Enver Pasha's Rebellion () refers to an armed uprising that was a part of the much larger Basmachi Revolt. It was conducted by the former Ottoman Minister of War,

Enver Pasha İsmâil Enver (; ; 23 November 1881 – 4 August 1922), better known as Enver Pasha, was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish people, Turkish military officer, revolutionary, and Istanbul trials of 1919–1920, convicted war criminal who was a p ...

. The uprising started in the summer of 1921 when

arrived in

Bukhara Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...

to negotiate with the Basmachi. He ended up defecting to the Basmachi and began fighting the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

. During this period of the Basmachi movement, they reached their peak, but by May 1922, with the start of Bolshevik counteroffensives in Turkestan, the Basmachi began to fall apart. By mid-June, Ibrahim Bek revolted against Enver, sparking a civil conflict that divided the Basmachi. The rebellion was ultimately crushed by August 4, 1922, when Enver Pasha himself was killed.

Background

After the end of

World War One World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...

, Enver Pasha, along with

Djemal Pasha Ahmed Djemal (; ; 6 May 1872 – 21 July 1922), also known as Djemal Pasha or Cemâl Pasha, was an Ottoman military leader and one of the Three Pashas that ruled the Ottoman Empire during World War I. As an officer of the II Corps, he was ...

and

Talaat Pasha Mehmed Talât (1 September 187415 March 1921), commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha, was an Ottoman Young Turk activist, revolutionary, politician, and convicted war criminal who served as the leader of the Ottoman Empire from 191 ...

, fled to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, where he had to change his identity to 'Ali Bey' due to a military tribunal in Istanbul sentencing the Young Turk trio to death. In 1919, he met with

Karl Radek Karl Berngardovich Radek (; 31 October 1885 – 19 May 1939) was a revolutionary and writer active in the Polish and German social democratic movements before World War I and a Communist International leader in the Soviet Union after the Russian ...

, a representative of the

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

in Berlin, who offered him a new future—leading the Red Army against the Basmachi. In early 1920, Enver Pasha traveled to Moscow, where he worked for the Society for the Unity of the Revolution with Islam. He promised a marriage between Islam and Communism, aiming to establish a Communist-Muslim union, and pledged to stop the Basmachi and turn them to their side. In June 1921, he arrived in

with some representatives and officers. He was offered the post of Minister of War in the Bukharan Government but he rejected this proposal, he executed the captured men there, thereby starting his rebellion.Burovsky. A. Weller. M. Civil history of a crazy war - M. AST-Astrel. 2007 - 640 p.

The uprising

soon found his ideas of Muslim socialism popular among the farmers and working class of Eastern Bukhara, but this led to him being shunned by the nobility and many of the

Kurbashi Chorbaji (sometimes variously transliterated as tchorbadji, chorbadzhi, tschorbadji) (Turkish: çorbacı) ( English: Soup Seller) was a military rank of the corps of Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire, used for the commander of an '' orta'' (regim ...

. The nobility indirectly supported

Ibrahim Bek Ibrahim Bek or Ibrahim Beg (; 1889 – 31 August 1931) was a leader in the Basmachi movement, a liberation movement in Central Asia, which fought against the Red Army. He was a member of the Uzbek Lakai tribe in Eastern Bukhara and led an organiz ...

over Enver, laying the groundwork for a civil conflict between the two. This culminated in Enver Pasha being disarmed and captured during a meeting with Ibrahim Bek. He was later released by the Emir of Bukhara, Seyyid Alim, who appointed him as

naib Nawab is a royal title indicating a ruler, often of a South Asian state, in many ways comparable to the Western title of Prince. The relationship of a Nawab to the Emperor of India has been compared to that of the Kings of Saxony to the Ge ...

(deputy). In his new position, Enver attempted to gather arms from countries hostile to the local Bolshevik presence, with

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

being the most notable, as both were eager to send him supplies. However, the

prevented this and blockaded Bukhara. Despite these setbacks, Enver started his campaign with 20,000 soldiers. His first victory was in Dushanbe, which he successfully captured after a month-long siege. Although they attempted to open the border with China to end the blockade however they failed, He still achieved several victories, including the capture of Karshi and an advance on Bukhara. These defeats greatly alarmed the Bolsheviks, who spent massive resources on a counteroffensive. By May 1922, the Red Army launched a major counteroffensive, recapturing Vakjubent, Gijduvan, Kermine, Baysun,

Baljuvon Baljuvon is a village and jamoat in Tajikistan. It is located in Baljuvon District in Khatlon Region Khatlon Region (), one of the four provinces of Tajikistan, is the most populous of the four first-level administrative regions in the country. ...

, Korfuk, and on June 14, 1922, the Basmachi suffered arguably their biggest loss with the fall of Dushanbe. Around this time, a civil conflict finally broke out between Ibrahim and Enver, leading to significant losses for Enver. By July, he attempted to retreat to Afghanistan, but he was caught in an ambush near Dushanbe in Baljuvan and died in combat against the

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

Bolshevik commander, Yakov Melkumov, ending his revolt.

Aftermath

The

Basmachi movement The Basmachi movement (, derived from ) was an uprising against Imperial Russian and Soviet rule in Central Asia by rebel groups inspired by Islamic beliefs. It has been called "probably the most important movement of opposition to Soviet rul ...

reached its peak under

and never quite returned to the same strength afterward. The Bolsheviks resumed their conflict with

, and at this point, the main strategy of the Basmachi involved cross-border operations along the Afghan-Soviet border. These operations ultimately culminated in direct Soviet interventions into Afghanistan, such as in 1929 when the Soviets attempted to prevent the Saqqawist takeover. The Basmachi movement truly came to an end by 1938 with the death of Junaid Khan.Yılmaz Şuhnaz, "An Ottoman Warrior Abroad: Enver Paşa as an Expatriate." Middle Eastern Studies 35, no. 4 (1999)

References

{{reflist Basmachi movement Military operations of the Russian Civil War in 1921 Military operations of the Russian Civil War in 1922 1921 in Asia 1922 in Asia