Hüseyin Nazım Pasha ( tr, Hüseyin Nâzım Paşa; 1848 – 23 January 1913) was an Ottoman general, who was the Chief of Staff of the

Ottoman Army The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. Army The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...

during the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...

of 1912–13. He was murdered by Yakub Cemil during the

1913 Ottoman coup d'état The 1913 Ottoman coup d'état (January 23, 1913), also known as the Raid on the Sublime Porte ( tr, Bâb-ı Âlî Baskını), was a coup d'état carried out in the Ottoman Empire by a number of Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) members led b ...

Career

He was a staunch supporter of the French Offensive Doctrine, developed primarily by

Ferdinand Foch Ferdinand Foch ( , ; 2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Ar ...

, his instructor at the Saint-Cyr Military Academy and later supreme commander of Allied forces on the

Western Front of World War I The Western Front was one of the main theatres of war during the First World War. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of import ...

. Following his appointment as a Chief of Staff, he made immediate changes to Ottoman military doctrine which had been created by Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz (Goltz Pasha), the German officer who had been in charge of the reorganisation and training of the

. Goltz Pasha's doctrine dictated that, in case of war with Balkan states, Ottoman forces would remain on the defensive, both on the western (

Vardar The Vardar (; mk, , , ) or Axios () is the longest river in North Macedonia and the second longest river in Greece, in which it reaches the Aegean Sea at Thessaloniki. It is long, out of which are in Greece, and drains an area of around . Th ...

) and eastern (

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...

) approaches. Nazım Pasha abandoned Goltz Pasha's defensive (and probably realistic) doctrine and, though the Ottoman army had severe problems in mobilizing its troops (assembling fewer than half of the expected 600,000 troops), developed a bold offensive plan, including offensive operations on both fronts. Because the Serbian army was, after its defeat in the

Serbo-Bulgarian War The Serbo-Bulgarian War or the Serbian–Bulgarian War ( bg, Сръбско-българска война, ''Srăbsko-bălgarska voyna'', sr, Српско-бугарски рат, ''Srpsko-bugarski rat'') was a war between the Kingdom of Ser ...

, considered a weaker opponent even by Western observers, Nazım Pasha planned to attack it first, and render it operationally incapable. He would then attack Bulgaria (which was considered the strongest link in the Balkan alliance) from both the Macedonian and Thracian directions. His underestimation of Serbian strength led to the complete failure of his operational plan and the catastrophe which followed. He was assassinated by 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 ...

on 23 January 1913 during the

.Hussein Nazım Pasha
Americana Encyclopedia In retaliation, one of his relatives avenged his death by assassinating the Committee's Grand Vizier,

Mahmud Shevket 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 ...

, on 11 June 1913.David Kenneth Fieldhouse: ''Western imperialism in the Middle East 1914-1958''. Oxford University Press, 2006 p.17 File:Nazim_Pasha_leaving.jpg, Nazım Pasha as the Chief of Staff during the First Balkan War. File:Meurtre de Nazim Pacha illustration, 9 February 1913.jpg, The front page of the '' Le Petit Journal'' magazine in February 1913 depicting the assassination of Nazım Pasha during the

References

1913 deaths Ottoman Military Academy alumni Ottoman Military College alumni Ottoman Army generals Pashas Ottoman military personnel of the Balkan Wars Government ministers of the Ottoman Empire Assassinated people from the Ottoman Empire 1848 births {{Ottoman-bio-stub