Ahmed Izzet Pasha
In the Ottoman Army, staff officers in all levels were combatants, which is a comparison to other armies that have enlisted personnel for specific tasks that were not combatant. Before the Second Constitutional Era, the Sultan and his high-ranking staff officers performed the main planning and activity by the Ministry of War which was established in 1826. During this time, the General Staff was a department within the Ministry of War. It performed the recruitment, reserves, judiciary and printing military charts. Ahmed Izzet Pasha, who became the chief of general staff on August 15, 1908, was aware of the urgent need of this institution to be reformed. Ahmed Izzet Pasha's work produced good results and he managed to provide a better and much more efficient structure for the General Staff. At the outbreak of the Balkan Wars, the General Staff was divided into seven departments and it formed the headquarters of Nazım Paşa, the acting head commander. When the war was lost, further changes were needed and these came with Enver Pasha, who on January 3, 1914 replaced Ahmed Izzet Pasha as both the minister of war and the chief of general staff.