, when the two leaders agreed to jointly travel to Constantinople and have the sultan settle the dispute.

He then resettled to the Shapsykhua river, destroyed the port of Tuapse to prevent Amin's supporters from using it as a supply route and called for the latter's assassination.

In May 1857, Amin was invited to Constantinople and immediately arrested, and exiled to Damascus, a move previously planned by the imperial Majlis in an effort to improve relations with Russia.

On 29 October, two messengers carrying orders for Mohammed Amin Imam Shamil's naib in Circassia were dispatched from Trabzon to recruit fighters in preparation for his arrival.

On 27 March 1854, Russia withdrew from its Circassian forts with the exception of Anapa and Novorossiysk as defensive measure due to the intervention of Britain and France into the conflict.

In May, an Ottoman fleet carrying 300 Circassians including Zaneqo, supplies and military advisors sailed to Sukhum Kale.

In order to bridge the divide in the Circassian society created by Zaneqo's rivalry with Amin, the Ottomans placed both under the command of their countryman Mustapha Pasha.