Wikipedia

Mahmud Shevket Pasha

For the other Ottoman general Shevket Turgut Pasha, seeShevket Turgut Pasha.
In thisOttoman Turkishstyle name, thegiven nameisMahmud Shevket,thetitleisPasha,and there is no family name.

Mahmud Shevket Pasha(Ottoman Turkish:محمود شوكت پاشا,1856 – 11 June 1913)[1]was anOttomanmilitary commander and statesman.

Mahmud Şevket
Pasha
Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
In office
23 January 1913 – 11 June 1913
MonarchMehmed V
Preceded byKâmil Pasha
Succeeded bySaid Halim Pasha
Minister of War
In office
23 January 1913 – 11 June 1913
MonarchMehmed V
Grand VizierHimself
Preceded byNazım Pasha
Succeeded byAhmet İzzet Pasha
In office
12 January 1910 – 9 July 1912
MonarchMehmed V
Grand Vizierİbrahim Hakkı Pasha
Mehmed Said Pasha
Preceded bySalih Hulusi Pasha
Succeeded byHurşid Pasha
Personal details
Born1856
Baghdad,Baghdad Eyalet,Ottoman Empire
Died11 June 1913 (aged 56 or 57)
Istanbul,Ottoman Empire
Manner of deathAssassination
Resting placeMonument of Liberty, Istanbul
RelationsKhaled Sulayman Faiq(brother),
Hikmet Sulayman(brother)
Alma materMekteb-i Harbiye
Military service
AllegianceOttoman Empire
Branch/serviceOttoman Army
RankField Marshal
CommandsThird Army
Action Army
Battles/warsMacedonian Struggle
31 March Incident
Albanian Revolt of 1910
Yemeni Revolt
Albanian Revolt of 1912
First Balkan War

During the31 March Incident,Shevket Pasha and theCommittee of Union and ProgressoverthrewAbdul Hamid IIafter an anti-Constitutionalistuprising inConstantinople.[2]He played the role of a military dictator,[3]surpassing the power of the CUP and the Grand Viziers after the crisis, with many observers ascribing him the title "generalissimo".AsWar Ministerhe played a leading role in military reform and the incorporation ofAir Squadrons.Shevket Pasha becameGrand Vizierduring theFirst Balkan Warin the aftermath of the23 January 1913 coup d'état,resuming war with the Balkan League. He was assassinated 6 months later by partisans of theFreedom and Accord Party,as part of a largercounter-coup attempt against the CUP.

Early life and career

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Mahmud Shevket was born inBaghdadin 1856. His grandfather, Hacı Talib Ağa had moved fromTbilisito Baghdad.[4]His father wasBasragovernorKethüdazade Süleyman Faik Bey.He had four brothers, Numan, Murad,Khaled,and the much youngerHikmat,the latter two would become important statesmen of post Ottoman ruleIraq.Raised as an Ottoman, most sources claim that he hadGeorgian,[5]Chechen,[6][7][8][9]orIraqi Arab[10]ancestry. However, according toCelal BayarandRıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı,the relatives of the pasha told them that they were of Georgian origin.[11][12]In addition toTurkishandArabic,he spokeFrenchandGerman.

He finished his primary and secondary education in Baghdad before going toAlliance Israélite Universelle of Constantinople(nowIstanbul).[13][14][15]After completing his education in theMekteb-i Harbiyein 1882 he served inCreteas a lieutenant before returning as a faculty member the next year.[16]Shevket rose through the ranks, eventually serving on thegeneral staffand achieving the rank ofMiralay(Colonel) in 1891. He joined an arms purchasing commission sent toGermanyto supervise the manufacture of war matériel for the Ottoman army, during which he worked as an assistant toColmar Freiherr von der Goltz.There he wrote extensively on theMauser rifleas it entered into operation in the Ottoman Army. Upon his return in 1899, he was promoted to brigadier general and appointed deputy chairman of theTophane-i Amire's Inspection Commission. In 1901, he was promoted toFerik(Lieutenant General) and was soon assigned to theHejaz railwayto oversee construction of the Mecca–Medina telegraph line. He perceived this assignment as an exile, which likely tainted his opinion of SultanAbdul Hamid II's regime. During this period he also spent some time in France studying military technology.[17]

In 1905 Mahmud Shevket Pasha was appointed governor of theKosovo Vilayetduring the height of theMacedonian Conflict,where he gained respect from the army for his effectiveness. He made contact with theCommittee of Union and Progress(CUP) and turned a blind eye to their anti-regime activism. Thus began his complex and tenuous relationship with the "Sacred Committee". When the CUP prevailed in the 1908Young Turk Revolution,which forced Sultan Abdul Hamid to reinstate theOttoman constitutionandcall for elections,Shevket was placed in command of the Selanik (Thessaloniki) basedThird Army.

In 1902 he publishedOttoman Military Organization and Uniforms from the Establishment of the Ottoman State to the Present(Turkish:Devlet-i Osmâniyye’nin Bidâyet-i Tesisinden Şimdiye Kadar Osmanlı Teşkilât ve Kıyâfet-i Askeriyesi) which is considered to be one of the most comprehensive studies written on the history of the Ottoman army and its uniforms.[18]

31 March Incident

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Main article:31 March Incident

A year later saw the31 March Incident,when counter-revolutionary reactionaries rose up in support of Abdulhamid's absolutist rule and theConstitutionwas once again repealed. The CUP appealed to Shevket Pasha to restore the status quo, and he organized theAction Army,anad hocformation made up of his Third Army and elements of theFirstandSecond Armiesto suppress the uprising.[19][20]His chief of staff during the crisis was the first president of theRepublic of Turkey,captainMustafa Kemal (Atatürk).The Action Army entered Constantinople on 24 April, and after a series of negotiations, Abdulhamid II was deposed,Mehmed V Reshadascended to the throne, the Constitution was reinstated for the third and last time, and the CUP was allowed to form a government.

War Minister

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Mahmud Shevket Pasha

After the incident, he became an important power holder in Ottoman politics: Shevket Pasha was mademartial lawCommander of Constantinople, inspector of the First, Second, and Third Armies, andMinister of War.ThoughHüseyin Hilmi Pashacame back to form a government, his premiership was widely seen as being under Shevket Pasha's control. His War Ministry worked to keep officers away from politics, especially the CUP.[21]His tenure as War Minister saw the suppression of the1910 Albanian Revolt.He also used troops fromTripolitaniato suppressYahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din's revolt in Yemen, which exposed Tripolitania toforeign invasion from Italy in 1911.Hilmi's resignation sawIbrahim Hakkielevated to the Grand Vezierate, and Shevket was also included in cabinet as War Minister.

Shevket Pasha is credited for the creation ofOttoman Air Divisionsin 1911. He gave much importance to a military aviation program and as a result the Ottoman Empire held some of the most pioneering aviation institutions in the world.[22][23]

In an interview withThe New York Times,he pushed for Christians to make up 25% of theOttoman army,and for good relations with theUnited States.[24]

Though he saved the CUP in the 31 March Incident, Shevket also played a pivotal role in the1912 coupwhich caused the fall of the CUP government. His resignation as War Minister was an effective endorsement to theSavior Officers,who were able to maneuver around the Unionist parliament and shuttered it, driving them underground.[25]Thereafter he served as asenator.

Premiership and assassination

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See also:Shevket Pasha cabinet

During theFirst Balkan War,the Ottoman Empire lost all of itsBalkan possessionsexcept the outskirts of Constantinople. The CUP overthrewKâmil Pasha's Savior Officer backed government in January 1913 in a coup known as theRaid on the Sublime Porte,because he entered negotiations with theBalkan League.Shevket Pasha was madeGrand Vizier,War Minister,Foreign MinisterandField Marshalin anational unity governmentthat included the CUP, and resumed fighting in the war. However, the change in government did not change the reality that the war and most ofRumeliawas lost. TheTreaty of Londonended the First Balkan War, though Shevket Pasha's government never signed the treaty.[26]The Ottoman Empire would recoverEastern ThraceandEdirnein theSecond Balkan War,but by then Shevket Pasha would be dead.

On 11 June 1913 Mahmud Shevket Pasha was assassinated in his car inBeyazit Squarein a revenge attack by a relative of the assassinated War MinisterNazım Pasha,who was killed during the 1913 coup.[1]He was buried in theMonument of Liberty,dedicated to soldiers of the Action Army who were killed in the 31 March Incident. The car he was in, the uniform he was wearing, the clothes of his murdered aides, and the weapons used in the assassination are on display at theIstanbul Military Museum.He was survived by his wife, Selime DilşadHanım,with whom he had no children.[27]

With Shevket Pasha's assassination, the CUP took complete control over Ottoman politics. A martial law tribunal handed out several death sentences to real or alleged conspirators, with 12 being executed on 24 June. Many death sentences were doled out among the leadership of the Freedom and Accord Party, which since the Raid of the Sublime Porte were exiled in several countries. Opposition leaders still in the capital were exiled to Sinop.

On the day of his assassination, a deputy of theFreedom and Accord Party,Lütfi Fikristated "In the full sense of the word, Mahmud Şevket Pasha has committed suicide, and this was decided on the day he accepted the grand vezierate over the corpse ofNâzım Pasha.I am sure that this man did not like, for instance,Talaat Beyand his friends. How could it be that he became, to such a degree, a toy in their hands and died for this reason? "[28]

Mahmut Shavket Pasha's grave in theMonument of Liberty

Legacy

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Mahmud Shevket Pasha represented the last independent personality in the Empire's politics; the successor of the premiership,Said Halim Pasha,would be a puppet of the CUP's radical faction, headed bythe triumvirateofTalat,Enver,andCemal,all of whom would finally enter the cabinet following his death. Enver took Shevket Pasha's old post ofMinister of Warby 1914, and Talat in addition to returning to theinterior ministryafter his assassination, himself became Grand Vizier in 1917. Shevket Pasha's assassination allowed the CUP, primarily Talat Pasha, to establish a radical nationalist dictatorship that would last until the Ottoman Empire's defeat inWorld War Iin 1918. This dictatorship would see the empire retakeEdirnein theSecond Balkan War,but also join and loseWorld War Iwhile committinggenocide against its Christian minorities.

Shevket Pasha was the last Ottoman Grand Vizier to die in office. He was the only grand vizier to have written memoirs.[27]

A town inBeykoz,Istanbul is named after him. The name of the townTirilyewas changed to Mahmutşevketpaşa in his memory after his assassination, but would rename itself to Zeytinbağı in 1963.[29]

Shevket Pasha's speech to the Action Army

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Mahmud Shevket Pasha, 1900 portrait

In a 2012 interview withHabertürk,Murat Bardakçıpublicized what he claimed was the first ever audio recording made in the Ottoman Empire, which was Mahmud Shevket Pasha's rallying speech to the troops of the Action Army, urging them to march on Istanbul and overthrow the sultan.[30]While a YouTube video recording of the speech has gone viral, its veracity has been controversial. A study by the historian Derya Tulga concluded that it is impossible for an original audio recording of Shevket Pasha's 1909 speech to exist, and even assuming it is Mahmud Shevket Pasha's voice, the recording was ultimately a reenactment produced two years after the 31 March Incident, which he would have done for propaganda purposes. She goes further to state that the voice in the recording is most likely not even Shevket Pasha's but instead the Turkish representative of Favorite Platten Record Company Ahmet Şükrü Bey. Mehmet Çalışkan came to a similar conclusion, adding that the words of the speech itself can't be verified to be Shevket Pasha's, and points out that Ahmet Şükrü promoted the voice recording on a 15 August 1911 issue of the CUP mouthpieceTanin.[31]

Works

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Shevket Pasha wrote several books in addition to his memoirs. He also translatedAlphonse Karr'sSous les Tilleuls.

  • Logaritma Cedâvili Risalesi(fromJean Dupuis,H.1301)
  • Fenn-i Esliha(H. 1301)
  • Usûl-i Hendese I-II(H. 1302-1304)
  • Asâkir-i Şahanenin Piyade Sınıfına Mahsus 87 Modeli Mükerrer Ateşli Mavzer üzer Tüfeği(H. 1303)
  • Mükerrer Ateşli Tüfekler(H.1308)
  • Küçük Çaplı Mavzer Tüfekleri Risâlesi(H. 1311)
  • Küçük Çaplı Mavzer Tüfeklerine Mahsus Atlas(H.1311)
  • Devlet-i Osmâniyye’nin Bidâyet-i Tesisinden Şimdiye Kadar Osmanlı Teşkilât ve Kıyâfet-i Askeriyesi(I-III, H. 1320)
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Wikimedia Commons has media related toMahmud Shevket Pasha.
  • The pistols carried by Mahmud Shevket Pasha's assassins.
  • The first automobile in Constantinople.
  • Mahmud Shevket Pasha just before his murder, Istanbul Military Museum.
  • Shevket Pasha's funeral
  • Sketch of events of Shevket Pasha's assassination in the report written by the police chief of Istanbul
  • Mahmud Shevket Pasha in a car, 1911
  • Mahmud Shevket Pasha andEnver Pasha

See also

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References

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  1. ^abDavid Kenneth Fieldhouse:Western imperialism in the Middle East 1914-1958.Oxford University Press, 2006 p.17
  2. ^Urazov, Fatikh.Generalissimusy mira XVI-XX vekov [Istoricheskiye portrety].p. 58.ISBN5-295-01270-0.
  3. ^Kinross, Patrick (1977).The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire.New York: Morrow Quill Paperbacks. p. 573.ISBN0-688-03093-9.
  4. ^Finkel, Caroline. (2007).Osman's dream: the history of the ottoman empire.New York: Basic Books. p. 57.ISBN978-0-465-00850-6.OCLC756484323.
  5. ^
    • Şakir, Ziya (1944).Mahmut Şevket paşa.F. Gücüyener Anadolu Türk Kitap Deposu. pp.11–12.Retrieved17 May2022.Resmi sicillere nazaran bu aileyi kuran zat, aslen (Gürcü) olup (Bağdat kölemenleri)ndendir.[According to the official records, the person who founded this family was originally Georgian and was one of the Baghdad slaves.]
    • Amca, Hasan (1958).Dogmayan hürriyet.M. Sıralar Matbaası. p. 77.Retrieved17 May2022.
    • Seyrek, Ahmet Murat (2002).ATATÜRK SÖZLÜĞÜ.Yediveren Yayinlari. p. 159.ISBN9786052692387.Retrieved17 May2022.
    • Yöntem, Ali Canib (2005).Prof. Ali Cânip Yöntem'in yeni Türk edebiyatı üzerine makaleleri.Tablet. p. 166.ISBN9789756346143.Retrieved17 May2022.Mahmut Şevket Paşa'nın soyu Gürcü'dür.[Mahmut Şevket Pasha's ancestry is Georgian.]
    • Publications de la Société d'histoire turque: VIII. sér.Türk Tarih Kurumu. 1952. p. 323.Retrieved17 May2022.
    • Bayur, Yusuf Hikmet (1983).Türk inkılâbı tarihi, 2. cilt,4. sayı.Türk Tarih Kurumu. p. 323.ISBN9789756346143.Retrieved17 May2022.Kendisi aslen Gürcü idi, ancak ailesi çoktandır Irak'a yerleşmişti ve Araplaşmıştı[He was originally Georgian, but his family had long since settled in Iraq and was Arabized.]
    • Belleten, 8. cilt.Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi. 1944. p. 92.Retrieved17 May2022.Süleyman Bey Bağdad'daki kölmenlere mensub ve Aslen Gürcü olup merhum Sadr-ı âzam ve Harbiye Nazırı Mahmud Şevket Paşanın babasıdır.[Süleyman Bey, a member of the slaves in Baghdad and originally Georgian, is the father of the late grand vizier and Minister of War Mahmud Şevket Pasha.]
    • "The New York Times, May 17, 1909"(PDF).The New York Times.17 May 1909.
    • Hasan Kayali (1997).Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire.Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 20.
    • Hasan Kayali (1962).Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939.Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press Press. p. 282.
  6. ^Nâzım Tektaş,Sadrazamlar: Osmanlı'da ikinci adam saltanatı,Çatı Kitapları, 2002, p..
  7. ^İsmail Hâmi Danişmend,Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı,Türkiye Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1971, p. 101.(in Turkish)
  8. ^Finkel, Caroline. (2007).Osman's dream: the history of the ottoman empire.New York: Basic Books. p. 57.ISBN978-0-465-00850-6.OCLC756484323.
  9. ^Mango, Andrew. (1999).Atatürk.London: John Murray. p. 549.ISBN0-7195-5612-0.OCLC41547097.
  10. ^Ali Bilgenoğlu,Osmanlı Devleti'nde Arap milliyetçi cemiyetler,Müdafaa-i Hukuk Yayınları, 2007, p. 87.]
  11. ^Bayar, Celal (1967).Ben de yazdim.Vol. IV. Baha Matbaasi. p. 1228.Retrieved19 December2022.Bana, Mahmut Şevket Paşa'nın yakınları, babasının Gürcü, annesinin Arap olduğunu söylemişlerdir[Relatives of Mahmut Şevket Pasha told me that his father was Georgian and his mother was Arab.]
  12. ^Tevfik, Rıza (2008).Biraz da ben konuşayım.İletişim. p. 179.ISBN9789750505638.Retrieved17 May2022.Kendisi, umumi kanaat ve zan hilâfına, Arap değil Bağdat'ta yerleşmiş bir Gürcü ailesinin evlâdıdır. Nitekim ben Bağdat'ta iken merhumun hâlâ orada yaşayan hısım ve akrabası ile görüştüm.[Contrary to public opinion, he is the son of a Georgian family settled in Baghdad, not an Arab. As a matter of fact, while I was in Baghdad, I talked to the deceased's relatives and relatives who still live there.]
  13. ^"Haskala'nın Yahudi Eğitimine Etkisi: Alliance Israelite Universelle ve Toplumsal Dönüşüm" İstanbul AIU Okulları Örneği ile "".inanç, kültür ve mitoloji araştırmaları dergisi.Vol. 6, no. 3. May–August 2009. Archived fromthe originalon 17 April 2023.
  14. ^Türkiye'nin devlet yaşamında Yahudiler.Archivedfrom the original on 17 April 2023.Retrieved17 April2023.
  15. ^Soner Yalçın, Efendi 2 – Beyaz Müslümanların Büyük Sırrı, Doğan Kitap, 1. Baskı, Istanbul 2006, sayfa 114.
  16. ^Finkel, Caroline,Osman's Dream,(Basic Books, 2005), 57;Istanbul was only adopted as the city's official name in 1930...
  17. ^"Mahmud Şevket Paşa".Britannica.
  18. ^Türkmen, Zekeriya."Mahmud Şevket Paşa".İslâm Ansiklopedisi.
  19. ^Gawrych 2006,p. 167.
  20. ^Zürcher 2017,p. 202.
  21. ^Shaw, Stanford (1977).History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Reform, Revolution, and Republic.Cambridge University Press. p. 283.ISBN0521291666.
  22. ^"Founding - Turkish Air Force".Archived fromthe originalon 7 October 2011.Retrieved6 November2011.
  23. ^"Commentary - History of the Turkish Air Force".Archived fromthe originalon 4 March 2016.Retrieved5 September2013.
  24. ^"The New York Times, May 17, 1909"(PDF).The New York Times.17 May 1909.
  25. ^Shaw & Shaw 1977,p. 291.
  26. ^Feroz Ahmad(2014).Turkey: The Quest for Identity(second ed.). London: Oneworld. p.44.ISBN978-1-78074-301-1.
  27. ^abBardakçı, Murat (12 December 2013)."İşte, Sadrazam Mahmud Şevket Paşa'nın 100 senedir merak edilen kayıp günlüğü".Habertürk.
  28. ^Kieser 2018,p. 140.
  29. ^"Adına kavuşan belde Tirilye".Sabah.Türkçe. Archived fromthe originalon 30 January 2012.Retrieved6 October2020.
  30. ^Archived atGhostarchiveand theWayback Machine:"Mahmud Şevket Paşa'nın 31 Mart Olayı Sırasındaki Ses Kaydı".YouTube.
  31. ^Aladağ, Alaaddin (15 December 2021)."Mahmut Şevket Paşa'ya ait olduğu iddia edilen ses kaydı".Doğruluğu Ne?.

Sources

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Preceded by Grand Vizier
1913 		Succeeded by
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