| Enver Pasha |
Website Links For Ismail |
Information AboutEnver Pasha |
|
Ismail Enver ( military officer and a leader of the Young Turk revolution. He was the main leader of the Ottoman Empire during all of World War I . BACKGROUND Born to a wealthy family in Istanbul , he studied in Germany and became interested in German theories of military organization and strategy. He rose rapidly in the Ottoman army upon his return, becoming a Pasha by 1913 at the age of thirty-two. Enver was a vocal advocate of the idea of a Greater Turkey. In practice this meant that all Turkic people were to be united, either in a single state ruled by the Ottoman Dynasty or into a federal political union. In April 1912 the Young Turks (officially the Committee Of Union And Progress (CUP)) won an overwhelming majority in an election, but the loss of the province of Libya to Italy and other setbacks eroded its support to the point that in July the CUP was forced to yield to a political coalition called the Liberal Union. THE THREE PASHAS In a Coup on January 23 , 1913 , the CUP overthrew the Liberal Union coalition and introduced a military dictatorship headed, within a few months, by the "Three Pashas" - Enver Pasha, Talat Pasha , and Djemal Pasha . While Enver's portfolio was only minister of war, the other two Pashas usually defered to Enver. One week before the Ottoman government declared war on Russia by shelling Odessa , Enver gave himself a new position ''Vice-Generalissimo'', making him the near dictator of the Ottoman government at the age of 34. As soon as the war started, October 31 1914 , Enver ordered that all men of military age report to army recruiting offices. The offices were unable to handle the vast flood of men and long delays occurred. This had the effect of ruining the crop harvest for that year. DEFEAT AT SARIKAMIS Enver thought of himself as a great military leader while the German military advisor, Limon Von Sanders , thought of him as a military buffoon. The reality was, Enver ordered a complex attack on the Russians, placed himself in personal control of the Third Army, and was utterly defeated at the Battle Of Sarikamis in December-January 1914-1915. Enver's army (90.000)was defeated by Russian force(100.000) and in the subsequent retreat, tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers died. This was the single worst defeat of a Turkish army in all of World War One . After his defeat at Sarikamis, Enver returned to Istambul and took command of the Turkish forces around the capital. The British and French were planning an attack on the center of the Ottoman government and by so doing, knocking Turkey out of the war early. A large Allied Fleet assembled and staged an attack on the Dardanelles on March 18 , 1915 . The attack (the forerunner to the failed Gallipoli Campaign ) left the Turks - and Enver - demoralized. As a result, Enver turned over command to the Limon von Sanders, who commanded the successful defence of Gallipoli. Enver proved to be ineffective as a war minister and frequently over the next four years the Germans would have to support the Ottoman government with generals such as Limon von Sanders, Falkenhayn , Baron Von Der Goltz , and Kress Von Kressenstein . The Germans also gave the Ottoman government military supplies, soldiers, and even fuel. Enver's government spent much more than it took in and the inflation rate over the four years of war was greater than 1600%. THE LAST YEAR In 1918, with Ottoman forces defeated in Palestine and Mesopotamia , Enver looked for victory in Russia. During 1917, due to the Russian Revolution and subsequent Civil War , the Russian army in the Caucusus had ceased to exist. When Enver discussed his plans for taking over southern Russia, the Germans told him to keep out. Undetered, Enver ordered the creation of a new military force called the Army Of Islam which would have no German officers. Early in 1918, the Ottoman army attacked Armenia, destroying most of the forces of the new Republic Of Armenia . The Army of Islam marched into Russia, eventually reaching Baku in September of 1918. These conquests in the Caucusus counted for very little in the war as a whole. With the destruction of their army in the battle of Sardarapate (Armenia). The Armenian army was led by Daniel Bek. After the defeat in Sardarapate the Army of Islam lost its fire power. It lost battle after battle and on May 27 1918 sent a peace treaty to Armenia. , the collapse of Austria-Hungary , and the loss of Mesopotamia , the war was lost. First to go was Talat Pasha, who resigned days before the empire capitulated and signed an Armistice on October 30 . Enver resigned with the rest of CUP Cabinet two days later, and the "Three Pashas" all fled into exile. Enver first went to Germany in October 1918 where he had relations with German Communist figures like Karl Radek . A post-war tribunal in Istanbul tried him ''in absentia'' for crimes related to the Armenian Genocide and condemned him to death. Former Minister of Justice Ibrahim Bey was condemned as well. Enver was considered to be one of the Triumvirate of Turkish leaders who bore primary responsibility for the mass-killings of Armenians, along with minister of the interior Mehmed Talat Pasha and minister of the navy Ahmed Djemal Pasha. Enver then fled to Russian Turkestan where he hoped to unite the Turkic groups of that region and oppose the spread of Bolshevism . There, he was killed by an Armenian General in a failed last-ditch Cavalry charge on August 4 , 1922 , near Baldzhuan in Turkestan (present-day Tajikistan ). SEE ALSO SOURCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|