The head is of the ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II , despised in continental Europe for his merciless behaviour towards his Christian subjects in Bulgaria , the Balkans and the Armenian people who were slaughtered by thousands during his rule from 1876 until 1909.
French sculptors launched a fashion of sculpting nutcrackers with the heads of the French Republic's enemies. Exemplars with the portrait of Otto Von Bismarck and German emperors Wilhelm I and Wilhelm II are also reported.