Talaat Pasha: Difference between revisions

Coordinates: 41°04′05″N 28°58′55″E / 41.06814°N 28.982041°E / 41.06814; 28.982041
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This sources are not true, talat was not a pomak and of course not a roma form bulgaria, please...he havent any resemblance at all, also have a little bit knlowledge of history...NO roma at that time or ever was a pasha
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[[File:Mehmet talat youth (rotated).jpg|thumb|upright|Early portrait|left]]
[[File:Mehmet talat youth (rotated).jpg|thumb|upright|Early portrait|left]]


Mehmed Talaat was born in 1874 in [[Kardzhali|Kırcaali]] town of [[Adrianople Vilayet|Adrianople (Edirne) Vilayet]] into a family of [[Bulgarian Turks]] descent.<ref>{{cite book|author=Taner Timur |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=64NpAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA53|title=Türkler ve Ermeniler: 1915 ve Sonrası|publisher=İmge Kitabevi|year=2001|isbn=978-975-533-318-2|page=53|lang=tr}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=[[Abdullah I of Jordan]] |editor=Philip Perceval Graves|editor-link=Philip Graves|title=Memoirs of King Abdallah of Transjordan|publisher=J. Cape|year=1950|page=40}}</ref> His father, Ahmet Vasıf, was a [[Kadi (Ottoman Empire)|kadı]] from a village in the mountainous southeastern corner of present-day [[Bulgaria]].{{sfn|Kieser|2018|p=xi}} His mother's name was Hürmüz. Talaat also had two sisters.<ref name=":3">[[Hans-Lukas Kieser|Kieser, Hans-Lukas]] (2018). p.41</ref> Talaat's family fled from the Russian army in 1877 from [[Adrianople]] for Constantinople, but returned to a year later after [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|the war]]. His father passed away when Talaat was eleven years old.<ref name=":3" />
Mehmed Talaat was born in 1874 in [[Kardzhali|Kırcaali]] town of [[Adrianople Vilayet|Adrianople (Edirne) Vilayet]] into a middle-class family{{sfn|Kieser|2018|p=41}} of [[Pomak]] descent.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Galip |first1=Özlem Belçim |title=New Social Movements and the Armenian Question in Turkey: Civil Society vs. the State |date=2020 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |isbn=978-3-030-59400-8 |pages=21–36 |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-59400-8_2 |language=en |chapter=Revisiting Armenians in the Ottoman Empire: Deportations and Atrocities}}</ref> His father, Ahmet Vasıf, was a [[Kadi (Ottoman Empire)|kadı]] from a village in the mountainous southeastern corner of present-day [[Bulgaria]].{{sfn|Kieser|2018|p=xi}} His mother's name was Hürmüz. Talaat also had two sisters.<ref name=":3">[[Hans-Lukas Kieser|Kieser, Hans-Lukas]] (2018). p.41</ref> Talaat's family fled from the Russian army in 1877 from [[Adrianople]] for Constantinople, but returned to a year later after [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|the war]]. His father passed away when Talaat was eleven years old.<ref name=":3" />


Talaat had a powerful build and a dark complexion.<ref name="mango67">{{cite book|last=Mango|first=Andrew|title=Atatürk|publisher=John Murray|year=2004|isbn=978-0-7195-6592-2|location=London|page=67|author-link=Andrew Mango}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Kieser|2018|p=41}} Without earning a degree, he joined the staff of the telegraph 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]] teacher in the [[Alliance Israélite Universelle|Alliance Israelite School]] which served the Jewish community of Adrianople.<ref name="mango67" /> At the age of 21 Talaat would be involved in a love affair with the daughter of the Jewish headmaster for whom he worked.<sup>[''[[wikipedia:Citation needed|citation needed]]'']</sup>
Talaat had a powerful build and a dark complexion.<ref name="mango67">{{cite book|last=Mango|first=Andrew|title=Atatürk|publisher=John Murray|year=2004|isbn=978-0-7195-6592-2|location=London|page=67|author-link=Andrew Mango}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Kieser|2018|p=41}} Without earning a degree, he joined the staff of the telegraph 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]] teacher in the [[Alliance Israélite Universelle|Alliance Israelite School]] which served the Jewish community of Adrianople.<ref name="mango67" /> At the age of 21 Talaat would be involved in a love affair with the daughter of the Jewish headmaster for whom he worked.<sup>[''[[wikipedia:Citation needed|citation needed]]'']</sup>

Revision as of 15:33, 31 May 2021

For the book, see Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide.

In this Ottoman Turkish style name, the given name is Mehmed Talaat, the title is Pasha, and there is no family name.
Mehmed Talaat
Pasha
265th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
In office
4 February 1917 – 8 October 1918
MonarchsMehmed V
Mehmed VI
Preceded bySaid Halim Pasha
Succeeded byAhmed Izzet Pasha
Minister of the Interior
In office
12 June 1913 – 8 October 1918
MonarchsMehmed V
Mehmed VI
Preceded byHacı Adil Arda
Succeeded byMustafa Arif Bey
Minister of Finance
In office
November 1914 – 4 February 1917
MonarchMehmed V
Preceded byMehmet Cavit Bey
Succeeded byAbdurrahman Vefik Sayın
Template:OCD MP
In office
17 December 1908 – 8 October 1918
ConstituencyAdrianople (1908, 1912, 1914)
Personal details
Born1 September 1874
Kırcaali, Ottoman Empire (now Kardzhali, Bulgaria)
Died15 March 1921 (aged 46)
Berlin, Germany
Cause of deathGunshot wounds
Resting placeMonument of Liberty, Istanbul
41°04′05″N 28°58′55″E / 41.06814°N 28.982041°E / 41.06814; 28.982041
Political partyUnion and Progress Party
Profession
  • Politician
  • telegrapher
  • teacher
Criminal chargeFirst degree mass murder[1]
TrialOttoman Special Military Tribunal
PenaltyDeath (in absentia)
Details
Target(s)Ottoman Armenians
KilledAround 1 million

Mehmed Talaat[a] (1 September 1874 – 15 March 1921), commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha,[b] was the de facto political leader of the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1918.[2] He was the leader of the Committee of Union and Progress and ruled the empire during the Armenian genocide, which he ordered as Minister of Interior Affairs in 1915.

His career in Ottoman politics began when he was elected as a deputy from Adrianople (Edirne) to the Chamber of Deputies in 1908, then Minister of the Interior and Minister of Finance, and finally Grand Vizier in 1917.[3] As the minister of interior, Talaat Pasha ordered on 24 April 1915 the arrest and deportation of Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople (now Istanbul), most of them being ultimately murdered, and on 30 May 1915 requested the Tehcir Law (Temporary Deportation Law); these events initiated the Armenian genocide. He is widely considered the main perpetrator of the genocide,[4][5][6][7][8] and is thus held responsible for the death of around 1 million Armenians.

After the Empire's surrender in World War I, on the night of 2–3 November 1918 with the aid of Ahmed Izzet Pasha, Talaat Pasha and other members of the CUP's central committee fled the Ottoman Empire. In the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Military Tribunal convicted Talaat and sentenced him to death in absentia for his role in the Armenian genocide. Talaat was assassinated in Berlin in 1921 by Soghomon Tehlirian, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, as part of Operation Nemesis.[3]

In Turkey, Talaat Pasha is viewed as a "great statesman, a skillful revolutionary, and a farsighted founding father", and many schools, streets, and mosques are also named after him.[9] Biographer Hans-Lukas Kieser asserts that Talaat Pasha "...in the historical area of larger Europe, opens the age of extremes and the Europe of the dictators."[10]

Early life and career

Early portrait

Mehmed Talaat was born in 1874 in Kırcaali town of Adrianople (Edirne) Vilayet into a middle-class family[11] of Pomak descent.[12] His father, Ahmet Vasıf, was a kadı from a village in the mountainous southeastern corner of present-day Bulgaria.[8] His mother's name was Hürmüz. Talaat also had two sisters.[13] Talaat's family fled from the Russian army in 1877 from Adrianople for Constantinople, but returned to a year later after the war. His father passed away when Talaat was eleven years old.[13]

Talaat had a powerful build and a dark complexion.[14] 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.[11] Without earning a degree, he joined the staff of the telegraph 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 teacher in the Alliance Israelite School which served the Jewish community of Adrianople.[14] At the age of 21 Talaat would be involved in a love affair with the daughter of the Jewish headmaster for whom he worked.[citation needed]

Talaat would be caught sending a telegram saying "Things are going well. I'll soon reach my goal." With two of his friends from the post office, he was charged with tampering with the official telegraph and was arrested in 1893. He claimed that the message in question was to his girlfriend. The Jewish girl came forward to defend him.[citation needed]

In 1896 he was imprisoned for having been part of a Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) cell together with his brother-in-law Ismail Yürükoğlu.[15] Sentenced to two years in jail, he was pardoned[14] but exiled to Selanik (Thessaloniki), where he became a postal clerk in July 1898.[15] Between 1898 and 1908 he served as a postman on the staff of the Selanik Post Office. He was promoted to the head of the postal clerks in April 1903, following which he could afford to bring his mother and siblings to Selanik.[16] Talaat met then economics professor, later friend and CUP Minister of Finance Mehmed Cavid Bey in Salonica Law School, where he took classes to supplement his lackluster education.[15] He would join the Salonica Freemason lodge Macedonia Risorta in 1903.[15]

He married Hayriye Hanım (later known as Hayriye Talaat Bafralı), an Albanian girl from Yanya (Ioannina) on 19 March 1910.[17] Talaat learned to speak French in the Israelite School, and picked up Greek from his wife. He would learn in 1911 that they would not be able to father children.[18]

Rise to power

During the revolution, Talaat organized a plot to assassinate the garrison commander of Selanik, Ömer Nazım, who was suspected to be loyal to the Hamidian government. Nazım would survive 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.[19] After the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, Talaat was elected as a deputy for Adrianople in the Ottoman Parliament, and then the parliament's vice-president.[20]

During the 31 March Incident, Khachatur Malumian, leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) hid Talaat and Dr. Nazım in his house.[21] Three days later, Talaat and ninety-nine MPs escaped Constantinople for Ayastefanos (Yeşilköy) to organize a separate national assembly (Meclis-i millî) from the volatile situation in Constantinople.[22] Upon the Action Army's stop in Ayastefanos, it was agreed that Abdulhamid II would be replaced by his brother, Mehmed Reşad.[22] With the reactionary revolt crushed, Talaat was able to bully then sheykhulislam Sahip Molla to get a fetwa for Abdulhamid's deposition.[23]

Talaat Bey would be appointed Minister of the Interior in prime minister (Grand Vizier) Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha's cabinet in August 1909. He would continue the Hamidian era anti-Zionist restrictions in Ottoman Palestine,[24] as well as enforce imperial rule in revolting provinces like Albania and Yemen.[25] He would step down in March 1911 for his friend Halil Bey.[26] He became Minister of Post and Telegraph in January 1912.[27] Talaat urged for Mahmud Şevket Pasha's resignation as Minister of War in the lead-up to the 1912 coup d'etat, something he wrote that he regretted once Şevket Pasha did so in support of the Savior Officers.[28] With Freedom and Accord in government and the CUP powerless, Talaat had to once again lay low, hiding with Midhat Şükrü, Hasan Tahsin, and Cemal Azmi in Tahsin's brother-in-law's house.[29] By 1912 Talaat definitely abandoned belief in rule of law and the constitution.[30]

Ottoman Empire in 1914

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. The CUP's headquarters in Selanik had to be relocated to Constantinople when the city fell to Greece, while Talaat's hometown of Adrianople was besieged by the Bulgarians. When Kâmil Pasha government started negotiations for peace with the Balkan League in December, Talaat and İsmail Enver started plotting a coup. The coup succeeded in overthrowing the government, with Kâmil Pasha and his cabinet resigning for Şevket Pasha's government which this time included the CUP. Mutual distrust between Şevket Pasha and Talaat meant he would not yet enter the cabinet, so he employed komiteci politics to stay influential.[31] He would urge for the Empire to continue fighting in the First Balkan War to relieve Adrianople, as well as order many arrests against Freedom and Accord members and journalists in the subsequent state of emergency.[32] However with demands from the great powers to surrender Adrianople and a deteriorating military situation, Şevket Pasha and the CUP finally acknowledged defeat.

After the assassination of Mahmud Şevket Pasha in July 1913, the CUP established a one-party state in the Ottoman Empire. Talaat again returned as interior minister in Said Halim Pasha's cabinet, who was a puppet of the committee. Talaat would keep this post until the CUP's fall from power following the Ottoman Empire's surrender in World War I in 1918. Talaat, with Enver and Ahmet Cemal, formed a group later known as the Three Pashas. These men formed the triumvirate that ran the Ottoman government until the end of World War I in October 1918. However Hans-Lukas Kieser writes that this state of rule by triumvirate was only accurate for the years 1913-1914. Thereafter he asserts Talaat was the sole dictator of the Ottoman Empire, especially once he became Grand Vizier in 1917.[33]

Union and Progress regime

Main article: Committee of Union and Progress
Talaat in formal diplomatic costume

Also 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 des Tabacs to ensure success in retaking Adrianople.[34] The Ottomans soon joined the war, retaking the city even though the great powers had forced the Ottomans to surrender Adrianople only months earlier. This was a failure of diplomacy by the great powers; for Talaat and the CUP, this moment would make them learn to not take international diplomacy seriously if the situation on the ground reflected otherwise.[35] Talaat would lead the negotiations with Bulgaria in the Istanbul conference, which resulted in a population exchange and formalizing Ottoman reassertion of sovereignty over Adrianople.[36] Talaat would negotiate another peace with Greece too.[36]

Between 1911 and 1914, the Ottoman Empire negotiated with the European powers and ARF on reform in the East. Talaat attended multiple meetings with leading Armenian politicians Krikor Zohrab, Armen Garo, Bedros Halajian, 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.[37] 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.

Talaat's Ottoman Empire was not a totalitarian state, but a balance of many factions through kickbacks and corruption. Strong governors had much maneuverability to themselves, provided they execute Talaat and the central committee's instructions on deportations of Christian minorities.[38] Talaat, Enver, and Mahmud Celal (Bayar), secretary of the local CUP branch, would organize the deportations of Rûm in the Smyrna Vilayet, which almost started a war with Greece.[39] Upon Mehmed V learning of the deportations via the Rûm Patriarchate, Talaat was confronted by the sultan, but insisted that the stories of persecution of Rûm were fabricated by the Empire's enemies.[40] On the September 6, Talat Pasha sent a telegram to the governors of Hüdâvendigâr (modern Bursa), Izmit, Canik, Edirne, Adana, Aleppo, Erzurum, Bitlis, Van, Sivas, Mamuretülaziz (modern Elazığ), and Diyarbekir to prepare for the arrests of Ottoman Armenian citizens.[41] Armenians and Assyrians within the Empire also started organising themselves into militias to protect themselves as the Special Organisation started harassing them.[42]

Throughout the Second Constitutional Era, the Ottoman Empire was diplomatically isolated, which it payed dearly for through territorial losses in the Balkans. Therefore, on May 9, Talaat, along with Ahmet Izzet Pasha traveled to Livadiya, Crimia, to meet with Czar Nicholas II and foreign minister Sergei Sazanov, and proposed an alliance with Russia, which ended up falling through.[43] Talaat, Enver, and Halil were successful in securing a secret alliance with Germany. Following the sale of the Goeben and Breslau to the Ottoman Empire, the three convinced Cemal Pasha to agree to a naval strike against Russia.[30] The resulting declarations of war prompted Cavid's resignation as finance minister, which temporarily created friction within the committee and saddened Talaat.[44]

With the expectation that the new war would free the Empire of its constraints on its sovereignty by the great powers, Talaat Pasha went ahead with accomplishing major goals of the CUP; unilaterally abolishing the centuries-old Capitulations, prohibiting foreign postal services, terminating 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.[45]

Talaat and his CUP hoped to save the Ottoman Empire by quickly and decisively establish Turan by defeating Russia and Britain in Egypt. Enver Pasha's decisive defeat in Sarıkamış and Cemal Pasha's failure to take Suez, meant Talaat had to come to terms with the reality on the ground, which made him fall into a depression.[46] He would work to keep moral afloat on the crumbling Caucasian front by relaying false information of successes in wars in the Balkans which weren't even happening.[47]

Armenian genocide

Main article: Armenian genocide

A report presented to Talaat and 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 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.[48] Victory of the 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.[49]

On 24 April 1915, Talaat issued an 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 235 to 270 Armenian community leaders in Constantinople, including politicians, clergymen, physicians, authors, journalists, lawyers, and teachers, the majority of whom were eventually murdered, including his colleagues Zohrab and Serengülian.[50] Although the mass killings of Armenian civilians had begun in the vilayet of Van several weeks earlier, these mass arrests in Constantinople are considered by many commentators to be the start of the Armenian genocide.[50][51][52] Talaat 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 the Armenian genocide.[53] 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.[52][54] Meanwhile, the deportees were subject to periodic rape and massacre, often the result of direct orders by the CUP. 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.[55][56] This was confirmed by Talaat's wife Hayriye, who stated that she often saw him using it to give direct orders to what she believed were provincial governors.[57]

In May 1915, he gave an interview to the Berliner Tagblatt, Talaat stated:

We have been blamed for not making a distinction between guilty and innocent Armenians. [To do so] was impossible. Because of the nature of things, one who was still innocent today could be guilty tomorrow. The concern for the safety of Turkey simply had to silence all other concerns. Our actions were determined by national and historical necessity.[58]

Numerous diplomats and notable figures confronted Talaat Pasha over the deportations and news of massacres. In one such conversation with German Embassy representative Mordtmann, Talaat stated his aims of annihilating the Christians of Turkey under the cover of World War I: "Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention."[59][60] In a memorandum sent to Berlin demanding the removal of German ambassador Paul Wolff Metternich because he interceded on behalf of the Armenians, Talaat reaffirmed such a commitment: "the work must be done now, after the war it will be too late."[61] He told the United States ambassador, Henry Morgenthau, Sr.:

It is no use for you to argue . . . we have already disposed of three quarters of the Armenians; there are none at all left in Bitlis, Van, and Erzeroum. The hatred between the Turks and the Armenians is now so intense that we have got to finish with them. If we don’t, they will plan their revenge.[62]

On 2 August 1915, he told Morgenthau "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."[63] In another exchange, Talaat demanded from Morgenthau the list of the holders of American insurance policies belonging to Armenians—"they are practically all dead now"—in an effort to appropriate the funds to the state. Morgenthau refused.[64] To Ernst Ludwig he mentioned that the loss of the Armenian workforce would damage the economy for a short while, but that Turks would step in their positions and replace the Armenians soon.[65]

Corpses of massacred Armenians, 1918

By the end of the war, the subsequent German ambassador Johann von Bernstorff described his discussion with Talaat: "When I kept on pestering him about the Armenian question, he once said with a smile: 'What on earth do you want? The question is settled, there are no more Armenians'".[66] A similar statement by Talaat was made to Swedish military attaché Einar af Wirsén: "The way the Armenian problem was solved was hair-raising. I can still see in front of me Talaat's cynical expression, when he emphasized that the Armenian question was solved."[67][68]

The Assyrian Christian community was also targeted by the Unionist government in what is now known as the Seyfo. Talaat would order the governor of Van to also remove the Assyrian population in Hakkâri, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, however this anti-Assyrian policy would not be able to be implemented nationally.[69]

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, German reaction to the deportations of Armenians was muted. The participation of the Ottoman Empire as an ally against the 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 deportation of the Pontus Greeks of the Black Sea coast.[70]

Talaat was also a leading force in the Turkification and deportation of Kurds. In May 1916 Talaat demanded Kurds being deported to the western region of Anatolia, and prohibited the resettlement of Kurds to the south in order to prevent Kurds from becoming arabized.[71] He was a major force behind the policies regarding the resettlements 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.[72] Talat Pasha would outline that nowhere in the Empire's vilayets should the Kurdish population be more than 5%.[73] To that end, Balkan Muslim and Turkish refugees were also prioritised to be resettled in Urfa, Maraş, and Antep, while some Kurds would be deported to Central Anatolia.[71] Kurds were supposed to be resettled in abandoned Armenian property, however negligence by resettlement authorities still resulted in the deaths of many Kurds by famine.[74]

Premiership, 1917–1918

Talaat Pasha with Central Power negotiators at Brest Litovsk

On the 4 February 1917, Talaat finally replaced Said Halim Pasha (a puppet of the committee anyway) by becoming a Pasha and the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire,[75] while also retaining the Ministry of the Interior.[75] On 15 February, he gave a speech to parliament of his program, expressing his and the government's will to pass reforms to bring Ottoman society on par with European civilization. Like first president of the succeeding republic, 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 created.[76]

Many social reforms were successfully introduced, including modernization of the calendar, employment of women as nurses, charitable organizations, in army shops, and in labor battalions behind the front and new faculties in the University of Istanbul in architecture, arts, and music. When it came to religious reform, the Koran would be translated into (Ottoman) Turkish, and even the conduction of prayers in Turkish in a few select mosques in the capital.[77] In a play of zugzwang after the Balfour Declaration, Talaat reproached with the Zionist movement, promising to open up Jewish immigration to Jerusalem.[78]

This promise did not reflect ground conditions. Talaat Pasha's first year as Grand Vizier saw the loss of Jerusalem and Baghdad. However territorial loss in the south also coincided with a crushing diplomatic success with the signing of the Brest Litovsk treaty in 10 March 1918, resulting in the return of Kars, Batumi, and Ardahan to Ottoman rule after their loss forty years ago; another treaty with the Caucasian states signed in Batum strengthened the Ottoman's position in a future drive on Baku, which would be accomplished by September. At the beginning of January 1918 with the Tsarist Army of the Caucasus departing, Talaat had been influential in pursuing an offensive policy, convinced that despite all the pacifist rhetoric coming from Moscow 'the Russian leopard had not changed its spots'. Spring 1918 would be the zenith of Talaat Pasha's political career, followed by a slow realization of defeat in WWI over the summer. In October 1918, the British defeated both Ottoman armies they faced in the Palestinian Front, simultaneously on the Macedonian front, Bulgaria capitulated to the allies, leaving no sufficient forces to check an advance on the Ottoman capital. With defeat certain, Talaat Pasha resigned on 8 October 1918.

Exile, 1919–1921

The front page of the Ottoman newspaper İkdam on 4 November 1918 after the Three Pashas fled the country following World War I.

Talaat Pasha fled the Ottoman capital in a German battleship on 3 November 1918, from Constantinople harbor to Berlin. Just a week later the Ottoman Porte capitulated to the Allies and signed the Armistice of Mudros.

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.[79] Talaat Pasha had a reputation for being courageous and patriotic, the type of individual who would willingly face the consequences of his actions.[79] Questioned whether he would return and join the Turkish National Movement, he declined, arguing that Mustafa Kemal is now the new leader.[80] With the occupation of Constantinople, Izzet Pasha resigned. Ahmet Tevfik Pasha took the position of grand vizier the same day that Royal Navy ships entered the Golden Horn. Tevfik Pasha lasted until 4 March 1919, replaced by Ferid Pasha whose first order was the arrest of leading members of the CUP.[citation needed] In exile, Talaat worked with German sympathizers and agitated for the Turkish nationalist movement on behalf of Mustafa Kemal.[81]

Turkish courts-martial of 1919–1920

See also: Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919–1920

Following the occupation of Constantinople by the Allies, the British government exerted diplomatic pressure on the Ottoman Porte and brought to trial the Ottoman leaders who had held positions of responsibility between 1914 and 1918 for having committed, among other charges, the Armenian Genocide. Those who were caught were put under arrest at the Bekirağa division and were subsequently exiled to Malta. The courts-martial were designed by Sultan Mehmed VI to punish the Committee of Union and Progress for the empire's ill-conceived involvement in World War I. The Pashas who had held the highest positions in the administration and whose names were at the top of the execution lists of the Armenian assassination teams could be condemned in absentia because they had gone abroad.

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 Central Committee of Ittihadd".[82] The Court released its verdict on 5 July 1919: Talaat, Enver, Cemal, and Dr. Nazım were condemned to death in absentia.

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 Damat Ferid Pasha and the Sublime Porte to request that Germany extradite him to the Ottoman Empire. As a result of efforts pursued personally by Sir Andrew Ryan, a former dragoman and now a member of the British intelligence service, Germany responded to the Ottoman Empire stating that it was willing to be helpful if official papers could be produced showing these persons had been found guilty, and added that the presence of these persons in Germany could not as yet be ascertained.[83]

Aubrey Herbert interview, 1921

Talaat Pasha with his friends in the years of escape, Holland, 1920

The last official interview Talaat granted was to Aubrey Herbert, a British intelligence agent.[84] Aubrey at first refused to meet Talaat, but in February 1921, he was persuaded by Sir Basil Thomson, the director of the British intelligence at the time, to conduct an interview with Talaat Pasha.[85] The interview was partly conducted in the small German town Hamm and later also Düsseldorf.[85] The interview was a chance for Talaat to explain the policies of the Ottoman Empire during the last 10 years.[85]

These meetings corroborated earlier intelligence to the effect that Talaat Pasha was seeking support from Muslim countries to form a serious opposition movement against the Allies, and that he was soon intending to take refuge in Angora (Ankara), where the Turkish national movement was forming. Furthermore, Talaat Pasha also threatened that he was going to incite the Pan-Turanist and Pan-Islamist movements against the United Kingdom unless it signed a peace treaty favorable for Turkey.

During this interview, Talaat maintained on several occasions that the CUP had always sought British friendship and advice, but claimed that Britain had never replied to such overtures in any meaningful way.[86]

Assassination, 1921

Main article: Assassination of Talat Pasha

Talaat was assassinated with a single bullet on 15 March 1921 as he came out of his house in Hardenbergstrasse, Charlottenburg. His assassin was an ARF member from Erzurum named Soghomon Tehlirian.[87] Soghomon Tehlirian admitted committing the shooting, but after a cursory two-day trial, he was found innocent by a German court on grounds of temporary insanity because of the traumatic experience he had gone through during the genocide.[88]

Impressions

Talaat with CUP leaders Halil Bey and Enver Pasha and Alfred Nossig, 1915

Many of Talaats contemporaries wrote of his charm but also a melancholy spirit.[89] Some occasionally commented naivety and others commented on his intimidation skills.[90] However, already in 1909, Louis Rambert, then director of the Régie, wrote that Talaat was "the acknowledged head of the Committee of Union and Progress and the Young Turks."[91] Hans-Lukas Kieser writes that Talaat was under the influence of the doctors Bahaeddin Şakir and Mehmet Nazım before 1908, but after late 1909 Talaat had an increased interest in a newer Central Committee member Ziya Gökalp and his more revolutionary and Pan-Turkist ideas.[92]

The ARF viewed Talaat a part of the CUP's left-wing faction.[93]

Cavid wrote much of the Talaat and the CUP's fall into 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 and his disciples, this war was tout ou rien [all or nothing]".[citation needed] Talat's intentional falsehoods were noted by his contemporaries and even some of his close friends considered him a liar.[94]

Alfred Nossig described Mehmed 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 would call Talaat "the Turkish Bismarck" when he became Grand Vizier.[95]

Legacy

Tomb of Talaat Pasha in the cemetery of Monument of Liberty, Istanbul

Post mortem

Shortly after the assassination of Talaat in March 1921, the "Posthumous Memoirs of Talaat" were published in the October volume of The New York Times Current History.[96] In his memoir, Talaat admitted to purposefully deporting the Armenians to the Ottoman Empire's eastern provinces in a prepared scheme. He however blamed Armenian civilians themselves for the deportations, implying the civilian population could have caused a revolution.[97][98]

He was buried in the Turkish Cemetery in Berlin.[80] At the request of the office of the Prime Minister of Turkey, Şükrü Saracoğlu,[99] Talat's remains were disinterred 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.[100][101][102] With this gesture, Adolf Hitler hoped to secure Turkish support for the Axis in World War II.[101] Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın gave the funeral oration as Talat was buried at the Monument of Liberty, Istanbul, originally dedicated to those who lost their lives preventing the 1909 Ottoman countercoup.[103] His return to Turkey was very welcomed by the Turkish society.[104]

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 Talaat's death into the late twentieth century.[105]

Modern views

The Ottoman signature political animal [Talaat Pasha] held up a distorting mirror to Europe. It showed the worst yet nevertheless real sides of Europe, scaled up. Unconcerned by rules and ethics, arguing that he saw both broken numerous times by the European powers, he began to use the ruthless arms of a comparatively weak actor also wanting empire: extortion and aggression toward weaker ones who could not fight back.

Hans-Lukas Kieser, Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide[106]

Talaat Pasha is widely considered one of the main architects of the Armenian Genocide by historians.[107]

Within modern Turkey, criticism also focuses on Talaat and the rest of the Three Pashas for causing the Ottoman Empire's entry into World War I and its subsequent partitioning by the Allies. Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk widely criticized Talaat Pasha and his colleagues for their policies during and immediately prior to the First World War.[108]

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.[9]

It is noted that justice, equality, and solidarity are the underlying ideologies of the “Grand Orient de France” masonic lodge, but back at those times one of their members – Talaat Pasha, became one of the organizers of the Armenian Genocide. The leader (Grand Master) of “Grand Orient de France” (meaning the Great East of France) which is a France-based masonic lodge that is regarded as the mother lodge of the Continental Freemasonry, Mr Christophe Habas replied as follows: “Talaat Pasha was a murderer, the fact that he was a freemason does not mean that all freemasons are like him. All those that do not respect the values we avow are excluded from the lodge.”[109]

In film

Talaat is depicted in two films:

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Ottoman Turkish: محمد طلعت, romanized: Mehmed Talât
  2. ^ Ottoman Turkish: طلعت پاشا; Turkish: Talât Paşa

References

Citations

  1. ^ Balint Jennifer (2013). "The Ottoman State Special Military Tribunal for the Genocide of the Armenians: 'Doing Government Business'". In Kevin Heller; Gerry Simpson (eds.). The Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199671144.003.0004. ISBN 9780199671144.
  2. ^ Kieser 2018, p. xiii.
  3. ^ a b Kedourie, Sylvia; Wasti, S. Tanvir (1996). Turkey: Identity, Democracy, Politics. p. 96. ISBN 0-7146-4718-7.
  4. ^ Akçam, Taner (2006). A Shameful Act. New York City: Holt & Co. pp. 165, 186–187.
  5. ^ Kiernan, Ben (2007). Blood and Soil: Genocide and Extermination in World History from Carthage to Darfur. Yale University Press. p. 414.
  6. ^ Rosenbaum, Alan S. (2001). Is the Holocaust Unique?. Westview Press. pp. 122–123.
  7. ^ Naimark, Norman (2001). Fires of hatred. Harvard University Press. p. 57.
  8. ^ a b Kieser 2018, p. xi.
  9. ^ a b Kieser 2018, p. xii.
  10. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 29.
  11. ^ a b Kieser 2018, p. 41.
  12. ^ Galip, Özlem Belçim (2020). "Revisiting Armenians in the Ottoman Empire: Deportations and Atrocities". New Social Movements and the Armenian Question in Turkey: Civil Society vs. the State. Springer International Publishing. pp. 21–36. ISBN 978-3-030-59400-8.
  13. ^ a b Kieser, Hans-Lukas (2018). p.41
  14. ^ a b c Mango, Andrew (2004). Atatürk. London: John Murray. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-7195-6592-2.
  15. ^ a b c d Kieser, Hans-Lukas (2018), pp,42–43
  16. ^ Kieser, Hans-Lukas (2018), p.43
  17. ^ Ergun Hiçyılmaz (1993). Başverenler, başkaldıranlar. Altın Kitaplar Kitabevi. p. 92. ISBN 9789754053807 – via Google Books.
  18. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 90.
  19. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 53.
  20. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 68.
  21. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 70.
  22. ^ a b Kieser 2018, p. 72.
  23. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 74.
  24. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 85-86.
  25. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 82-83.
  26. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 93.
  27. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 117.
  28. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 121.
  29. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 130.
  30. ^ a b Kieser 2018, p. 211.
  31. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 140.
  32. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 138.
  33. ^ Kieser 2018.
  34. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 143.
  35. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 144.
  36. ^ a b Kieser 2018, p. 146.
  37. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 160.
  38. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 219.
  39. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 176.
  40. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 177.
  41. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 200.
  42. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 208.
  43. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 170-171.
  44. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 215.
  45. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 191-192.
  46. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 222.
  47. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 224.
  48. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 225-226.
  49. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 228, 229.
  50. ^ a b Steven L. Jacobs (2009). Confronting Genocide: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Lexington Books. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-7391-3589-1. On 24 April 1915 the Ministry of the Interior ordered the arrest of Armenian parliamentary deputies, former ministers, and some intellectuals. Thousands were arrested, including 2,345 in the capital, most of whom were subsequently executed ...
  51. ^ Demourian, Avet (25 April 2009). "Armenians mark massacre anniversary". The Boston Globe.
  52. ^ a b Mikaberidze, Alexander (2015). "Tehcir Law". In Whitehorn, Alan (ed.). The Armenian Genocide: The Essential Reference Guide. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1610696883.
  53. ^ Josh Belzman (23 April 2006). "PBS effort to bridge controversy creates more". Today.com. Retrieved 5 October 2006.
  54. ^ "Exiled Armenians starve in the desert; Turks drive them like slaves, American committee hears ;- Treatment raises death rate". New York Times. 8 August 1916. Archived from the original on 2 February 2012.
  55. ^ de Waal, Thomas (2015). Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199350711.
  56. ^ Hewitt, William L. (2004). Defining the horrific readings on genocide and Holocaust in the twentieth century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 100. ISBN 013110084X.
  57. ^ Bardakçı, Murat (2008). Talât Paşa'nın evrak-ı metrûkesi (in Turkish) (4. ed.). Cağaloğlu, İstanbul: Everest Yayınları. p. 211. ISBN 978-9752895607.
  58. ^ Ihrig, Stefan (2016). Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler. Harvard University Press. pp. 162–163. ISBN 978-0-674-50479-0.
  59. ^ Wolcott, Martin Gilman; The Evil 100 (2000); Page 350; Citadel Press
  60. ^ Dadrian, Vahakn (1989). "Genocide as a Problem of National and International Law: The World War I Armenian Case and Its Contemporary Legal Ramifications". Yale Journal of International Law. 14 (2): 258. ISSN 0889-7743. OCLC 12626339.
  61. ^ Dadrian, Vahakn N. (2004). The history of the Armenian genocide: ethnic conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus (6th rev. ed.). New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 1571816666.
  62. ^ Suny 2015, p. 269.
  63. ^ Suny 2015, p. 270.
  64. ^ Morgenthau, Sr., Henry (1919). Ambassador Morgenthau's Story. Doubleday, Page. p. 339. 'I wish,' Talaat now said, 'that you would get the American life insurance companies to send us a complete list of their Armenian policy holders. They are practically all dead now and have left no heirs to collect the money. It of course all escheats to the State. The Government is the beneficiary now. Will you do so?'
    This was almost too much, and I lost my temper.
    'You will get no such list from me,' I said, and I got up and left him.
  65. ^ Kieser, Hans-Lukas,(2019), Kieser, Hans-Lukas, Anderson, Margaret Lavinia; Bayraktar, Seyhan; Schmutz, Thomas, eds. p.36
  66. ^ A., Bernstorff (2011). Memoirs of Count Bernstorff. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-169-93525-9.
  67. ^ Travis, Hannibal (2010). Genocide in the Middle East: the Ottoman Empire, Iraq, and Sudan. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press. p. 219. ISBN 978-1594604362.
  68. ^ Avedian, Vahagn. "The Armenian Genocide 1915 From a Neutral Small State's Perspective: Sweden" (PDF). Historiska institutionen Uppsala universitet. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  69. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 239.
  70. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 257-258.
  71. ^ a b Kieser 2018, p. 259.
  72. ^ Üngör, Umut. "Young Turk social engineering : mass violence and the nation state in eastern Turkey, 1913- 1950" (PDF). University of Amsterdam. pp. 217–226. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  73. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 260.
  74. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 260-261.
  75. ^ a b Kieser, Hans-Lukas; Anderson, Margaret Lavinia; Bayraktar, Seyhan; Schmutz, Thomas, eds. (2019). The End of the Ottomans: The Genocide of 1915 and the Politics of Turkish Nationalism. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 341. ISBN 978-1-78831-241-7.
  76. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 322-323.
  77. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 323.
  78. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 362-363.
  79. ^ a b Kedourie, Sylvia (1996). Turkey: Identity, Democracy, Politics. Routledge. p. 15. ISBN 0-7146-4718-7.
  80. ^ a b Olson 1986.
  81. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 18.
  82. ^ V. Dadrian, The History of the Armenian Genocide, pp. 323-324.
  83. ^ Oke, Mim Kemal (1988). The Armenian question 1914–1923. Nicosia: Oxford 1988, ataa.org
  84. ^ Herbert, Aubrey (1925). Ben Kendim: A Record of Eastern Travel. G. P. Putnam's sons ltd. p. 41. ISBN 0-7146-4718-7.
  85. ^ a b c "Genocidaire Talaat's Last Interview Shortly Before his Assassination". www.thecaliforniacourier.com. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  86. ^ Kedourie, Sylvia (1996). Turkey: Identity, Democracy, Politics. Routledge. p. 41. ISBN 0-7146-4718-7.
  87. ^ Operationnemesis.com
  88. ^ "Robert Fisk: My conversation with the son of Soghomon Tehlirian". The Independent. 20 June 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  89. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 329.
  90. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 62.
  91. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 63.
  92. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 64.
  93. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 96.
  94. ^ Akçam, Taner (2012). The Young Turks' Crime against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire. Princeton University Press. pp. 380–382. ISBN 978-0-691-15956-0.
  95. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 286.
  96. ^ Talaat Pasha, "Posthumous Memoirs of Talaat Pasha", The New York Times Current History, Vol. 15, no. 1 (October 1921): 295
  97. ^ Hovannisian, Richard (1987). The Armenian Genocide in Perspective. Transaction Publishers. p. 142. I admit that we deported Armenians from our eastern provinces, and we acted in this matter upon a previously prepared scheme. The responsibility of these acts falls upon the deported people themselves. Russians ... had armed and equipped the Armenian inhabitants of this district [Van] ... and had organized strong Armenian bandit forces. ... When we entered the Great War, these bandits began their destructive activities in the rear of the Turkish army on the Caucasus front, blowing up the bridges and killing the innocent Mohammedan inhabitants regardless of age and sex... All these Armenian bandits were helped by the native Armenians.
  98. ^ Henry Morgenthau. Ambassador Morgenthau's Story (PDF). Blackmask Online. p. 112. Retrieved 25 October 2019. Naturally the Christians became alarmed when placards were posted in the villages and cities ordering everybody to bring their arms to headquarters. Although this order applied to all citizens, the Armenians well understood what the result would be, should they be left defenseless while their Moslem neighbours were permitted to retain their arms. In many cases, however, the persecuted people patiently obeyed the command; and then the Turkish officials almost joyfully seized their rifles as evidence that a "revolution" was being planned and threw their victims into prison on a charge of treason. Thousands failed to deliver arms simply because they had none to deliver, while an even greater number tenaciously refused to give them up, not because they were plotting an uprising, but because they proposed to defend their own lives and their women's honour against the outrages which they knew were being planned. The punishment inflicted upon these recalcitrants forms one of the most hideous chapters of modern history. Most of us believe that torture has long ceased to be an administrative and judicial measure, yet I do not believe that the darkest ages ever presented scenes more horrible than those which now took place all over Turkey.
  99. ^ Olson 1986, p. 55.
  100. ^ Olson 1986, p. 46.
  101. ^ a b Hofmann 2020, p. 76.
  102. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 420.
  103. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 419.
  104. ^ Olson 1986, p. 52.
  105. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 313.
  106. ^ Kieser 2018, p. 217.
  107. ^ Alayaria, Aida; Consequences of Denial: The Armenian Genocide, Page 182, 2008, Karnac Books Ltd
  108. ^ Muammer Kaylan (8 April 2005). The Kemalists: Islamic Revival and the Fate of Secular Turkey. Prometheus Books, Publishers. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-61592-897-2.
  109. ^ "'Grand Orient' masonic lodge leader: 'Talaat Pasha a murderer'". www.aravot-en.am. Retrieved 18 March 2021.

Sources

External links

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Political offices
Preceded by
 Minister of Interior
4 February 1917 – 23 January 1913 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Finance
November 1914 – 4 February 1917 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
4 February 1917 – 8 October 1918 		Succeeded by
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