Mehmed Talaat (1 September 187415 March 1921), commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha,; tr, Talat Paşa, links=no was an Ottoman politician and convicted
war criminal of the
late Ottoman Empire who served as its leader from 1913 to 1918. Talaat Pasha was chairman of the
Union and Progress Party, which operated a one-party dictatorship in the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, and later on became
Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. He was one of the perpetrators of the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
and other ethnic cleansings during his time as
Minister of Interior Affairs
Minister may refer to:
* Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric
** Minister (Catholic Church)
* Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department)
** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...
.
Born in
Kırcaali (Kardzhali),
Adrianople (Edirne) Vilayet, Mehmed Talaat grew up to despise Sultan
Abdul Hamid II
Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid II ( ota, عبد الحميد ثانی, Abd ül-Hamid-i Sani; tr, II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 10 February 1918) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 31 August 1876 to 27 April 1909, and the last sultan to ...
's autocracy. He was an early member of the
Committee of Union and Progress
The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) ( ota, اتحاد و ترقى جمعيتی, translit=İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti, script=Arab), later the Union and Progress Party ( ota, اتحاد و ترقى فرقهسی, translit=İttihad ve Tera ...
(CUP), a secret revolutionary
Young Turk organization, and over time became its leader. After the CUP succeeded in restoring the
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princip ...
and
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...
in the 1908
Young Turk Revolution
The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore the Ottoman Constit ...
, Talaat was elected as a deputy from Adrianople to the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon ...
and later became
Minister of the Interior
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
. He played an important role in the downfall of Abdul Hamid the next year during the
31 March Incident by organizing a counter government. Multiple crises in the Empire including the 31 March Incident, attacks on
Rumelian Muslims in the
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...
, and the power struggle with the
Freedom and Accord Party The Freedom and Accord Party ( ota, حریت و ایتلاف فرقهسی, Hürriyet ve İtilaf Fırkası, script=Arab), also known as the Liberal Union or the Liberal Entente, was a liberal Ottoman political party active between 1911 and 1913, ...
made Talaat and the
Unionists disillusioned with multicultural
Ottomanism
Ottomanism or ''Osmanlılık'' (, tr, Osmanlıcılık) was a concept which developed prior to the 1876–1878 First Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire. Its proponents believed that it could create the social cohesion needed to keep mille ...
and political pluralism, turning them into hard-line authoritarian
Turkish nationalists.
After the
1913 coup and
Mahmud Şevket Pasha
Mahmud Shevket Pasha ( ota, محمود شوكت پاشا, 1856 – 11 June 1913)David Kenneth Fieldhouse: ''Western imperialism in the Middle East 1914-1958''. Oxford University Press, 2006 p.17 was an Ottoman generalissimo and statesman, wh ...
's assassination, the Ottoman Empire was ruled by Union and Progress in a one-party dictatorship, whose leaders were the triumvirate of Talaat,
İsmail Enver, and
Ahmed Cemal (known as the
Three Pashas
The Three Pashas also known as the Young Turk triumvirate or CUP triumvirate consisted of Mehmed Talaat Pasha (1874–1921), the Grand Vizier (prime minister) and Minister of the Interior; Ismail Enver Pasha (1881–1922), the Minister of War; ...
), of whom Talaat as its civilian leader was politically most powerful. Talaat and Enver were influential bringing the
Ottoman Empire into the First World War. During World War I, he
ordered on 24 April 1915 the
arrest and deportation of Armenian intellectuals in
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth ( Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
(now
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
), most of them being ultimately murdered, and on 30 May 1915 requested the
Temporary Law of Deportation
The Temporary Law of Deportation, also known as the Tehcir Law (; from ''tehcir'', an Ottoman Turkish word meaning "deportation" or "forced displacement" as defined by the Turkish Language Institute), or, officially by the Republic of Turkey, the ...
; these events initiated the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
. He is widely considered the main perpetrator of the genocide, and is thus held responsible for the death of around 1 million Armenians.
In a move that established total Unionist control over the
Ottoman government
The Ottoman Empire developed over the years as a despotism with the Sultan as the supreme ruler of a centralized government that had an effective control of its provinces, officials and inhabitants. Wealth and rank could be inherited but were ...
, Talaat Pasha became Grand Vizier in 1917, and introduced many social reforms.
Talaat personally negotiated the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (also known as the Treaty of Brest in Russia) was a separate peace treaty signed on 3 March 1918 between Russia and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), that ended Russia's ...
with the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
, regaining parts of Eastern Anatolia which were
occupied by Russia since 1878, and won the
race to Baku on the
Caucasus front. However breakthroughs by the Allies in the
Macedonia
Macedonia most commonly refers to:
* North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia
* Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity
* Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...
and
Palestine fronts meant defeat for the Ottomans and the downfall of the CUP. On the night of 2–3 November 1918, Talaat Pasha and other members of the
CUP's central committee fled the Ottoman Empire. The
Ottoman Special Military Tribunal
Ottoman is the Turkish spelling of the Arabic masculine given name Uthman ( ar, عُثْمان, ‘uthmān). It may refer to:
Governments and dynasties
* Ottoman Caliphate, an Islamic caliphate from 1517 to 1924
* Ottoman Empire, in existence fro ...
convicted Talaat and sentenced him to death ''
in absentia'' for subverting the constitution, profiteering from the war, and organizing massacres against Greeks and Armenians. Exiled in Berlin, he supported the
Turkish Nationalists led by
Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) in
Turkey's War of Independence. He was
assassinated in Berlin in 1921 by
Soghomon Tehlirian, a member of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation ( hy, Հայ Յեղափոխական Դաշնակցութիւն, ՀՅԴ ( classical spelling), abbr. ARF or ARF-D) also known as Dashnaktsutyun (collectively referred to as Dashnaks for short), is an Armenia ...
, as part of
Operation Nemesis.
Early life: 1874–1908
Childhood
Mehmed Talaat was born in 1874 in
Kırcaali,
Adrianople (Edirne) Vilayet into a middle-class family of
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
and
Pomak
Pomaks ( bg, Помаци, Pomatsi; el, Πομάκοι, Pomáki; tr, Pomaklar) are Bulgarian-speaking Muslims inhabiting northwestern Turkey, Bulgaria and northeastern Greece. The c. 220,000 strong ethno-confessional minority in Bulgaria is ...
descent. His father, Ahmet Vasıf, was a
kadı
A ''kadi'' ( ar, قاضي '; tr, kadı) was an official in the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othō ...
from Çeplece, a nearby village. His mother Hürmüz was from a family that migrated from Dedeler village,
Kayseri. Talaat also had two sisters.
[ Kieser, Hans-Lukas (2018). p.41] Talaat's family fled to
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth ( Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
when their home was occupied by Russian troops during the
1877–1878 Russo-Turkish war, an experience that contributed to Talaat's nationalism. His father died when Talaat was eleven years old.
Talaat had a powerful build and a dark complexion.
His manners were gruff, which caused him to be expelled from the military secondary school at the age of sixteen without a certificate after a conflict with his teacher. Without earning a degree, he joined the staff of a
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
company as a postal clerk in Adrianople to provide for his family. His salary was not high, so he worked after hours as a
Turkish language
Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...
teacher in the
Alliance Israelite School which served the Jewish community of Adrianople.
At the age of 21 Talaat was involved in a love affair with the daughter of the Jewish headmaster for whom he worked.
Activism against Abdul Hamid II
The Ottoman Empire was ruled by the sultan
Abdul Hamid II
Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid II ( ota, عبد الحميد ثانی, Abd ül-Hamid-i Sani; tr, II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 10 February 1918) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 31 August 1876 to 27 April 1909, and the last sultan to ...
, who ran a modern autocracy, complete with
a secret police, mass surveillance, and censorship. This autocracy in turn produced a culture of suspicion as well as a spirit of clandestine rebellion in many Ottoman citizens, young Talaat included. He was caught sending a telegram saying "Things are going well. I'll soon reach my goal." He was confronted by the police for this telegram, and claimed that the message was to his dalliance, who defended him. With two of his friends from the post office, he was charged with tampering with the official telegraph and was arrested in 1893.
After being released from prison, he joined the
Committee of Union and Progress
The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) ( ota, اتحاد و ترقى جمعيتی, translit=İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti, script=Arab), later the Union and Progress Party ( ota, اتحاد و ترقى فرقهسی, translit=İttihad ve Tera ...
(CUP), a secret revolutionary
Young Turk organization which was agitating against Abdul Hamid's autocracy. In 1896 he was imprisoned for having been part of a CUP cell together with his brother-in-law.
[ Kieser, Hans-Lukas (2018), pp, 44] Sentenced to three years in jail, Talaat was pardoned after serving two years
but exiled to Salonika (
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...
), where he became a postal clerk in July 1898.
Between 1898 and 1908 he served as a postman on the staff of the Salonika Post Office, during which he continued his revolutionary activities in secret. He was promoted to municipal chief clerk in April 1903, following which he could afford to bring his mother and sisters to Salonika. His job in the postal administration gave him the opportunity to smuggle into the city newspapers published by the dissidents abroad.
[Ahmet Aslan, Türk Basınında Talat Paşa Suikastı ve Yansımaları, ''İstanbul Üniversitesi Atatürk İlkeleri ve İnkılap Tarihi Enstitüsü Yüksek Lisans Tezi, İstanbul 2010''] Talaat met then economics professor, later friend and CUP Finance Minister
Mehmed Cavid
Mehmet Cavit Bey, Mehmed Cavid Bey or Mehmed Djavid Bey ( ota, محمد جاوید بك; 1875 – 26 August 1926) was an Ottoman economist, newspaper editor and leading politician during the dissolution period of the Ottoman Empire. A founding me ...
in
Salonika Law School, where he took classes to supplement his lackluster education.
The government was still monitoring his activities, and he was almost exiled again to
Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The r ...
. However the Inspector General for Macedonia
Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha
Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha ( ota, حسین حلمی پاشا tr, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa, also spelled Hussein Hilmi Pasha) (1 April 1855 – 1922) was an Ottoman statesman and imperial administrator. He was twice the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire ...
was partial towards the secret committee and intervened, and Talaat returned to Salonika to work as a school principal.
In September 1906, the
Ottoman Freedom Committee (OFC) was formed as another secret Young Turk organization based in Salonika. The founders of the OFC included Talaat, the CUP's future general secretary
Dr. Midhat Şükrü,
Mustafa Rahmi, and
İsmail Canbulat. Many officers of the
Third Army were recruited into the OFC, including the future heroes of the revolution
Ahmed Niyazi and
İsmail Enver. Under Talaat's initiative, the Salonika-based OFC merged with
Ahmet Rıza's Paris-based CUP in September 1907, and the group became the internal center of the CUP in the Ottoman Empire. Talaat was briefly
secretary-general
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derive ...
of the internal CUP, while
Bahattin Şakir Baha al-Din or Bahaa ad-Din ( ar, بهاء الدين, Bahāʾ al-Dīn, splendour of the faith), or various variants like Bahauddin, Bahaeddine or (in Turkish) Bahattin, may refer to:
Surname
* A. K. M. Bahauddin, Bangladeshi politician and the M ...
was secretary-general of the external CUP. After the revolution, Talaat's more radical and militant internal CUP would see themselves supplant the older cadre of Young Turks that was Rıza's network of exiles.
Rise to power: 1908–1913
Young Turk Revolution and aftermath
The
Unionists found themselves at the behest of a spontaneous revolution in 1908, which commenced with Niyazi and Enver's flight into the Albanian hinterlands. Talaat's role during the
Young Turk Revolution
The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore the Ottoman Constit ...
was to organize a plot to assassinate the garrison commander of Salonika, Ömer Nazım, who was a Hamidian loyalist and spy master of the area. Nazım survived his hired ''
Fedai'' with injury, but the incident, as well as other assassinations carried out by the CUP during the revolution, intimidated the
Hamidian establishment enough to reopen the parliament and reinstate the
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princip ...
. For the first time in three decades, an
election was held for the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon ...
, which this time
featured political parties. Talaat was easily elected into parliament as Union and Progress's candidate for deputy of Adrianople, and then was elected the parliament's vice-president. Talaat was the most important politician in the Ottoman Empire between 1908 and 1918.
A year later in the
31 March Incident, what started out as an anti-Unionist demonstration in the capital quickly turned into an anticonstitutionalist-monarchist counter revolution where Abdul Hamid attempted to reestablish his autocracy. The Grand Vizier Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha was forced to resign for
Ahmed Tevfik Pasha
Ahmet Tevfik Pasha ( ota, احمد توفیق پاشا; 11 February 1845 – 8 October 1936), later Ahmet Tevfik Okday after the Turkish Surname Law of 1934, was an Ottoman statesman of Crimean Tatar origin. He was the last Grand vizie ...
.
Khachatur Malumian
Khachatur Malumian ( hy, Խաչատուր Մալումյան), also known as Edgar Aknuni (''Aknouni or Agnouni''; hy, Էտկար Ակնունի) (1863 in Meghri, Russian Empire – 1915) was an Armenian journalist and political activist.
...
, leader of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation ( hy, Հայ Յեղափոխական Դաշնակցութիւն, ՀՅԴ ( classical spelling), abbr. ARF or ARF-D) also known as Dashnaktsutyun (collectively referred to as Dashnaks for short), is an Armenia ...
(ARF), hid Talaat and
Dr. Nazım in his house while mob violence targeted MPs. Three days later, Talaat and 100 MPs escaped Constantinople for Ayastefanos (
Yeşilköy
(; meaning "Green Village"; prior to 1926, San Stefano or Santo Stefano el, Άγιος Στέφανος, Ágios Stéfanos, tr, Ayastefanos) is an affluent neighbourhood ( tr, mahalle) in the district of Bakırköy, Istanbul, Turkey, on the ...
) to organize a separate national assembly from the volatile situation in Constantinople, and declared the change in government illegal. Relief came in the form of pro-constitutionalist forces known as the
Action Army led by
Mahmud Şevket Pasha
Mahmud Shevket Pasha ( ota, محمود شوكت پاشا, 1856 – 11 June 1913)David Kenneth Fieldhouse: ''Western imperialism in the Middle East 1914-1958''. Oxford University Press, 2006 p.17 was an Ottoman generalissimo and statesman, wh ...
, which stopped in Ayastefanos before marching on the capital; it was secretly agreed there that Abdul Hamid would be replaced by his brother. After the reactionary revolt was crushed, Talaat bullied the
Shaykh al-Islam
Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...
Sahip Molla to get a
fatwa
A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist ...
for Abdul Hamid's deposition, and convinced Tevfik Pasha to step down and return Hilmi Pasha to the premiership. With the fatwa, the parliament voted to depose Abdul Hamid II. Talaat and
Ahmed Muhtar Pasha headed the delegation to announce to
Prince Reşad of his ascension to the throne.
In August 1909 Mehmed Talaat led a 17-member parliamentary delegation to
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buck ...
. He learned there that he was appointed
Minister of the Interior
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
in Hilmi Pasha's cabinet reshuffle,
becoming the second Unionist with a cabinet position (first being
Cavid as
Finance Minister
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...
). He continued Hamidian era anti-Zionist restrictions in
Ottoman Palestine
Ottoman Syria ( ar, سوريا العثمانية) refers to divisions of the Ottoman Empire within the region of Syria, usually defined as being east of the Mediterranean Sea, west of the Euphrates River, north of the Arabian Desert and so ...
, as well as enforce imperial rule in revolting provinces like
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the ...
and
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast an ...
. That year, Louis Rambert, director of the Regie Company, Régie des Tabacs, wrote that Talaat was "the acknowledged head of the Committee of Union and Progress and the Young Turks." Biographer Hans-Lukas Kieser writes that he was under the influence of
Bahattin Şakir Baha al-Din or Bahaa ad-Din ( ar, بهاء الدين, Bahāʾ al-Dīn, splendour of the faith), or various variants like Bahauddin, Bahaeddine or (in Turkish) Bahattin, may refer to:
Surname
* A. K. M. Bahauddin, Bangladeshi politician and the M ...
and Nazım Bey, Mehmed Nazım before 1908, but after late 1909 he had an increased interest in the new Central Committee member Ziya Gökalp and his more revolutionary and Pan-Turkism, Pan-Turkist ideas.
Due to an increasingly toxic political climate, Talaat stepped down as Interior Minister in March 1911 for his fellow committee-man Halil Menteşe. For a short time he was :tr:Posta ve Telgraf Nezâreti, Minister of Post and Telegraph in January 1912.
Crisis for the committee
In the 1912 Ottoman general election, 1912 election known as the "election of clubs", Union and Progress won a lopsided victory against the
Freedom and Accord Party The Freedom and Accord Party ( ota, حریت و ایتلاف فرقهسی, Hürriyet ve İtilaf Fırkası, script=Arab), also known as the Liberal Union or the Liberal Entente, was a liberal Ottoman political party active between 1911 and 1913, ...
due to widespread employment of electoral fraud and violence. As a result, Freedom and Accord organized a group in the military known as the 1912 Ottoman coup d'état, Savior Officers to bring down the CUP dominated legislature. Talaat urged for Şevket Pasha, who was appointed Ministry of War (Ottoman Empire), Minister of War after the 31 March Incident, to resign as in the lead-up to 1912 Ottoman coup d'état, the coup d'état, something he wrote that he regretted once Şevket Pasha did so in support of the Savior Officers. Eventually, pro-CUP Grand Vizier Mehmed Said Pasha, Said Pasha had to acquiesce to the Savior Officers demands, and the parliament was dissolved with a new election to take place in autumn of 1912. It was no longer safe for Unionists to be in the open, and it was plausible that the CUP would be banned by the government. Talaat had to once again lay low, hiding with Midhat Şükrü, Tahsin Bey, Hasan Tahsin, and Cemal Azmi in Tahsin's brother-in-law's house. By 1912 Talaat definitely abandoned the belief that constitutionalism and rule of law could unite the multi-ethnic and fragmented "Ottomanism, Ottoman nation", which was the original ''raison d'être'' of the Young Turks, and turned to more radical politics. He and other high ranking CUP leaders organized and gave speeches in a pro-war rally against the Balkan nations in Hippodrome of Constantinople, Sultanahmet Square before the
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...
broke out.
The Savior Officer-backed government of
Ahmed Muhtar Pasha fell soon after when the Balkan League achieved decisive victory over the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War. Talaat volunteered for the war, but was dismissed from the army for distributing political propaganda. The CUP's headquarters in Salonika had to be relocated to Constantinople when the city fell to Greece, while his hometown of Siege of Adrianople (1912–1913), Adrianople was besieged by the Bulgarians. The imperial capital swelled with Muhacir, Rumelian Muslims refugees that were expelled from the Balkans. The scheduled election had to be canceled, and Kâmil Pasha's government started London Conference of 1912–1913, peace negotiations with the Balkan League in December. Following rumors that the government was willing to surrender Adrianople which was still under siege, Talaat and Enver began plotting a coup. The coup launched on 23 January 1913, known as the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état, Raid on the Sublime Porte, succeeded in overthrowing the government, with Kâmil Pasha and his cabinet resigning for Mahmud Şevket Pasha's national unity government which this time included the CUP, and resumed fighting. Talaat and Enver urged Şevket Pasha to accept the Grand Vezierate, but mutual distrust between the generalissimo and the committee meant Talaat only came back as deputy Interior Minister, so he employed Komitecilik, ''komiteci'' politics to stay influential. He urged for the Empire to continue fighting in the First Balkan War to Siege of Adrianople (1912–1913), relieve Adrianople, as well as order the arrests against leading Freedom and Accord members and journalists in the subsequent state of emergency. However, with demands from the great powers to surrender Adrianople and a deteriorating military situation, Şevket Pasha and the CUP finally acknowledged defeat.
Union and Progress regime: 1913–1918
Consolidating power
Once Şevket Pasha was out of the picture due to his assassination on 12 July 1913, the CUP established a de facto one-party state in the Ottoman Empire. Talaat returned as interior minister in Said Halim Pasha cabinet, Said Halim Pasha's cabinet. He kept this post until the CUP's fall from power following the Armistice of Mudros, Ottoman Empire's surrender in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
in 1918. Talaat, with Enver and commandant Djemal Pasha, Ahmet Cemal, formed a group later known as the
Three Pashas
The Three Pashas also known as the Young Turk triumvirate or CUP triumvirate consisted of Mehmed Talaat Pasha (1874–1921), the Grand Vizier (prime minister) and Minister of the Interior; Ismail Enver Pasha (1881–1922), the Minister of War; ...
. These men were a triumvirate that ran the Ottoman government until the end of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
in October 1918. However historian Hans-Lukas Kieser asserts that this state of rule by triumvirate was accurate for only the years 1913–1914, and thereafter Talaat was the sole dictator of the Ottoman Empire, especially once he became Grand Vizier in 1917. Erik-Jan Zürcher, Erik Jan Zürcher instead asserts a rule of diarchy, with Talaat leader of the civilian government and Enver the military, especially after Cemal Pasha's dispatch to Syria. Kieser asserts his Ottoman Empire was not a totalitarian state, but a balance of many factions maintained through kickbacks and corruption. Strong governors had much maneuverability to themselves, provided they execute Talaat and the central committee's new Turkification programmes.
That summer came Bulgaria's attack on Greece and Serbia, starting the Second Balkan War. Talaat was able to procure an important loan from the Régie to ensure success in retaking Adrianople. The Ottomans soon joined the war, retaking the city even though the great powers had forced the Ottomans to surrender Adrianople only months earlier. Talaat symbolically joined the army and took part in the recapture.
This was a failure of diplomacy by the great powers; for Talaat and the committee, this moment made them learn to not take international diplomacy seriously if the situation on the ground reflected otherwise. He led the negotiations with Bulgaria in the Treaty of Constantinople (1913), Constantinople conference, which resulted in a population exchange and formalizing Ottoman reassertion of sovereignty over Adrianople. Talaat would negotiate Treaty of Athens, another peace with Greece too. This peace was very tenuous however, as Talaat, Enver Pasha, and Celâl Bayar, Mahmud Celal (Bayar), secretary of the local CUP branch, organized the 1914 Greek deportations, deportations of Rûm in the Aidin Vilayet, Smyrna Vilayet, which almost started a war with Greece. Talaat was confronted by the sultan when the sultan learned of the deportations , but insisted that the stories of persecution of Rûm were fabricated by the Empire's enemies.
Between 1911 and 1914 the Ottoman Empire negotiated with the European powers and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, ARF on reform in the East. He attended multiple meetings with leading Armenian politicians Krikor Zohrab, Karekin Pastermadjian, :tr:Bedros Hallaçyan, Bedros Hallachian, and Vartkes Serengülian, however lack of trust between the old allies of the committee and the ARF and growing radicalism within the CUP slowed negotiations. Under overwhelming diplomatic pressure, 1914 Armenian reforms, a reform package was finally produced in December 1914, but it would be soon terminated under wartime conditions and an about-face by the committee on the Armenian question. On 6 September, Talaat Pasha sent a telegram to the governors of Hüdavendigâr Vilayet, Hüdâvendigâr (Bursa), İzmit, Canik, Adrianople Vilayet, Adrianople, Adana Vilayet, Adana, Aleppo Vilayet, Aleppo, Erzurum Vilayet, Erzurum, Bitlis Vilayet, Bitlis, Van Vilayet, Van, Sivas Vilayet, Sivas, Mamuret-ul-Aziz Vilayet, Mamuretülaziz (Elazığ), and Diyarbekir Vilayet, Diyarbekir to prepare for the arrests of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Armenian citizens. Armenians and Assyrians within the Empire began organising themselves into Armenian fedayi, militias to protect themselves as the Special Organization (Ottoman Empire), Special Organisation, a Unionist paramilitary, started harassing them.
Entering World War I
Throughout the Second Constitutional Era, the Ottoman Empire was diplomatically isolated, which it paid for dearly through territorial losses in the Balkans. Therefore, on 9 May, Talaat and Ahmed Izzet Pasha, Ahmet İzzet Pasha met with Nicholas II of Russia, Czar Nicholas II and Sergey Sazonov, Sergei Sazanov to propose an alliance with Russia, which ended up falling through. Talaat, Enver, and Halil Menteşe, Halil were successful in securing a Ottoman–German alliance, secret alliance with Germany during the July Crisis. Following the sale of the ''SMS Goeben, Goeben'' and ''SMS Breslau, Breslau'' to the Ottoman Empire, the three convinced Cemal Pasha to agree to Black Sea raid, a naval strike against Russia. The resulting declarations of war saw many resign from the government, including Cavid, which saddened Talaat. He became finance minister in Cavid's place.
With the expectation that the new war would free the Empire of its constraints on its sovereignty by the great powers, Talaat went ahead with accomplishing major goals of the CUP; unilaterally abolishing the centuries-old Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire, Capitulations, prohibiting foreign postal services, terminating Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, Lebanon's autonomy, and suspending the reform package for the Eastern Anatolian provinces that had been in effect for just seven months. This unilateral action prompted a joyous rally in Sultanahmet Square.
Talaat and his committee hoped to save the Ottoman Empire by quickly and decisively establishing Turanism, Turan by capitalizing on Declaration of jihad by the Ottoman Empire, the declaration of Jihad. But Enver Pasha's decisive Battle of Sarikamish, defeat in Sarikamish and Cemal Pasha's Raid on the Suez Canal, failure to take Suez meant Talaat had to come to terms with the reality on the ground, which made him fall into a depression. He worked to keep morale afloat on the crumbling Caucasus campaign, Caucasian front by relaying false information of successes in wars in the Balkans which weren't even happening.
Armenian genocide
A report presented to Talaat and Djevdet Bey, Cevdet Bey (governor of Van Vilayet) by ARF members Arshak Vramian and Vahan Papazian on atrocities committed by the Special Organisation against Armenians in Van, Turkey, Van created more friction between the two organisations. However, the Unionists were still not yet confident enough to purge Armenians from politics or pursue policies of ethnic engineering. Victory of the Naval operations in the Dardanelles campaign#Battle of 18 March, defence of the Bosphorus on 18 March though galvanized Talaat, and he decided to take action by starting the machinations of the destruction of Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire.
On 24 April 1915, Talaat Pasha issued an s:Circular on April 24, 1915, order to close all Armenian political organizations operating within the Ottoman Empire and arrest Armenians connected to them, justifying the action by stating that the organizations were controlled from outside the empire, were inciting upheavals behind the Ottoman lines, and were cooperating with Russian forces. This order resulted in the arrest on the night of 24–25 April 1915 of Deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915, 235 to 270 Armenian community leaders in Constantinople, including Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Dashnak and Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, Hunchak politicians, clergymen, physicians, authors, journalists, lawyers, and teachers, the majority of whom were eventually murdered, including his colleagues Krikor Zohrab, Zohrab and Vartkes Serengülian, Serengülian.
Although the mass killings of Armenian civilians had begun in Van, Turkey, Van several weeks earlier, these mass arrests in Constantinople are considered by many commentators to be the start of the Armenian genocide.
He then issued the order for the Tehcir Law of 1 June 1915 to 8 February 1916 that allowed for the mass deportation of Armenians, a principal means of carrying out what is now recognized as a genocide against Armenians. The deportees did not receive any humanitarian assistance and there is no evidence that the Ottoman government provided the extensive facilities and supplies that would have been necessary to sustain the life of hundreds of thousands of Armenian deportees during their forced march to the Syrian Desert or after.
Meanwhile, the Rape during the Armenian genocide, deportees were subject to periodic rape and massacre. Talaat, who was a telegraph operator from a young age, had installed a telegraph machine in his own home and sent "sensitive" telegrams during the course of the deportations.
This was confirmed by his wife Hayriye Talaat Bafralı, Hayriye, who stated that she often saw him using it to give direct orders to what she believed were provincial governors.
Numerous diplomats and notable figures confronted Talaat Pasha over the deportations and news of massacres. He had several conversations with the United States ambassador, Henry Morgenthau, Sr. On 2 August 1915 Talaat told him that "that our Armenian policy is absolutely fixed and that nothing can change it. We will not have the Armenians anywhere in Anatolia. They can live in the desert but nowhere else." In another exchange, he demanded from Morgenthau the list of the holders of American insurance policies belonging to Armenians in an effort to appropriate the funds to the state. Morgenthau refused. Talaat told him in a later conversation that:
Talaat believed Armenian deportation avenged the Persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction, Muslim expulsions of the Balkan Wars, and resettled Muhacir in abandoned Armenian property.
The Assyrian people, Assyrian Christian community was also targeted by the Unionist government in what is now known as the Seyfo. Talaat ordered the governor of Van to remove the Assyrian population in Hakkari (historical region), Hakkâri, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, however this anti-Assyrian policy couldn't be implemented nationally.
Meanwhile, deportations of the Rûm were put on hold as Germany wished for a Greek ally or neutrality, however for the sake of their alliance, Germany and the Armenian genocide, German reaction to the deportations of Armenians was muted. The participation of the Ottoman Empire as an ally against the Triple Entente, Entente powers was crucial to German grand strategy in the war, and good relations were needed. Following Russian breakthrough in the Caucasus and signs that Greece would side with the Allied powers after all, the CUP was finally able to resume operations against the Greeks of the empire, and Talaat ordered the Greek genocide, deportation of the Pontus Greeks of the Black Sea coast.
Talaat was also a leading force in the Turkification and Deportations of Kurds (1916–1934), deportation of Kurds. In May 1916 he mandated Kurds be deported to the western region of Anatolia, and prohibited the resettlement of Kurds to the south in order to prevent Kurds from becoming Arabized. He was a major force behind the policies regarding the resettlement of Kurds and wanted to be informed of whether the Kurds would really be turkified or not and how they got along with the Turkish inhabitants in the areas where they had been resettled too. Talaat outlined that nowhere in the Empire's vilayets should the Kurdish population be more than 5%. To that end, Balkan Muslim and Turkish refugees were prioritised to be resettled in Urfa, Marash, Maraş, and Gaziantep, Antep, while some Deportations of Kurds, Kurds were deported to Central Anatolia. Kurds were also supposed to be resettled in abandoned Armenian property, however negligence by resettlement authorities still resulted in the deaths of many Kurds by famine.
Approximately 1.7 million Christians (including 200,000 Greeks and Great Famine of Mount Lebanon, 100,000 Lebanese Christians and Druze) died during World War I and the Ottoman casualties of World War I, total Ottoman war deaths of some 3.7 million amounted to 14% of the prewar population. According to the Ottoman Interior Ministry, the population of Ottoman Armenians decreased to 284,000 from 1,256,000.
Premiership
On 4 February 1917, Talaat finally replaced Said Halim Pasha (a puppet of the committee anyway) by becoming the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire,
while also retaining the Ministry of the Interior.
This made him the first member of parliament to become a Prime Minister in Ottoman (and Turkish) history. This move completed the Unionist party-state, as he was both Grand Vizier and chairman of the Union and Progress Party.
On 15 February, Talaat Pasha gave a speech to parliament of his program, expressing his will to reform to bring Ottoman society on par with Culture of Europe, European civilization. Like first president of the Turkey, succeeding republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), would later say similarly, Talaat Pasha believed that there was "only one civilization in the world [Europe], [and that Turkey] to be saved, must be joined to civilization." Another point brought up was cracking down on corruption, much of which he was responsible for and never followed through with.
Many social reforms were introduced, including modernization of Rumi calendar, the calendar, employment of women as nurses, charitable organizations, in army shops, and in labor battalions behind the front and new faculties in Istanbul University for architecture, arts, and music. One particular piece of controversial social reform was the 1917 "Ottoman family law, Temporal Family Law" which was a significant advance in Women in Turkey, women's rights and secularism in Ottoman Marriage law, matrimonial law. When it came to religious reform, the Quran was translated into Ottoman Turkish, (Ottoman) Turkish, and even the call to prayer was held in Turkish in a few select mosques in the capital. These pre-Kemalist secularisation and modernisation reforms paved the way for further and more far reaching Atatürk's reforms, reforms by Atatürk's regime.
During this time tensions flared between Talaat and Enver. Enver won out in a conflict over prioritizing rationing in favor of the army. In response Talaat established the Ministry of Rationing, and appointed :tr:Kara Kemal, Kara Kemal as its head. In a play of ''zugzwang'' after the Balfour Declaration, Talaat reproached with the Zionist Movement, Zionist movement, promising to open up Jewish immigration to Jerusalem. This promise did not reflect ground conditions, as his first year as Grand Vizier saw the Battle of Jerusalem, loss of Jerusalem and Fall of Baghdad (1917), Baghdad.
However territorial loss in the south coincided with diplomatic success with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Brest-Litovsk treaty in March 1918, with Talaat himself negotiating for the Ottoman Empire, resulting in the return of Kars, Batumi, and Ardahan to Ottoman rule after their loss Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), forty years ago. Another treaty with the Treaty of Batum, Caucasian states signed in Batum strengthened the Ottoman's position in a future Battle of Baku, drive on Baku, which was accomplished by September. Spring 1918 was the zenith of Unionist power and Talaat Pasha's political career, followed by a slow realization of defeat in WWI over the summer. In a conversation with Cavid, Talaat felt trapped between three "fires": Enver Pasha, who was becoming increasingly erratic and overly optimistic after the breakthrough in the Caucasus; the new sultan Mehmed VI, an anti-Unionist who was more assertive than his deceased half brother, and the Allied armies advancing from the West and the South. In October 1918, the British defeated both Ottoman armies they faced in the Sinai and Palestine campaign, Palestinian front. Simultaneously on the Macedonian front, Armistice of Salonica, Bulgaria capitulated to the allies, leaving no sufficient forces to check an advance on the Ottoman capital. With defeat certain (and growing unrest from years of unfettered corruption) Talaat Pasha announced his intention to resign on 8 October 1918 and lead a caretaker government for a few more days. Ahmed Izzet Pasha, Ahmed İzzet Pasha became the new Grand Vizier and signed the Armistice of Mudros with the Allies, ending hostilities in the Middle East on 30 October.
Exile: 1918–1921
Escape to Germany
Talaat Pasha delivered a farewell speech in the last CUP congress on 1 November, where it was decided to dissolve the party. With Enver, Cemal, Nazım Bey, Nazım, Bahaeddin Şakir, Şakir, Cemal Azmi, Azmi, and Osman Bedri, he fled the Ottoman capital on a German torpedo boat that night where they landed in Sevastopol, Crimea and scattered from there. Before escaping the Ottoman Empire, he wrote a letter to İzzet Pasha promising his return to the country.
Public opinion was shocked by the departure of Talaat Pasha, even though he had been known to turn a blind eye on corrupt ministers appointed because of their associations with the CUP.
Talaat, Nazım, and Şakir wound up in Berlin on 10 November, the day after Wilhelm II, German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II fled the city due to the German Revolution of 1918–1919, November Revolution. The new chancellor, Friedrich Ebert of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD, signed the documents secretly allowing Talaat asylum in Germany, where he and Nazım settled in a flat at Hardenbergerstraße 4 (Ernst-Reuter-Platz, Ernst-Reuter Square), Charlottenburg, under the pseudonym "Ali Sâî Bey". Next to his apartment he founded the "Oriental Club" (Şark Kulübesi), where anti-Entente Muslims and European activists met. Though he was a wanted man in the Ottoman Empire and Britain, Talaat managed to attend the Socialist International in the Netherlands.
He was also able to travel to Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark. In all of these visits, he lobbied against the new Allied world-order, specifically against their designs on the Ottoman Empire. Behind bars for his role in the Spartacist uprising, Sparticist uprising, Karl Radek reconnected Talaat (their previous encounter being on opposite sides of the negotiating table at Brest, Belarus, Brest) who frequently visited him at Moabit prison. Despite his mobility, his exile was one of practical poverty. At one point wishing to start a newspaper, he didn't have enough money to do so, so he wrote his The Remaining Documents of Talaat Pasha, memoirs instead.
Questioned whether he would return and join the Turkish National Movement, Turkish nationalist movement, Talaat declined, arguing that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) is now the new leader. He held regular correspondences with Mustafa Kemal from Berlin.
Unlike Enver, Kemal had friendly relations with Talaat, with Kemal addressing Talaat as his "brother" in their communiques. Even though he effectively endorsing Mustafa Kemal as his "successor", from Berlin Talaat was able to directly issue orders to Turkish commanders in the opening stages of the Turkish War of Independence. He also kept in contact with Tevfik Rüştü Aras, Tevfik Rüştü (Aras), Halide Edib Adıvar, Halide Edip (Adıvar), Celal (Bayar), :tr:Cami Baykut, Abdülkadir Cami (Baykut) and Nuri Conker, Nuri (Conker). The Government of the Grand National Assembly, Ankara government sent the ambassadors Bekir Sami Kunduh, Bekir Sami (Kunduh) and :tr:Galip Kemali Söylemezoğlu, Galip Kemali (Söylemezoğlu) to meet with Talaat and support his network that assisted the Turkish nationalist movement from abroad. Through these efforts, he was able to cobble together a disparate coalition of Turkish nationalists, German nationalists, and
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
.
After the failure of the Kapp Putsch Talaat offered comments in the subsequent press conference, criticizing the putschists for their dilettantism, exclaiming "A putsch without a cabinet ready at hand was just childish."
Trial and conviction
The British government exerted diplomatic pressure on the Sublime Porte, Ottoman Porte and brought to trial the Ottoman leaders who had held positions of responsibility between 1914 and 1918 for having perpetrated the Armenian genocide. İzzet Pasha was pressured early on by the British to arrest Talaat, but he didn't order his arrest nor order his extradition from Germany until a Constantinople court demanded it. With the allied occupation of Constantinople, İzzet Pasha resigned. Ahmet Tevfik Pasha took the position of grand vizier the same day that Royal Navy ships entered the Golden Horn. Talaat's remaining property was confiscated during Tevfik Pasha's premiership, which lasted until 4 March 1919. He was replaced by Damat Ferid Pasha, whose first order was the arrest of leading members of Union and Progress. Those who were caught were put under arrest at the Bekirağa division and were subsequently Malta exiles, exiled to Malta. Courts-martials were then organized to punish the CUP for the empire's ill-conceived involvement in World War I.
By January 1919, a report to Sultan Mehmed VI accused over 130 suspects, most of whom were high officials. The indictment accused the main defendants, including Talaat, of being "mired in an unending chain of bloodthirstiness, plunder and abuses". They were accused of deliberately engineering Turkey's entry into the war "by a recourse to a number of vile tricks and deceitful means". They were also accused of "the massacre and destruction of the Armenians" and of trying to "pile up fortunes for themselves" through "the pillage and plunder" of their possessions. The indictment alleged that "The massacre and destruction of the Armenians were the result of decisions by the Committee of Union and Progress, Central Committee of Ittihadd". The court released its verdict on 5 July 1919: Talaat's title of Pasha was stripped, and he, Enver, Cemal, Nazım, and Şakir were condemned to death in absentia.
Monitoring by British intelligence
The British government continued to monitor Talaat's activities after the war. The British government had intelligence reports indicating that he had gone to Germany, and the British High Commissioner pressured Ferid Pasha and the Sublime Porte to request that Germany extradite him to the Ottoman Empire. Germany was well aware of Talaat's presence but refused to surrender him.
The last official interview Talaat granted was to Aubrey Herbert, a British intelligence agent. During this interview, Talaat maintained at several points that the CUP had always sought British friendship and advice, but claimed that Britain had never replied to such overtures in any meaningful way.
Assassination and funeral
With most CUP leaders in exile, the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation ( hy, Հայ Յեղափոխական Դաշնակցութիւն, ՀՅԴ ( classical spelling), abbr. ARF or ARF-D) also known as Dashnaktsutyun (collectively referred to as Dashnaks for short), is an Armenia ...
organized a plot to assassinate the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide, known as
Operation Nemesis. On 15 March 1921 Assassination of Talaat Pasha, Talaat was assassinated with a single bullet as he came out of his Hardenbergstraße flat to purchase a pair of gloves. His assassin was a Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Dashnak member from Erzurum named
Soghomon Tehlirian, whose entire family was killed during the genocide.
[Operationnemesis.com](_blank)
/ref> Tehlirian admitted to the shooting, but, after a Assassination of Talaat Pasha#Trial, cursory two-day trial, he was found innocent by a German court on grounds of temporary insanity due to the traumatic experience he had gone through during the genocide. Immediately after the assassination, Nazım and Şakir, who were also staying in the area, received police protection. Şakir would be assassinated a year later by a Dashnak.
Initially, Talaat's friends hoped he could be buried in Anatolia
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The r ...
, but neither the Ottoman government in Constantinople nor the Turkish nationalist movement in Government of the Grand National Assembly, Ankara wanted the body; it would be a political liability to associate themselves with the man considered the worst criminal of World War I. Invitations from Hayriye and the Orient Club were sent to Talaat's funeral, and on 19 March, he was buried in the Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof in a well-attended ceremony. At 11:00 a.m., prayers led by the imam of the Turkish embassy, Şükri Bey, were held at Talaat's apartment. Afterwards, a large procession accompanied the coffin to Matthäus, where he was interred. Many prominent Germans paid their respects, including former foreign ministers Richard von Kühlmann and Arthur Zimmermann, along with the former head of Deutsche Bank, the ex-director of the Baghdad railway, several military personnel who had served in the Ottoman Empire during the war and August von Platen-Hallermünde, attending on behalf of the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II. The German foreign office sent a wreath with a ribbon saying, "To a great statesman and a faithful friend." Şakir, barely able to maintain his composure, read a funeral oration while the coffin was lowered into the grave, covered in an Ottoman flag. He asserted the assassination was "the consequence of imperialist politics against the Islamic world, Islamic nations". A house and a martyr's pension was granted to Talaat's family with a law passed by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, Grand National Assembly in 1926.
During World War II, at the request of the Prime Minister of Turkey, Şükrü Saracoğlu, Talaat's remains were disinterred from Germany and transported to Turkey, where he received a state funeral on 25 February 1943, attended by German ambassador Franz von Papen, Ahmet Emin Yalman, and Saracoğlu. With this gesture, Adolf Hitler hoped to secure Turkish support for the Axis powers, Axis. Talaat's friend Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın, Hüseyin Cahit (Yalçın) gave the funeral oration as he was buried at the Monument of Liberty, Istanbul, Monument of Liberty, originally dedicated to those who died during the 31 March Incident. His return to Turkey was welcomed by Turkish society.
Personality and relationships
Impressions
Many of Talaat's contemporaries wrote of his charm but also of a melancholy spirit. Some occasionally noticed his naivety and others commented on his intimidation skills.
Mehmed Cavid
Mehmet Cavit Bey, Mehmed Cavid Bey or Mehmed Djavid Bey ( ota, محمد جاوید بك; 1875 – 26 August 1926) was an Ottoman economist, newspaper editor and leading politician during the dissolution period of the Ottoman Empire. A founding me ...
wrote of the fall of Talaat and the CUP into a delusional "all or nothing" approach for salvation by war via the July Crisis. Krikor Zohrab wrote "[Talaat was] the foremost partisan of war" for "whom [he] and his disciples, this war was ''tout ou rien'' [all or nothing]". Talaat's intentional falsehoods were noted by his contemporaries, and even some of his close friends considered him a liar.
Alfred Nossig described Talaat as "The strongest man of Young Turkey", a "man of will", a "unique and outstanding talent of statesmanship" who dominates "the whole state machine". Whereas "the sultan is a constitutional ruler, Talaat is an autocratic sultan." He called him "the Turkish Otto von Bismarck, Bismarck" upon his becoming Grand Vizier, a title which German journalist and companion Ernst Jäckh affirmed. Others drew similarities between Talaat and some of his contemporaries, such as Greek prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos, Eliftherios Venizelos and de facto co-dictator of Germany General Erich Ludendorff.
Personal life
Talaat married Hayriye Talaat Bafralı, Hayriye Hanım (b. 1895) (later known as Hayriye Talat Bafralı), an Albanians, Albanian girl from Yanya (Ioannina) on 19 March 1910. Talaat met Hayriye in 1909, while she was studying in the French girls' Lycée Notre Dame de Sion Istanbul, Lycée Notre Dame de Sion in Constantinople. He learned to speak French language, French in the Israelite School at Salonika, and picked up Greek language, Greek from his wife. They learned in 1911 that they were not able to have children, but they adopted an orphan, Münevver, as their daughter. Hayriye joined Talaat in Berlin in spring 1920 and returned to Turkey after her husband's assassination. She remarried with Hamdi Bafralı in 1946, and they had two sons. Hayriye died in Istanbul, İstanbul on 15 January 1983.
Her granddaughter, Ayşegül Bafralı, provided Murat Bardakçı documents from the interior ministry that Hayriye stored away containing data on Armenian deportatation and resettlement of Muhacirs in their place. Bardakçı went on to publish these documents, and an interview with Hayriye 27 years later, in ''The Remaining Documents of Talaat Pasha''.
Talaat Pasha was a member of the Bektashi Order, Bektashi order[
] and a 33° freemason and first became a member of the Salonica Freemason Lodge Macedonia Risorta in 1903 during his time in the Ottoman Balkans. He was also the first Grand Master (Masonic), Grand Master of the society. He used both organizations as channels for his anti-Hamidian activism, as they were inaccessible for the Yıldız Intelligence Agency, spies of Yıldız Palace.
Legacy
Talaat Pasha is widely considered one of the main architects of the Armenian Genocide by historians.[Alayaria, Aida; Consequences of Denial: The Armenian Genocide, Page 182, 2008, Karnac Books Ltd]
In his posthumously published memoirs, he propagated a "national myth – that all Ottoman Armenians were rebels, betrayers, secessionists, and that they were responsible for the massacres that took place in 1915-1916". The memoirs were published many times especially when the Armenian genocide was under discussion.
Biographer Hans-Lukas Kieser states that many Jews engaged in "open propaganda for him and CUP causes" despite Talaat's involvement in genocide, and that this continued even after his death into the late twentieth century.
Talaat Pasha is viewed as a "great statesman, skillful revolutionary, and farsighted founding father" in Turkey, where many schools, streets, and mosques are named after him. In Turkey, Talaat and the rest of the Three Pashas are only criticized for causing the Ottoman Empire's entry into World War I and its subsequent Partition of the Ottoman Empire, partitioning by the Allies. Mustafa Kemal criticized Talaat and his colleagues for their policies during and immediately prior to the First World War.
Kieser writes in his biography of Talaat in ''Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide''
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
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Google Books
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External links
*[http://www.homepage-link.to/turkey/morgenthau1.html Interview with Talaat Pasha by Henry Morgenthau – American Ambassador to Constantinople 1915]
Talaat Pasha's report on the Armenian Genocide
Mehmet Talaat (1874–1921) and his role in the Greek Genocide
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