Enver Pasha

In this Ottoman Turkish style name, the given name is Ismail Enver, the title is Pasha, and there is no family name.
İsmail Enver
Pasha
Enver Bey in 1911
Minister of War
In office
3 January 1914 – 13 October 1918
Prime MinisterMehmed Talaat Pasha
Said Halim Pasha
Preceded byAhmet Izzet Pasha
Succeeded byAhmet Izzet Pasha
Chief of the General Staff
In office
8 January 1914 – 13 October 1918
Preceded byMehmed Hâdî Pasha
Succeeded byAhmed Izzet Pasha
Deputy commander-in-chief
In office
8 January 1914 – 10 August 1918
MonarchsMehmed V
Mehmed VI
Chief of staff of the commander-in-chief
In office
10 August 1918 – 13 October 1918
MonarchMehmed VI
Personal details
Born(1881-11-23)23 November 1881
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
(present-day Istanbul, Turkey)
Died4 August 1922(1922-08-04) (aged 40)
Bukharan People's Soviet Republic
(present-day Tajikistan)
Resting placeMonument of Liberty, Istanbul, Turkey
41°04′05″N 28°58′55″E / 41.06814°N 28.982041°E / 41.06814; 28.982041
NationalityTurco-Albanian
Political partyUnion and Progress Party
SpouseEmine Naciye Sultan
ChildrenMahpeyker Hanımsultan
Türkan Hanımsultan
Sultanzade Ali Bey
Alma materArmy War College (1903)[1]
Signature
Military service
Branch/serviceOttoman Army
Years of service1903–1918
RankMirliva and the de facto Commander-in-Chief
CommandsArmy of Islam
Yildirim Army Group
Third Army
Battles/wars

İsmail Enver (Ottoman Turkish: اسماعیل انور پاشا; Turkish: İsmail Enver Paşa; 23 November 1881[2] – 4 August 1922), better known as Enver Pasha, was an Ottoman Turkish military officer, revolutionary, and convicted war criminal[3][4] who 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 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 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.[5][6][7] He initiated the formation of an alliance with Germany, and 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[8][9][10] and thus is held responsible for the death of between 800,000 and 1,800,000[11][12][13][14] Armenians, 750,000 Assyrians and 500,000 Greeks. Following defeat in World War I, Enver, along with other leading Unionists, escaped 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 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).

  1. ^ Komutanlığı, Harp Akademileri (1968), Harp Akademilerinin 120 Yılı (in Turkish), İstanbul, p. 46{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Ci̇vgi̇n, Senem (28 December 2023). "Enver Paşa ve Askeri Alandaki Reform Faaliyetleri (1914-1918)". Hazine-i Evrak Arşiv ve Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi (in Turkish). 5 (5): 129–176. doi:10.59054/hed.1386081. ISSN 2687-6515.
  3. ^ Herzig, Edmund; Kurkchiyan, Marina, eds. (2005). The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity. Abingdon, Oxon, Oxford: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0203004930.
  4. ^ Andreopoulos, George J., ed. (1997). Genocide : conceptual and historical dimensions (1. paperback print. ed.). Philadelphia, Pa.: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0812216164.
  5. ^ Bourne, J. M. (2001). Who's who in World War One. London: Routledge. p. 282. ISBN 0-415-14179-6. OCLC 46785141.
  6. ^ Maksudyan, Nazan (25 April 2019). Ottoman children and youth during World War I (First ed.). Syracuse, New York. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-8156-5473-5. OCLC 1088605265.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ New york times current history volume 9. 2012. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-236-26433-6. OCLC 935658756.
  8. ^ Henham, Ralph; Behrens, Paul, eds. (2009). The Criminal Law of Genocide: International, Comparative and Contextual Aspects. Farnham: Ashgate. ISBN 978-1-40949591-8. The guilty main architects of the genocide Talaat Pasaha [...] and Enver Pasha...
  9. ^ Freedman, Jeri (2009). The Armenian Genocide (1st ed.). New York: Rosen Pub. ISBN 978-1-40421825-3. Enver Pasha, Mehmet Talat, and Ahmed Djemal were the three men who headed the CUP. They ran the Ottoman administration during World War I and planned the Armenian genocide.
  10. ^ Jones, Adam (2006). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction (Repr. ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41535385-4. The new ruling triumvirate – Minister of Internal Affairs Talat Pasha; Minister of War Enver Pasha; and Minister of Navy Jemal Pasha – quickly established a de facto dictatorship. Under the rubric of the so-called Special Organization of the CUP, they directed, this trio would plan and oversee the Armenian genocide...
  11. ^ Göçek, Fatma Müge (2015). Denial of violence : Ottoman past, Turkish present and collective violence against the Armenians, 1789–2009. Oxford University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-19-933420-9.
  12. ^ Auron, Yair (2000). The banality of indifference: Zionism & the Armenian genocide. Transaction. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-7658-0881-3.
  13. ^ Forsythe, David P. (11 August 2009). Encyclopedia of human rights (Google Books). Oxford University Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-19-533402-9.
  14. ^ Chalk, Frank Robert; Jonassohn, Kurt (10 September 1990). The history and sociology of genocide: analyses and case studies. Institut montréalais des études sur le génocide. Yale University Press. pp. 270–. ISBN 978-0-300-04446-1.