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Shevket Pasha

Mahmud Şevket Pasha

Mahmud Şevket Pasha (1856 – 11 June 1913)[1] was an Ottoman general and statesman of Iraqi Arab[2] and Georgian descent.[3] Some sources also note Chechen[4] or Circassian[5] ancestry. He was born in Baghdad, where he finished his primary education before going on to the Military Academy (Turkish language: Mekteb-i Harbiye) in Istanbul.[6] He joined the army in 1882 as a lieutenant. He spent some time in France investigating military technology and was stationed in Crete for a while. He then returned to the Military Academy as a faculty member.

He worked under Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz (Goltz Pasha) for a while and traveled to Germany. He was then appointed as governor of Kosovo, where he commanded the 3rd Army, which was later known as Hareket Ordusu after its involvement in suppressing the counterrevolutionary absolutist reactionaries in the 31 March Incident.

He played an important role in ending the 31 March Incident and with it, the reign of Abdul Hamid II. He served as a Grand Vizier to Mehmed V, between January 23, 1913 and June 11, 1913, when he was assassinated in Istanbul.[1] Among other things, he is credited with the creation of the Ottoman Air Force in 1911 and bringing the first automobile to Istanbul.

Mahmut1

The pistols carried by Mahmud Şevket Pasha's assassins

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 David Kenneth Fieldhouse: Western imperialism in the Middle East 1914-1958. Oxford University Press, 2006 p.17
  2. Ali Bilgenoğlu, Osmanlı Devleti'nde Arap milliyetçi cemiyetler, Müdafaa-i Hukuk Yayınları, 2007, p. 87.]
  3. "New York Times, May 17, 1909". The New York Times. 17 May 1909. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0E12FF355512738DDDAE0994DD405B898CF1D3. 
  4. İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, Türkiye Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1971, p. 101. (Turkish)
  5. Nâzım Tektaş, Sadrazamlar: Osmanlı'da ikinci adam saltanatı, Çatı Kitapları, 2002, p. .
  6. Finkel, Caroline, Osman's Dream, (Basic Books, 2005), 57; Istanbul was only adopted as the city's official name in 1930...
Preceded by
Kibrisli Mehmed Kamil Pasha
Grand Vizier
1913
Succeeded by
Said Halim Pasha
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