Enver pasha biography books

His imperial dreams required an offensive into the Caucasus, followed by a thrust eastward to the Turkish populations of Central Asia. The war minister took personal command of the Third Army facing the Russians in the Caucasus. The prospect of a sweeping advance over mountainous terrain in the dead of winter would no doubt have terrified most World War I generals.

And with good reason. Faced with able opponents like General Yudenich, Enver suffered calamitous losses and exposed eastern Anatolia to the Russians. Turkish concern over the threat to eastern Anatolia led to the controversial policy of removing the Armenian population from this region. The diffusion of authority among the Young Turk leaders has made it difficult to establish the precise responsibility for the decision and for the savage manner in which it was implemented.

The weight of Western scholarly opinion considers the deportations a form of genocide, unwarranted by military necessity. Enver and Talat are generally held to be the culprits. An important minority view, however, has come from Stanford Shaw. He points first to the serious military threat posed by Armenian subversion. Moreover, he denies that any massacre took place.

New indications that Enver's strategic ambitions outran his talents came in Word of Yudenich's capture of the stronghold at Erzurum led to more grandiose plans. Enver called for a combined offensive by two Turkish armies against the western and southern flanks of Yudenich's newly won salient. What seemed possible on Enver's maps collided with impossible realities.

The terrain, the weather, and the Russian's countermoves smashed Enver's hopes. By September the Turkish army facing Yudenich from the west had been shattered; the southern force had been stopped dead in its tracks. Enver's active imagination produced the design for a bold counteroffensive. Troops from Syria and eastern Anatolia were to form a special army for the Yilderim "Lightning" project—a Turkish riposte to retake the ancient city.

The hard facts of geography and logistics halted the operation. No way existed to get these forces anywhere near Baghdad or, once there, to supply them. From China to U. Condition: Fine. Not Available. Used Condition: Fine. The book is in fine condition. Masayuki Yamauchi. Number of books: 1 book. Masayuki Yamauchi Iwanami Shoten Cover missing.

Number of books: 1. He was quickly promoted in the army, attaining the title of Pasha Bashaw in , when he was but 32 years old. He married Naciye Sultana, the Sultan's daughter. In , the loss of Libya to Italy eroded the Ittihadists power and drove them into a coalition with the Liberal Union. However, on 23 January 23, the Three Pashas putsched and established a military dictatorhip.

Enver's Third Army suffered a The disastrous defeat of Enver's Third Army at Sarikamish during the December offensive against Russia , in which some 80, Turkish soldiers perished. This diminished Enver's prestige ,. B b ut , without justification, he blamed the Armenians for his defeat, unjustly accusing them of connivance with the Russians.

The genocide against the Armenians was begun on 24 April 24, , with through the arrest and murder of Armenian leaders and intell ectuals igentsia in Istanbul. The Armenian civilian population in Eastern Anatolia was then subjected to massacres and deportations that cost 1 to 1. On 3 July , Niyazi, protesting the rule of Abdul Hamid II , fled with his band from Resne modern Resen into the mountains where he initiated the Young Turk Revolution and issued a proclamation that called for the restoration of the constitution of Enver sent an ultimatum to the Inspector General on 11 July and demanded that within 48 hours Abdul Hamid II issue a decree for CUP members that had been arrested and sent to Constantinople to be freed.

In the aftermath of the revolution, Niyazi and Enver remained in the political background due to their youth and junior military ranks with both agreeing that photographs of them would not be distributed to the general public; however, this decision was rarely honoured. Following the revolution, Enver rose within the ranks of the Ottoman military and had an important role within army—committee relations.

In a reactionary conspiracy to organise a countercoup culminated in the 31 March Incident ; the countercoup was put down. Enver decided to join the defense of the province and left Berlin for Libya. There, he assumed the overall command after successfully mobilizing 20, troops. This allowed Italy to take control of Libya. In , thanks to his active role in the war, he was made lieutenant colonel.

These military reversals weakened the government, and gave the committee the chance to seize power from Freedom and Accord. Turkey then withdrew from the peace negotiations then under way in London and did not sign the Treaty of London , resuming the First Balkan War. The change in government did not change the fact that the war was lost, and the Ottoman Empire gave up almost all of its Balkan territory to the Balkan League.

Enver Bey took advantage of the situation and led an army into Eastern Thrace , recovering Adrianople Edirne from the Bulgarians, who had concentrated their forces against the Serbs and Greeks, with the Treaty of Constantinople Enver is therefore recognised by some Turks as the "conqueror of Edirne". Being able to communicate in German , [ 59 ] Enver Pasha, along with Talaat and Halil Bey were architects of the Ottoman-German Alliance , and expected a quick victory in the war that would benefit the Ottoman Empire.

Without informing the cabinet, he allowed the two German warships SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau , under the command of German admiral Wilhelm Souchon , to enter the Dardanelles to escape British pursuit ; the subsequent "donation" of the ships to the neutral Ottomans worked powerfully in Germany's favor, despite French and Russian diplomacy to keep the Ottoman Empire out of the war.

Finally on 29 October, the point of no return was reached when Admiral Souchon , now Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman navy, took Goeben , Breslau , and a squadron of Ottoman warships into the Black Sea and bombed the Russian ports of Odessa , Sevastopol , and Theodosia. Most of the Turkish cabinet members and CUP leaders were against such a rushed entry to the war, but Enver Pasha held that it was the right course of action.

As soon as the war started, 31 October , 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. Enver Pasha assumed command of the Ottoman forces arrayed against the Russians in the Caucasus theatre.

He wanted to encircle the Russians, force them out of Ottoman territory, and take back Kars and Batumi , which had been ceded after the Russo-Turkish War of — Enver thought of himself as a great military leader, while the German military adviser, Liman von Sanders , thought of him as incompetent. His strategy seemed feasible on paper, but he had ignored external conditions, such as the terrain and the weather.

Enver's army , men was defeated by the Russian force 80, men , and in the subsequent retreat, tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers died. This was the single worst Ottoman defeat of World War I. On his return to Constantinople, Enver Pasha blamed his failure on his Armenian soldiers, although in January , an Armenian named Hovannes had saved his life during a battle by carrying Enver through battle lines on his back.

He was confident that the capital was safe from any Allied attacks. A large Allied fleet assembled and staged an attack on the Dardanelles on 18 March The attack the forerunner to the failed Gallipoli campaign was a disaster, resulting in the loss of several ships. As a result, Enver turned over command to Liman von Sanders , who led the successful defence of Gallipoli.

Enver then left to attend to pressing concerns on the Caucasus Front. Later, after many towns on the peninsula had been destroyed and women and children killed by the Allied bombardment, Enver proposed setting up a concentration camp for the remaining French and British citizens in the empire.

Enver pasha biography books

Henry Morgenthau , the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, convinced Enver not to go through with this plan. Turkish troops were deserting freely, and when Enver visited Beirut in June , soldiers were forbidden to be stationed along his route for fear that he would be assassinated. Lack of rolling stock meant that troops were often detrained at Damascus and marched south.

During , due to the Russian Revolution and subsequent Civil War , the Russian army in the Caucasus fell apart and dissolved. At the same time, the CUP managed to win the friendship of the Bolsheviks with the signing of the Ottoman-Russian friendship treaty 1 January Enver looked for victory when Russia withdrew from the Caucasus region.

When Enver discussed his plans for taking over southern Russia, he ordered the creation of a new military force called the Army of Islam which would have no German officers. Enver's Army of Islam avoided Georgia and marched through Azerbaijan. The Third Army under Vehib Pasha was also moving forward to pre-war borders and towards the First Republic of Armenia , which formed the frontline in the Caucasus.

The Ottoman advance was halted at the Battle of Sardarabad. General Dunsterville ordered the evacuation of the city on 14 September, after six weeks of occupation, and withdrew to Iran. These conquests in the Caucasus counted for very little in the war as a whole but they did however ensure that Baku remained within the boundaries of Azerbaijan while a part of the Soviet Union and later as an independent nation.

Faced with defeat, the Sultan dismissed Enver from his post as War Minister on 4 October , while the rest of Talaat Pasha 's government resigned on 14 October Two days later, the " Three Pashas " all fled into exile. On 1 January , the new government expelled Enver Pasha from the army. He was tried in absentia in the Turkish Courts-Martial of —20 for crimes of "plunging the country into war without a legitimate reason, forced deportation of Armenians and leaving the country without permission" and condemned to death.

He settled in Babelsberg , and in April after meeting with Karl Radek with Talaat, he took on the role of a secret envoy for his friend General Hans von Seeckt who wished for a German-Soviet alliance. Stranded in a country teeming with Allied soldiers, they weren't recognized by journalists or occupation forces until they were about to escape.

After tending to their wounds in a near by village, they returned to Berlin. Enver's insistence to arrive to Moscow by plane costed them another plane crash in flight trials. Eventually Cemal joined the duo, and using a plane that successfully passed flight tests they set off once again for Moscow. But hearing strange noises from the engine, Enver asked the pilot to turn back.