Misplaced Pages

#55944

117-595: The exact date of establishment is unclear or disputed. According to some researchers, the organization might have been established by Enver Pasha , who placed Süleyman Askeri in charge of the organization on 17 November 1913. Its establishment date is rather vague since it was really a continuation of various smaller groups established by Enver Pasha and friends in the aftermath of 1908 Young Turk Revolution . Some provincial bands in Eastern Anatolia directly integrated Kurdish Hamidiye units. The organization maintained

234-632: A Special Organization member's testimony during the military tribunals, a certain Rıza, there were two Special Organizations: one attached to the CUP, the other to the War Ministry, with the body under the party's control having organized units for Armenian deportation and extermination. The leader of this party controlled organization was Şakir. Another testimony states the Special Organization's War Ministry office

351-481: A band composed of volunteers and deserters. For example, he allowed a deserter who had engaged in brigandage in areas west of the river Vardar to join his band at Tikveș. Throughout the revolution, guerilla bands of both Enver and Niyazi consisted of Muslim (mostly Albanian ) paramilitaries. Enver sent an ultimatum to the Inspector General on 11 July 1908 and demanded that within 48 hours Abdul Hamid II issue

468-655: A band. CUP headquarters conferred upon Enver the title of "CUP Inspector General of Internal Organisation and Executive Forces". On 3 July 1908, Niyazi, protesting the rule of Abdul Hamid II , fled with his band from Resne (modern Resen) into the mountains where he initiated the Young Turk Revolution and issued a proclamation that called for the restoration of the constitution of 1876 . Following his example, Enver in Tikveş, and other officers such as Sabri in Ohri, also went into

585-563: A battle by carrying Enver through battle lines on his back. Nonetheless, Enver Pasha later initiated the deportations and sporadic massacres of Western Armenians, culminating in the Armenian genocide . After his defeat at Sarıkamısh, Enver returned to Istanbul (Constantinople) and took command of the Turkish forces around the capital. He was confident that the capital was safe from any Allied attacks. The British and French were planning on forcing

702-676: A clandestine budget and command structure controlled by the War Ministry . Its existence was kept secret from parliament and the public, and its existence, and crimes, were only revealed with foreign occupation and the 1919 military tribunals . It held a central committee made up of representatives of the Interior Ministry , War Ministry , and the CUP Central Committee, and another central committee based in Erzurum where Bahaeddin Şakir

819-407: A decree for CUP members that had been arrested and sent to Constantinople to be freed. He warned that if the ultimatum was not complied with by the Inspector General, he would refuse to accept any responsibility for future actions. In Tikveș a handwritten appeal was distributed to locals calling for them to either stay neutral or join with him. Enver possessed strong authority among fellow Muslims in

936-679: A doctor representing the Turkish Red Crescent in Russia. On 10 October 1919, their plane flight took off from the German border and stopped in Königsberg and then Šiauliai but crashed in the outskirts of Kaunas , Lithuania . Stranded in a country teeming with Allied soldiers, they weren't recognized by journalists or occupation forces until they were about to escape. They were eventually arrested for two months, but Enver and Şakir managed to escape from

1053-569: A fugitive Baltic German count that fled to Germany, and imprison him in the city of Reval . Enver's case for his identity was not helped when an Estonian peasant identified him as the abusive count. Enver took up painting in prison, at one point painting a portrait of the warden and his family. With the Estonian-German peace treaty , Enver was repatriated to Germany as the German count. Enver finally made it to Moscow in August 1920 (he came by land in

1170-512: A letter in which he offered on behalf of the Soviet Union the partition of Poland in return for German arms deliveries to Soviet Russia. Besides working for General von Seeckt, Enver envisioned cooperation between the new Soviet Russian government against the British, and went to Moscow . Accompanying Mehmed Ali Sâmi, Enver's new pseudonym, was his Unionist comrade Bahaeddin Şakir . Sâmi would be

1287-523: A one-seat plane carrying Enver and a pilot malfunctioned in mid-air and landed in British-occupied Danzig . Enver begged the pilot to repair the plane lest he would be captured by the British. Taking off once again, they only made it as far as Königsburg . The plane once again repaired, they made it to Bolshevik occupied Estonia to refill on gas, but the Bolsheviks arrested Enver, mistaking him for

SECTION 10

#1733086201056

1404-725: A personal rivalry at the end of the Ottoman Empire and his memory was cultivated by the Kemalists . But upon his body's arrival in Turkey, he was rehabilitated by the Turkish President Süleyman Demirel who held a speech acknowledging his contributions to Turkish nationalism . Following renewed hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno Karabakh region in 2020, Enver Pasha's role during World War I

1521-465: A prominent Turkish general and politician. On 16 October 1945, their son Haşmet Orbay, Enver's nephew, shot and killed a physician named Neşet Naci Arzan, an event known as the " Ankara murder  [ tr ] ". At the urging of the Governor of Ankara, Nevzat Tandoğan , Haşmet Orbay's friend Reşit Mercan initially took the blame. After a second trial revealed Haşmet Orbay as the perpetrator, however, he

1638-477: A rushed entry to the war, but Enver Pasha held that it was the right course of action. As soon as the war started, 31 October 1914, Enver ordered that all men of military age report to army recruiting offices. The offices were unable to handle the vast flood of men, and long delays occurred. This had the effect of ruining the crop harvest for that year. Enver Pasha assumed command of the Ottoman forces arrayed against

1755-457: A sensational appearance. A whole hall full of Orientals broke into shouts, with scimitars and yataghans brandished aloft: ' Death to imperialism " All the same, genuine understanding with the Islamic world...was still difficult. Much has been written about the poor relations between Enver and Mustafa Kemal , two men who played pivotal roles in the Turkish history of the 20th century. Both hailed from

1872-577: A shot to his head. The assassins were never detained. Şakir and Azmi were buried in the cemetery of Şehitlik Mosque in Berlin. In 1926, the Republic of Turkey granted the families of those killed in Operation Nemesis a pension fund . Bahaddin Şakir was also included in the list accepted by the assembly, along with Talat, Azmi, Said Halim Pasha , Cemal Pasha, and his aides Süreyya and Nusret. His life

1989-423: A small but well-drilled army. His command structure was built along German lines and his staff included a number of experienced Turkish officers. According to David Fromkin : However Enver's personal weaknesses reasserted themselves. He was a vain, strutting man who loved uniforms, medals and titles. For use in stamping official documents, he ordered a golden seal that described him as 'Commander-in-Chief of all

2106-560: A solution to the " Armenian question " in the CUP's 1910 congress. In 1915 he was able to put his vision to the test. As the central figure of Special Organization Şakir's organization was instrumental in enforced of the Tehcir law . For this, he has been described as "one of the architects" of the Armenian genocide . Halil Berktay writes that local governors objected to Şakir's deportation orders and called for his arrest. Dissidents were usually replaced by Unionist hardliners; sometimes twice if

2223-468: A strong supporter of the constitution published adulatory pieces about Enver and Niyazi in 1909. Following the revolution, Enver rose within the ranks of the Ottoman military and had an important role within army–committee relations. By 1909 he was the military attaché at Berlin and formed personal ties with high ranking German state officials and the Kaiser. It was during this time that Enver came to admire

2340-475: A surname. Enver's sister Hasene Hanım married Nazım Bey. Nazım Bey, an aid-de-camp of Abdul Hamid II , survived an assassination attempt by Talaat during the 1908 Young Turk Revolution of which his brother-in-law Enver was a leader. With Nazım, Hasene gave birth to Faruk Kenç  [ tr ] (1910–2000), who would become a famous Turkish film director and producer. Enver's other sister, Mediha Hanım (later Mediha Orbay; 1895–1983), married Kâzım Orbay ,

2457-520: The Şura-yı Ümmet . Bahaddin Şakir was instrumental in reviving the CUP inside the Ottoman Empire (by the turn of the 20th century it was an organization of exiled intellectuals). He secretly traveled to Constantinople set the infrastructure for a new internal center for the organization. In 1906, the Ottoman Freedom Society would be founded, which merged with the CUP in 1907 and become its internal center for revolutionary activity. After

SECTION 20

#1733086201056

2574-550: The Ankara government under Mustafa Kemal. On 30 July 1921, with the Turkish War of Independence in full swing, Enver decided to return to Anatolia. He went to Batum to be close to the new border. However, Mustafa Kemal did not want him among the Turkish revolutionaries . Mustafa Kemal had stopped all friendly ties with Enver Pasha and the CUP as early as 1912, and he explicitly rejected

2691-593: The Armenian genocide also participated in the Turkish national movement . The Special Organisation, which was made of especially fanatical Unionist cadres, was expanded from August 1914 onwards. Talaat Pasha , as the Interior Minister, gave orders that all of the prisoners convicted of the worst crimes, such as murder, rape and robbery, could have their freedom if they agreed to join the Special Organisation to kill Armenians and loot their property. Besides

2808-583: The Armistice of Mudros . Two days later, the " Three Pashas " all fled into exile. On 1 January 1919, the new government expelled Enver Pasha from the army. He was tried in absentia in the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919–20 for crimes of "plunging the country into war without a legitimate reason, forced deportation of Armenians and leaving the country without permission" and condemned to death. Enver first attempted to link up with Halil and Nuri to reopen

2925-674: The Constitution and parliamentary democracy in the Ottoman Empire . Along with Ahmed Niyazi , Enver was hailed as "hero of the revolution". However, a series of crises in the Empire, including the 31 March Incident , the Balkan Wars , and the power struggle with the Freedom and Accord Party , left Enver and the Unionists disillusioned with liberal Ottomanism . After the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état brought

3042-525: The Kurban Bayramı (Eid al-Adha) holiday while retaining a guard of 30 men at his headquarters near the village of Ab-i-Derya near Dushanbe , the Red Army Bashkir cavalry brigade under the command of ethnic Armenian , Yakov Melkumov (Hakob Melkumian), launched a surprise attack. According to some sources, Enver and some 25 of his men mounted their horses and charged the approaching troops, when Enver

3159-542: The National Defense League ( Turkish : Müdafaa-i Milliye Cemiyeti ), headed by the former chief of the Special Organization, Hüsamettin Ertürk. Enver Pasha İsmail Enver ( Ottoman Turkish : اسماعیل انور پاشا ; Turkish : İsmail Enver Paşa ; 23 November 1881 – 4 August 1922), better known as Enver Pasha , was an Ottoman Turkish military officer, revolutionary, and convicted war criminal who

3276-590: The Ottoman Military Academy as a Mektebli . Between 1903 and 1908, Enver was stationed in Ottoman Macedonia, where he helped suppress the Macedonian Struggle . He fought no less than 54 engagements, mostly against Bulgarian bands , developing a reputation as an expert counterinsurgent. During his service, he became convinced of the need for reforms in the Ottoman military. Enver, through

3393-628: The Russian Revolution and subsequent Civil War , the Russian army in the Caucasus fell apart and dissolved. At the same time, the CUP managed to win the friendship of the Bolsheviks with the signing of the Ottoman-Russian friendship treaty (1 January 1918). Enver looked for victory when Russia withdrew from the Caucasus region. When Enver discussed his plans for taking over southern Russia, he ordered

3510-754: The Second Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire, Niyazi is mentioned along with Enver in the March of the Deputies ( Turkish : Mebusan Marşı or Meclis-i Mebusan Marşı ), the anthem of the Chamber of Deputies , the lower house of the Ottoman parliament . It was performed in 1909 upon the opening of the new parliament. The fourth line of the anthem reads "Long live Niyazi, long live Enver" (Turkish: "Yaşasın Niyazi, yaşasın Enver" ). The Ottoman newspaper Volkan ,

3627-490: The Senussi . This list includes allegedly notable members, according to an interview with its purported former leader Eşref Kuşçubaşı by U.S. INR officer Philip H. Stoddard: Although the bulk of its 30,000 members were drawn from trained specialists such as doctors, engineers, and journalists, the organization also employed criminals denoted başıbozuk , who had been released from prison in 1913 by amnesty. The organization

Special Organization (Ottoman Empire) - Misplaced Pages Continue

3744-850: The Third Army , and was utterly defeated at the Battle of Sarikamish in December 1914 – January 1915. His strategy seemed feasible on paper, but he had ignored external conditions, such as the terrain and the weather. Enver's army (118,000 men) was defeated by the Russian force (80,000 men), and in the subsequent retreat, tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers died. This was the single worst Ottoman defeat of World War I . On his return to Constantinople, Enver Pasha blamed his failure on his Armenian soldiers, although in January 1915, an Armenian named Hovannes had saved his life during

3861-602: The pan-Turkic ideas and what Mustafa Kemal perceived as Enver Pasha's utopian goals. Enver Pasha changed his plans and traveled to Moscow where he managed to win the trust of the Soviet authorities. In November 1921 he was sent by Lenin to Bukhara in the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic to help suppress the Basmachi Revolt against the local pro-Moscow Bolshevik regime. Instead, however, he made secret contacts with some of

3978-507: The Armenian Genocide. Under Operation Nemesis , Aram Yerganian and Arshavir Shirakian were given the task to assassinate Cemal Azmi and Şakir who were both in Berlin . On 17 April 1922, Shirakian and Yerganian encountered Azmi and Şakir walking with their families on Uhlandstraße . Shirakian managed to kill Azmi and wound Şakir. Yerganian immediately ran after Şakir and killed him with

4095-515: The Armenian genocide must have been ordered prior to that date. In Ardanuç, Şakir was almost killed during the Turkish counterattack in the Van. In 1916, Şakir and Provincial Governor Ahmed Muammer Bey issued orders to execute a labor battalion of 2,000 Turkish Armenian soldier. General Vehip Pasha was outraged by the massacre and ordered the courts-martial of Kör Nuri, the gendarmerie commander in charge of

4212-668: The Armies of Islam, Son-in-Law of the Caliph and Representative of the Prophet.' Soon he was calling himself Emir of Turkestan, a practice not conducive to good relations with the Emir whose cause he served. At some point in the first half of 1922, the Emir of Bukhara broke off relations with him, depriving him of troops and much-needed financial support. The Emir of Afghanistan also failed to march to his aid. On 4 August 1922, as he allowed his troops to celebrate

4329-618: The Army of Islam and their Azerbaijani allies entered the city on September 15 following the Battle of Baku , up to 30,000 Armenian civilians were massacred . However, after the Armistice of Mudros between Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire on 30 October, Ottoman troops were obliged to withdraw and replaced by the Triple Entente . These conquests in the Caucasus counted for very little in

4446-504: The Balkans, and the two served together in North Africa during the wars preceding World War I, Enver being Mustafa Kemal's senior. Enver disliked Mustafa Kemal for his circumspect attitude toward the political agenda pursued by his Committee of Union and Progress, and regarded him as a serious rival. Mustafa Kemal (later known as Atatürk) considered Enver to be a dangerous figure who might lead

4563-683: The Bulgarians in the First Balkan War . He was captured and then released after the city's surrender. He was then appointed head of the political department of the secret organization called Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa ( Special Organization ), which was established in 1913. In the same year, he was appointed to the Directorate of Forensic Medicine, which was established under the General Directorate of Health. Bahaddin Şakir brought up deportations as

4680-457: The CUP directly to power, Enver became War Minister , while Talaat assumed control over the civilian government . As war minister and de facto Commander-in-Chief (despite his role as the de jure Deputy Commander-in-Chief, as the Sultan formally held the title), Enver was one of the most powerful figures in the Ottoman government. He initiated the formation of an alliance with Germany , and

4797-529: The CUP in popularity, and it fell from government after rigging the 1912 elections (known as the Sopalı Seçimler , "Election of Clubs"), to be replaced by the Freedom and Accord Party (which was helped by its military arm, the Savior Officers , that denounced the CUP's actions during the 1912 elections). In October 1912, the First Balkan War broke out, and the Ottoman armies suffered severe defeats at

Special Organization (Ottoman Empire) - Misplaced Pages Continue

4914-574: The Caucasus Front. Later, after many towns on the peninsula had been destroyed and women and children killed by the Allied bombardment, Enver proposed setting up a concentration camp for the remaining French and British citizens in the empire. Henry Morgenthau , the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, convinced Enver not to go through with this plan. Enver's plan for Falkenhayn 's Yildirim Army Group

5031-399: The Caucasus campaign, but his boat ran aground and hearing the army was demobilizing he gave up and went to Berlin like the other Unionists émigrés did. He settled in Babelsberg , and in April 1919 after meeting with Karl Radek with Talaat, he took on the role of a secret envoy for his friend General Hans von Seeckt who wished for a German-Soviet alliance. In August 1920, Enver sent Seeckt

5148-441: The Entente, as a jihad or holy war. Human imagination labored to devise new ways of mutilating, burning and killing To prevent ordinary Muslims, whatever they be Turks, Kurds or Arabs, from saving the lives of the Armenians, a decree declaring the penalty for sheltering Armenians was death by hanging and the destruction of one's home was passed; despite this decree, a number of ordinary Turks, Kurds and Arabs did shelter Armenians from

5265-494: The Lithuanian prison back to Berlin. Enver and Şakir tried again to enter Russia by air but their plane broke down and crashed not even beyond the German border. After tending to their wounds in a near by village, they returned to Berlin. Enver's insistence to arrive to Moscow by plane costed them another plane crash in flight trials. Eventually Cemal joined the duo, and using a plane that successfully passed flight tests they set off once again for Moscow. But hearing strange noises from

5382-538: The Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Military Tribunal convicted him and other Unionists and sentenced them to death in absentia for bringing the Empire into World War I and organizing massacres against Greeks and Armenians. Enver ended up in Central Asia, where he was killed leading the Basmachi Revolt against the Bolsheviks . In 1996, his remains were reburied in Turkey. Enver was subsequently rehabilitated by Turkish president Süleyman Demirel , who praised his contributions to Turkish nationalism . As Enver rose through

5499-400: The Ottoman Empire. Without informing the cabinet, he allowed the two German warships SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau , under the command of German admiral Wilhelm Souchon , to enter the Dardanelles to escape British pursuit ; the subsequent "donation" of the ships to the neutral Ottomans worked powerfully in Germany's favor, despite French and Russian diplomacy to keep the Ottoman Empire out of

5616-407: The Peoples of the East , which was held in Baku in September 1920. He was the Baku representative of the Union of Islamic Revolutionary Societies (İslam İhtilal Cemiyetleri İttihadı). After attending the congress of the organization held in Moscow in the spring of 1921, he returned to Germany . In the autumn of 1919, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) decided to punish the executors of

5733-437: The Russians in the Caucasus theatre . He wanted to encircle the Russians, force them out of Ottoman territory, and take back Kars and Batumi , which had been ceded after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 . Enver thought of himself as a great military leader, while the German military adviser, Liman von Sanders , thought of him as incompetent. Enver ordered a complex attack on the Russians, placed himself in personal control of

5850-458: The Special Organization was Süleyman Askeri Bey . After his death, he was replaced by Ali Bey on 14 April 1915, who held the post until the Armistice of Mudros . The last director, Hüsamettin Ertürk  [ tr ] , worked as an agent in Istanbul of the Ankara government following the Armistice. He wrote a memoir called İki Devrin Perde Arkası (Behind the Scenes of Two Eras) . Many members of this organization who played particular roles in

5967-408: The Square of Liberty thereafter. Facing a deteriorating situation in the Balkans , on 24 July Sultan Abdul Hamid II restored the constitution of 1876 . In the aftermath of the revolution, Niyazi and Enver remained in the political background due to their youth and junior military ranks with both agreeing that photographs of them would not be distributed to the general public; however, this decision

SECTION 50

#1733086201056

6084-506: The Three Pashas, the Armenian genocide massacres were spearheaded by the Special Organisation under one of its leaders, the Turkish physician Dr. Behaeddin Shakir . The Special Organisation was much feared by all and were by all accounts the ones responsible for the worst violence against the Armenians. The American historian Gerard Libaridian wrote about the lethal combination in the Special Organisation of fanatical Unionist cadres commanding convicts newly released from prison: The release of

6201-412: The [central] government will give the necessary instructions to the provincial governors and army commanders. All of the Unionist regional representatives would concern themselves with following up on the matter in all of the places where they were found, and would ensure that not a single Armenian would receive protection or assistance. Based on this letter, Turkish historian Taner Akçam concluded that

6318-453: The approaches to Constantinople in the hope of knocking the Ottomans out of the war. A large Allied fleet assembled and staged an attack on the Dardanelles on 18 March 1915. The attack (the forerunner to the failed Gallipoli campaign ) was a disaster, resulting in the loss of several ships. As a result, Enver turned over command to Liman von Sanders , who led the successful defence of Gallipoli. Enver then left to attend to pressing concerns on

6435-483: The area where he resided and could communicate with them as he spoke both Albanian and Turkish . During the revolution, Enver stayed in the homes of notables, and as a sign of respect they would kiss his hands since he had earlier saved them from an attack by an IMRO band. He stated that the CUP had no support in the countryside apart from a few large landowners with CUP membership that lived in towns, yet they retained influence in their villages and were able to mobilise

6552-428: The assistance of his uncle, Halil Kut , became the twelfth member of the nascent Ottoman Freedom Society (OFS). The OFS later merged with the Paris-based Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) led by Ahmed Rıza . The CUP gained access to the Third Army through Enver. Upon his return to Monastir in 1906, Enver formed a CUP cell within the town and worked closely with Ottoman officer Kâzım Karabekir . Enver became

6669-420: The cabinet of Said Halim Pasha , and married HIH Princess Emine Naciye Sultan (1898–1957), the daughter of Prince Süleyman , thus entering the royal family as a damat ("bridegroom" to the ruling House of Osman ). Being able to communicate in German , Enver Pasha, along with Talaat and Halil Bey were architects of the Ottoman-German Alliance , and expected a quick victory in the war that would benefit

6786-435: The command of Armenia within the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman advance was halted at the Battle of Sardarabad . The Army of Islam, under the control of Nuri Pasha , moved forward and attacked Australian, New Zealand, British, and Canadian troops led by General Lionel Charles Dunsterville at Baku . General Dunsterville ordered the evacuation of the city on 14 September, after six weeks of occupation, and withdrew to Iran. As

6903-399: The country to ruin; he criticized Enver and his colleagues for their policies and their involvement of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. In the years of upheaval that followed the Armistice of October 1918, when Mustafa Kemal led the Turkish resistance to occupying and invading forces, Enver sought to return from exile, but his attempts to do so and join the military effort were blocked by

7020-459: The couple's eldest child, a daughter, Mahpeyker Hanımsultan . She was followed by a second daughter, Türkan Hanımsultan , born on 4 July 1919. Both of them were born in Istanbul. During Enver's stay in Berlin, Naciye and her daughters Mahpeyker and Türkan joined him. When Enver left for Russian SSR his family remained there. His son, Sultanzade Ali Bey was born in Berlin on 29 September 1921, after Enver's departure and he never saw him. Naciye

7137-441: The creation of a new military force called the Army of Islam which would have no German officers. Enver's Army of Islam avoided Georgia and marched through Azerbaijan . The Third Army under Vehib Pasha was also moving forward to pre-war borders and towards the First Republic of Armenia , which formed the frontline in the Caucasus. General Tovmas Nazarbekian was the commander on the Caucasus front , and Andranik Ozanian took

SECTION 60

#1733086201056

7254-426: The culture of Germany and power of the German military. He invited German officers to reform the Ottoman Army . In 1909 a reactionary conspiracy to organise a countercoup culminated in the 31 March Incident ; the countercoup was put down. Enver for a short time in April 1909 returned to Constantinople and joined the Action Army . As such he took an active role in the suppression of the countercoup, which resulted in

7371-400: The director of the Şûrâ-yı Ümmet , a magazine that supported the party. He was one of the three important names of the "Doctors Group" in the CUP (the other two being Doctor Nâzım and Doctor Rüsuhi Dikmen); He was a part of the pan-Turkist / Turanist wing of Union and Progress. During World War I Şakir was part of the leadership of the Special Organization . At the end of that war he

7488-456: The empire. In June 1913, however, the Second Balkan War broke out between the Balkan Allies. Enver Bey took advantage of the situation and led an army into Eastern Thrace , recovering Adrianople (Edirne) from the Bulgarians, who had concentrated their forces against the Serbs and Greeks, with the Treaty of Constantinople (1913) . Enver is therefore recognised by some Turks as the "conqueror of Edirne". In 1914, he became Minister of War in

7605-414: The end). There he was well-received, and established contacts with representatives from Central Asia and other exiled CUP members as the director of the Soviet Government's Asiatic Department. He also met with Bolshevik leaders, including Georgy Chicherin , Radek, Grigory Zinoviev and Vladimir Lenin . He tried to support the Turkish national movement and corresponded with Mustafa Kemal , giving him

7722-413: The engine, Enver asked the pilot to turn back, and the plane disintegrated upon landing. While Enver was determined to make a grand entrance from the sky Şakir and Cemal gave up and instead joined a Russian prisoner of war convoy heading back to their homeland. After several more bizarre mishaps Enver finally met the two of them at Moscow (he came by land in the end). Şakir participated in the Congress of

7839-459: The engine, Enver asked the pilot to turn back. After small repairs to the plane Enver attempted a fifth flight to Moscow, where the plane disintegrated one hour into the flight. While Enver was determined to make a grand entrance from the sky, Şakir and Cemal gave up and instead joined a Russian prisoner of war convoy heading back to their homeland. Enver's new alias was now Herr Altman, "a German Jewish Communist of no importance". In his sixth attempt,

7956-420: The ensuing combat he was killed by machine gun fire. Some sources write that Melkumov personally killed Enver Pasha with his sabre, although Melkumov does not claim this in his memoirs. Fromkin writes: There are several accounts of how Enver died. According to the most persuasive of them, when the Russians attacked he gripped his pocket Koran and, as always, charged straight ahead. Later his decapitated body

8073-427: The fury of the Special Organisation. Other ordinary Turks, Kurds and Arabs did assist the army, the gendarmes and the Special Organisation in the deportations and killings, motivated by the desire to loot Armenian property, to have Armenian women and girls as sex slaves or because of incitements by Muslim clergymen saying that the genocide was an act of jihad . As the gendarmes rounded up the Armenians for deportation, it

8190-400: The grand vizier and Enver's mother then notified him of this decision. Enver had never seen Naciye, and he did not trust his mother's letters, since he suspected her of being enamored with the idea of having a princess as her daughter-in-law. Therefore, he asked a reliable friend, Ahmed Rıza Bey , who was a member of the Turkish Parliament to investigate. When the latter reported favorably on

8307-426: The guarantee that he did not intend to intervene in the movement in Anatolia . Between 1 and 8 September 1920, he was in Baku for the Congress of the Peoples of the East , representing Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. His appearance was a personal triumph, but the congress failed in its aim to create a mass pro-Bolshevik movement among Muslims. Victor Serge , a witness, recorded that: At Baku, Enver Pasha put in

8424-465: The hands of the Balkan League . These military reversals weakened the government, and gave the committee the chance to seize power from Freedom and Accord. In a coup in January 1913 , Enver and CUP leader Mehmed Talaat regained power for the committee and introduced a triumvirate that came to be called the " Three Pashas " which included Enver, Talaat, and Ahmed Cemal Pasha . Turkey then withdrew from

8541-427: The hardened career criminals who joined in large numbers to have their freedom, the rank and file of Special Organisation killing units included Kurdish tribesmen attracted by the prospect of plunder and refugees from Rumelia , who were thirsting for the prospect of revenge against Christians after having been forced to flee from the Balkans in 1912. As explained in the key indictment at the trial ( in absentia ) of

8658-475: The hospital. He established relations with Ahmed Rıza and the members of the Committee of Union and Progress . For this he was exiled to Erzincan . Şakir was arrested there when authorities discovered that he sent aid to the committee and exiled him further to Trabzon . In 1905 he fled to Egypt and from there to Paris . In Paris he met Doctor Nazım and reconnected with Ahmet Rıza. In exile he wrote articles in

8775-466: The labor battalions, and Çerkez Kadir, the brigand chief who carried out the killings. Both men were hanged. Vehip attempted to have Şakir and Muammer court-martialed. However, Şakir escaped arrest and Muammer was transferred out of Vehip's jurisdiction. With the Ottoman Empire's surrender , Şakir fled to Berlin via Sevastopol on a German torpedo boat with Enver Pasha , Jamal Pasha , Talat Pasha and four other high ranking Unionists. In absentia he

8892-465: The main figure in the CUP Monastir branch, and he initiated Ottoman officers like Ahmet Niyazi bey and Eyüp Sabri into the CUP organisation. In the early twentieth century some prominent Young Turk members such as Enver developed a strong interest in the ideas of Gustave Le Bon . For example, Enver saw deputies as mediocre and in reference to Le Bon he thought that as a collective mind they had

9009-406: The mountains and formed guerilla bands. It is unclear whether the CUP had a fixed date for the revolution; in comments made in an interview following the event Enver stated that they planned for action in August 1908, yet events had forced them to begin the revolution at an earlier time. For the revolt to get local support Enver and Niyazi played on fears of possible foreign intervention. Enver led

9126-523: The old Ottoman pattern of life and tradition, the engagement ceremony was celebrated in Enver's absence as he remained in Berlin. The marriage took place on 15 May 1911 in the Dolmabahçe Palace , and was performed by Şeyhülislam Musa Kazım Efendi. Head clerk of the sultan Halid Ziya Bey served as Naciye's deputy, and her witnesses were director of the imperial kitchen Galib Bey, and the personal physician of

9243-521: The overthrow of Abdul Hamid II, who was replaced by his brother Mehmed V , while the power of the CUP was consolidated. Throughout the Young Turk era, Enver was a member of the CUP central committee from 1908 to 1918. In 1911, Italy launched an invasion of the Ottoman vilayet of Tripolitania ( Trablus-i Garb , modern Libya ), starting the Italo-Turkish War . Enver decided to join the defense of

9360-689: The peace negotiations then under way in London and did not sign the Treaty of London (1913) , resuming the First Balkan War. The change in government did not change the fact that the war was lost, and the Ottoman Empire gave up almost all of its Balkan territory to the Balkan League. Afterwards the Grand Vizier Mahmud Shevket Pasha was assassinated, allowing the CUP to take full control over

9477-432: The population for the cause. Whole settlements were enrolled into the CUP through councils of village elders convened by Enver in Turkish villages of the Tikveş region. As the revolution spread by the third week and more officers deserted the army to join the cause, Enver and Niyazi got like minded officials and civilian notables to send multiple petitions to the Ottoman palace. Enver wrote in his memoirs that while he still

9594-499: The potential to become dangerous and be the same as a despotic leader. As the CUP shifted away from the ideas of members who belonged to the old core of the organisation to those of the newer membership, this change assisted individuals like Enver in gaining a larger profile in the Young Turk movement. In Ohri (modern Ohrid) an armed band ( çete ) called the Special Muslim Organisation (SMO) composed mostly of notables

9711-538: The proclamation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy in 1908 , Şakir returned to Constantinople and to his former duty at the School of Military Medicine. He wrote Turkey's first copyrighted textbook on forensic medicine . He became a professor on the subject at Haydarpaşa Faculty of Medicine , which was established in 1909 with the merging of military and civilian medical schools. The following year, Şakir

9828-448: The prospective bride's education and beauty, as well as on the prospective dowry, Enver took a practical view of this marriage and accepted the arrangement. Naciye had been previously engaged to Şehzade Abdurrahim Hayri . However, Sultan Mehmed V broke off the engagement, and in April 1909, when Naciye was just twelve years old, engaged her to Enver, fifteen years older than her. Following

9945-464: The province and left Berlin for Libya. There, he assumed the overall command after successfully mobilizing 20,000 troops. Because of the outbreak of the Balkan Wars , however, Enver and other Ottoman generals in Libya were called back to Constantinople. This allowed Italy to take control of Libya. In 1912, thanks to his active role in the war, he was made lieutenant colonel. However, the loss of Libya cost

10062-462: The ranks of the military, he was known by increasingly esteemed titles, including Enver Efendi ( انور افندی ), Enver Bey ( انور بك ), and finally Enver Pasha . "Pasha" was the honorary title granted to Ottoman military officers upon promotion to the rank of Mirliva (major general). Enver was born in Constantinople ( Istanbul ) on 22 November 1881. Enver's father, Ahmed ( c. 1860–1947),

10179-481: The rebellion's leaders and, along with a small number of followers, defected to the Basmachi side. His aim was to unite the numerous Basmachi groups under his own command and mount a co-ordinated offensive against the Bolsheviks in order to realise his pan-Turkic dreams. After a number of successful military operations he managed to establish himself as the rebels' supreme commander, and turned their disorganized forces into

10296-523: The replacement was not pliant. Şakir was involved in the subduing and deportation of the Armenian population in Ardanuç , where he was the head of the Special Organization, and Ardahan in 1914. On 3 March 1915, Şakir sent a letter stating the Committee [of Union and Progress], as the bearer of the nation's honor, has decided to free the homeland from the inordinate ambitions of this accursed nation and to assume

10413-463: The responsibility for the blemish that will stain Ottoman history in this regard. The Committee, which cannot forget [the country's] bitter and unhappy history and whose cup runneth over with the unrelenting desire for revenge, has decided to annihilate all of Armenians living within Turkey, not to allow a single one to remain, and has given the government broad authority in this regard. On the question of how this killing and massacring will be carried out,

10530-412: The same time, the sultan is presented in the centre, flanked by Niyazi and Enver to either side. As the actions of both men carried the appearance of initiating the revolution, Niyazi, an Albanian, and Enver, a Turk, later received popular acclaim as "heroes of freedom" ( hürriyet kahramanları ) and symbolised Albanian-Turkish cooperation. As a tribute to his role in the Young Turk Revolution that began

10647-518: The subject of gossip about an alleged romance between him and Princess Iffet of Egypt. When this story reached Istanbul, the grand vizier, Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha decided to exploit Enver's marital eligibility by arranging a rapprochement between the Committee for Union and Progress and the imperial family. After a careful search, the grand vizier chose the twelve-year-old Naciye Sultan , a granddaughter of Sultan Abdulmejid I , as Enver's future bride. Both

10764-481: The sultan Hacı Ahmed Bey. Minister of war Mahmud Şevket Pasha served as Enver's deputy, and his witnesses were aide-de-camp of the sultan Binbaşı Re'fet Bey and chamberlain of the imperial gates Ahsan Bey. The wedding took place about three years later on 5 March 1914 in the Nişantaşı Palace. The couple were given one of the palaces of Kuruçeşme. The marriage was very happy. On 17 May 1917, Naciye gave birth to

10881-487: The two of them they weren't recognized by journalists or the Allied forces stationed there until they were about to leave. Their return flight to Berlin also crashed. Enver's insistence to arrive to Moscow by plane costed them another plane crash in flight trials. Eventually Cemal Pasha joined them in Berlin, and using a plane that successfully passed flight tests they set off once again for Moscow. But hearing strange noises from

10998-403: The vilest, unbridled animal passions served well the government's purpose of ensuring extermination in the most humiliating, dehumanizing fashion. The torture of thousands of women and children became a source of satisfaction for hundreds who sought and found official sanction from government officials as well as Muslim clergymen, since the murder of Armenians was characterized, like the war against

11115-511: The war as a whole but they did however ensure that Baku remained within the boundaries of Azerbaijan while a part of the Soviet Union and later as an independent nation. Faced with defeat, the Sultan dismissed Enver from his post as War Minister on 4 October 1918, while the rest of Talaat Pasha 's government resigned on 14 October 1918. On 30 October 1918, the Ottoman Empire capitulated by signing

11232-505: The war. Finally on 29 October, the point of no return was reached when Admiral Souchon , now Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman navy, took Goeben , Breslau , and a squadron of Ottoman warships into the Black Sea and bombed the Russian ports of Odessa , Sevastopol , and Theodosia . Russia declared war on Ottoman Empire on 2 November, and Britain followed suit on 5 November. Most of the Turkish cabinet members and CUP leaders were against such

11349-497: Was a part of the dictatorial triumvirate known as the " Three Pashas " (along with Talaat Pasha and Cemal Pasha ) in the Ottoman Empire . While stationed in Ottoman Macedonia, Enver joined the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), an organization affiliated with the Young Turks movement that was agitating against Sultan Abdul Hamid II 's despotic rule. He was a key leader of the 1908 Young Turk Revolution , which reestablished

11466-734: Was allegedly the director of operations in Arabia, the Sinai, and North Africa. He was captured in Yemen in early 1917 by the British military and was a POW in Malta until 1920 and subsequently released in exchange for British POWs. However, Ahmet Efe has written that the Ottoman military archives have detailed information on the organization's personnel, and that Kuşçubaşı is not mentioned. In Libya, Nuri Killigil organized operations involving propaganda, subversion, terrorism and sabotage; he coordinated these operations with

11583-439: Was based. Activities were coordinated between these central committees and local Unionist party secretaries. The organization organized armed bands ( çetes ) which were integrated into the armies. The lack of discipline in these bands strained the relationship between the army and the Special Organization. Around February 1915 the organization was detached from the army and brought under the direct control of Şakir. According to

11700-601: Was born in Sliven , Ottoman Empire (now part of Bulgaria ). After graduating from the School of Military Medicine as a medical captain in 1894, Şakir studied medical jurisprudence in France . In 1900, he became a judicial medical assistant at the same school. With Mustafa Hayrullah Diker  [ tr ] , they became pioneers of this field of research. Şakir was also Şehzade Yusuf İzzeddin 's private doctor in addition to his post in

11817-854: Was common for slave markets to be established where for the right price a Muslim man could buy Armenian women and/or girls to use as his sex slaves. Besides genocide against the Armenians, the CUP regime waged the Assyrian genocide against the Assyrian minority and the Pontic Greek genocide against the Pontic Greeks in Pontus . In Thrace and western Anatolia the Special Organization assisted by government and army officials, deported all Greek men of military age to labor brigades beginning in summer 1914 and lasting through 1916. During World War I Eşref Sencer Kuşçubaşı

11934-592: Was convicted. The murder became a political scandal in Turkey after the suicide of Tandoğan, the suspicious death of the case's public prosecutor Fahrettin Karaoğlan  [ tr ] , and the resignation of Kâzım Orbay from his position as Chief of the General Staff of Turkey after his son's conviction. Djevdet Bey who was the Vali of Van in 1915, was also a brother-in-law of his. Around 1908, Enver Pasha became

12051-613: Was created in 1907 to protect local Muslims and fight Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) bands. Enver along with Sabri recruited the SMO and turned it into the Ohri branch of the CUP with its band becoming the local CUP band. CUP Internal headquarters proposed that Enver go form a CUP band in the countryside. Approving the decision by the committee to assassinate his brother in law Lieutenant Colonel Ömer Nâzım, Enver under instructions from CUP headquarters traveled from Selanik ( Thessaloniki ) to Tikveş on 26 June 1908 to establish

12168-411: Was detained with other members of the CUP, first by a local Ottoman court martial and then by the British government. He was sent to Malta pending military trials for crimes against humanity , which never materialized, and was subsequently exchanged by Britain for hostages held by Turkish nationalist forces. On 17 April 1922, he was assassinated along with Cemal Azmi in Berlin . Bahaddin Şakir

12285-543: Was dismantled following a parliamentary debate and replaced by the General Revolutionary Organization of the Islamic World ( Turkish : Umûm Âlem-i İslâm İhtilâl Teşkilâtı ) after World War I . This organization held its first meeting in Berlin. However, it was forced underground by the British, who refused to let these German allies operate. In 1921, Atatürk founded another secret organization called

12402-467: Was dissolved by April 1915. The Special Organization was founded to be a vanguard for a Muslim uprising in Bulgarian occupied Western Thrace during the Balkan Wars . The effort resulted in the short-lived Provisional Government of Western Thrace . Enver Pasha assumed the primary role in the direction of the Special Organization and its center of administration moved to Erzurum . The first leader of

12519-682: Was either a bridge-keeper in Monastir (modern Bitola) or an Albanian small town public prosecutor in the Balkans . His mother Ayşe Dilara was a Tatar . According to Şuhnaz Yilmaz , he was of Gagauz descent. His uncle was Halil Pasha (later Kut) . Enver had two younger brothers, Nuri and Mehmed Kamil, and two younger sisters, Hasene and Mediha. He was the brother-in-law of Lieutenant Colonel Ömer Nâzım. At age six, Enver moved with his father to Monastir, where he attended primary school. He studied at several military institutions. In 1902, he graduated from

12636-471: Was elected president of the medical school. He continued writing for the Şura-yı Ümmet . Meanwhile, he continued his journalism by harshly criticizing his opponents in his unsigned books titled Ali Kemal Davası (The Case of Ali Kemal ) and " Kanuni Esasimizi İhlal Edenler " (Opponents of Our Constitution ). Bahaddin Şakir worked as the chief physician in Adrianople's ( Edirne ) hospital during its siege by

12753-541: Was found on the field of battle. His Koran was taken from his lifeless fingers and was filed in the archives of the Soviet secret police. Enver's body was buried near Ab-i-Derya in Tajikistan . In 1996, his remains were brought to Turkey and reburied at Abide-i Hürriyet (Monument of Liberty) cemetery in Şişli , Istanbul . He was re-buried on the 4 August, the anniversary of his death in 1922. Enver Pasha's image remains controversial in Turkey, since Enver and Atatürk had

12870-619: Was instrumental in the Ottoman Empire's entry into World War I . He then led a disastrous attack on Russian forces in the Battle of Sarikamish , after which he blamed Armenians for his defeat. Along with Talaat, he was one of the principal perpetrators of the Late Ottoman Genocides and thus is held responsible for the death of between 800,000 and 1,800,000 Armenians, 750,000 Assyrians and 500,000 Greeks. Following defeat in World War I, Enver, along with other leading Unionists, escaped

12987-549: Was involved in band activity in the days toward the end of the revolution he composed more detailed rules of engagement for use by paramilitary units and bands. On 23 July he proclaimed an age of liberty in front of the government mansion of Köprülü . In Salonica, he spoke from the balconies of the Grand Hôtel D'Angleterre to a crowd in the city center, where he declared that absolutism was finished, and Ottomanism would prevail. The square would be named Eleftherias Square , or

13104-450: Was killed by machine-gun fire. In his memoirs, Enver Pasha's aide Yaver Suphi Bey stated that Enver Pasha died of a bullet wound right above his heart during a cavalry charge. Alternatively, according to Melkumov's memoirs, Enver managed to escape on horseback and hid for four days in the village of Chaghan. His hideout was located after a Red Army officer infiltrated the village in disguise. Melkumov's troops ambushed Enver at Chaghan, and in

13221-471: Was praised by Turkish President Erdoğan during an Azeri victory parade in Baku . In 2023, Azerbaijani officials issued a map of the formerly Armenian Stepanakert , renaming one of the streets after Pasha. After Enver's death, three of his four siblings, Nuri (1889–1949), Mehmed Kamil (1900–62), and Hasene Hanım, adopted the surname "Killigil" after the 1934 Surname Law required all Turkish citizens to adopt

13338-433: Was rarely honoured. Instead, Niyazi and Enver as leaders of the revolution elevated their positions to near legendary status, with their images placed on postcards and distributed throughout the Ottoman state. Toward the latter part of 1908, photographs of Niyazi and Enver had reached Constantinople and school children of the time played with masks on their faces that depicted the revolutionaries. In other images produced at

13455-447: Was to retake Baghdad, recently taken by Maude . This was nearly impossible for logistical reasons. Turkish troops were deserting freely, and when Enver visited Beirut in June 1917, soldiers were forbidden to be stationed along his route for fear that he would be assassinated. Lack of rolling stock meant that troops were often detrained at Damascus and marched south. During 1917, due to

13572-471: Was tried by the court nicknamed the " Nemrut Mustafa Divan " and was sentenced to death for waging war and massacring Armenians. From Berlin , Şakir, Cemal and Enver traveled to Moscow to get Bolshevik assistance for the Turks in their war for independence . The journey there was troubled. Their first flight took off from the German border and crashed in the outskirts of Kaunas , Lithuania . Fortunately for

13689-527: Was widowed at Enver's death on 4 August 1922. Behaeddin Shakir Bahaeddin Shakir or Bahaddin Şakir (1874 – 17 April 1922) was a physician, Turkish nationalist politician, and one of the architects of the Armenian genocide . Though he was not a minister or deputy in the government, he held powerful sway in the Central Committee of the Committee of Union and Progress and was

#55944