Török tette fejedelem”. I. Apafi Mihály első évei és az erdélyi török segélyhadak

The election of Michael Apafi I, Prince of Transylvania, and the establishment of his power in the first years of his reign were the result of the active involvement of the Ottoman-Turkish forces. The presence of the Turkish troops was necessary, among other reasons, because the Ottoman vassalage of Transylvania had a significant Habsburg royal force stationed in several castles. Ali Köse Pasha, the commander of the Turkish army responsible for the settlement of the Transylvanian problem, first ordered Ibrahim Tiryaki and then Mehmed Kücük to Transylvania to keep Michael Apafi on the throne and to achieve the departure of the Habsburg garrisons. In January 1662, they defeated John Kemény’s army at Nagyszőlős, and in the spring and summer of that year a basically Ottoman-Habsburg war broke out in Transylvania, even if with relatively little intensity. Mehmed Kücük held first Samosújvár and then Kolozsvár under siege, the latter for two and a half months, while Habsburg troops led by Colonel Franz von Schneidau pushed into the province. As both sides wanted to avoid escalation of the war, they tried to settle the situation through negotiations, which led to the conclusion of the armistice in Istanbul in June 1662 and the end of the fighting in Transylvania. A settlement was not reached, and the conflict escalated to a clash between the two empires in 1663.