Mahmud Şevket Pasha

Mahmud Şevket Pasha (* 1856 in Baghdad , † June 11, 1913 in Constantinople ) was an Ottoman military (most recently Marshal ) and politician who played an important role in the deposition of Sultan Abdulhamid II . From January 23 to June 11, 1913 he was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire .

Live and act

Mahmud Şevket Pasha was of Chechen descent; as he was born and raised in Baghdad , he is also referred to by the nickname Arab ("the Arab"). As an Ottoman professional officer, he joined the opposition movement of the Young Turks . He supported the military revolt in the summer of 1908, which was started by Young Turkish officers around Captain Enver, who later became Enver Pascha , and which turned into the “Young Turkish Revolution”, which was unexpectedly successful and almost without a fight. This led to the sultan quickly giving in and reintroducing the liberal constitution of 1876 , which had been suspended in 1878 .

In April 1909, Sultan Abdülhamid II supported an uprising by religious and conservative forces against the Young Turks (" March 31st incident "). In this situation, Mahmud Şevket Pasha, as commander-in-chief of the troops stationed in Macedonia, contributed to the suppression of the coup attempt and the subsequent deposition of Abdülhamid by a quick march on the rebellious capital Constantinople at the head of the so-called intervention army ( Hareket Ordusu ). This established his high reputation among the Young Turks and the part of the Ottoman officer corps associated with them.

In 1910 he was then Minister of War in the cabinet of Grand Vizier İbrahim Hakkı Pasha (January 12, 1910) and "General Inspector" of the first three armies of the empire. In this position he was "the strongest pillar of the regime" of the Young Turks in the period that followed.

His term of office was overshadowed by uprisings in Albania and Arabia, which had to be fought militarily, but especially by the defeats in the war against Italy , which was forced upon the Ottoman Empire in 1911/12. These defeats led to Şevket Pasha's resignation as Minister of War on July 9, 1912, and on July 22, 1912 the entire Young Turkish government was overthrown and replaced by a “liberal” (conservative) cabinet.

From October 1912 this new government was exposed to the concentrated attack of the allied Balkan states Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro ( First Balkan War ). The poorly managed and well-equipped Ottoman army , which was also politically divided in the officer corps due to the change of power , suffered catastrophic defeats in a few weeks, which led to the almost complete loss of European Turkey and the widespread expulsion or murder of its Muslim residents. The barrel overflowed was the willingness of the liberal government to renounce even the city of Adrianople (today Edirne ) claimed by Bulgaria ; this would not only have symbolically abandoned an old sultan's residence, but also the capital Constantinople would have moved into close proximity to hostile Bulgaria. The planned renunciation of Adrianople led to great nationalist excitement, and the Young Turks, who were overthrown in mid-1912, used this situation for a military coup led by the later Enver Pasha.

On January 22nd, 1913, the liberal government of Grand Vizier Kıbrıslı Mehmed Kamil Pasha was overthrown by the Young Turk coup almost without resistance and without a fight. However, the respected in officers war Minister was nazım pasha shot at the storming of the government building of a coup. After the balance of power had been clarified, the Sultan had to appoint a new Young Turkish government on January 23rd: Mahmud Şevket Pasha became its unquestionable leader as Grand Vizier, Foreign Minister and Minister of War. Admittedly, in view of the catastrophic military situation, even his government could not prevent the cession of the European provinces, including Adrianople. However, Eastern Thrace and Adrianople were recaptured in the Second Balkan War in the summer of 1913 by Ottoman troops under Envers' command.

Şevket Pasha did not live to see this military satisfaction. Despite the extensive security measures taken by the Young Turkish Governor of Constantinople, Cemal Pasha , he was assassinated in Constantinople on June 11, 1913, in retaliation by an officer - a relative of Nazim Pasha, who was murdered in January.

The sudden death of Şevket paved the way for younger and more radical Young Turkish leaders to power: Since autumn 1913, the "triumvirate" of officers Enver Pascha and Cemal Pascha (who rose to become ministers of war and navy in 1914) and the civilian interior minister Talaat Bey, des later Talaat Pasha .

Shortly before his assassination in 1913, Şevket Pasha spoke out to foreign diplomats on the issue of Armenian minority rights, the violation of which by the Ottoman government and the Committee for Unity and Progress led to the genocide of the Armenians two years after his death willing to communicate.

Şevket Pasha's tomb is located within the Abide-i Hürriyet monument in Istanbul.

literature

• Togay Seçkin Birbudak: Osmanlı Basınında Mahmud Şevket Paşa Suikastı , in: Bilig 65 (Bahar 2013), pp. 69–94 online version of the issue (Turkish article about the attack on Mahmud Şevket Pasha in the Ottoman press).
• Hans-Jürgen Kornrumpf: Mahmud Şevket Pascha . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 3. Munich 1979, p. 75 f.

Web links

• Newspaper article about Mahmud Şevket Pascha in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

References

1. ↑ Zekeriya Türkmen: Mahmud Şevket Paşa Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi , Vol. 27, pp. 384–386.
2. ↑ Klaus Kreiser / Christoph K. Neumann: Little History of Turkey , Reclam: Stuttgart 2003, licensed edition for the Federal Agency for Civic Education: Bonn 2005, p. 360
3. ^ Friedrich Schrader: The Constantinople Meuterei of April 13: March, Issue 3, Issue 9, May 4, 1909, March-Verlag, pp. 169–180
4. ↑ Kreiser / Neumann, p. 360

predecessor	Office	successor
Kıbrıslı Mehmed Kamil Pasha	Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire January 23, 1913–11. June 1913	Said Halim Pasha