Enver Pasha Enver Pasha ( Ottoman Turkish : , ) or Ismail Enver Pasha ( , , born Ismail Enver ) ( November 22 , 1881 – August 4 , 1922 ) was an Ottoman military officer , a leader of the Young Turk revolution , and one of the principal orchestrators of the Armenian Genocide . He was the main leader of the Ottoman Empire in both Balkan War s and World War I . Pasha is a title that changed with his military ranks ; through his career he was known by increasing titles , including Enver Efendi ( ) , Enver Bey ( ) , and finally Enver Pasha , which is what Ottoman military officers were called after they were promoted to the rank of Mirliva . As a war minister and de facto Commander - in - Chief ( despite only being the de jure Deputy Commander - in - Chief , as the Sultan formally held the title ) , Enver Pasha was considered to be the most powerful figure of the government of the Ottoman Empire or " the number one man in Istanbul " as many referred to him . Back at home he was hailed as " the hero of revolution " , Germans were speaking of Turkey as " Enverland " and the British referred to him as " the one whose power was absolute and ambitions were grandiose " . Early life and career . Enver ' s father , Ahmet , was either a bridge - keeper in Monastir or a small town public prosecutor in the Balkans and his mother an Albanian peasant . He studied for different degrees in military schools in the empire and finally he graduated from the " Harp Akademisi " with distinction in 1903 . He became a Major in 1906 . He was sent to the Third Army , which was stationed in Salonica . During his service in the city , he became a member of the Committee of Union and Progress ( CUP ) . Rise to power . In 1908 , the Young Turk Revolution broke out in Salonica , and the young Enver quickly became one of its military leaders . The successful revolt brought the CUP to power , ushering the so - called " Second Constitutional Era " of the Ottoman Empire . During the course of the next year , a reactionary conspiracy to organize a countercoup culminated in the " 31 March Incident " , which was put down . Enver Bey took an active role in the suppression of the uprising in the government . Afterwards , he was sent to Berlin as a military attaché , where he grew to admire the German military culture , and strengthened the military ties between Germany and the Ottoman Empire , inviting German officers to reform the Ottoman Army . In 1911 , Italy launched an invasion of the Ottoman vilayet of Tripolitania ( " Trablus - i Garb " , modern Libya ) , starting the Italo - Turkish War . Enver decided to join the defense of the province and left Berlin for Libya . There , he assumed the overall command , but in the end Italy took control of Libya and Enver Bey had to return to Istanbul . In 1912 , thanks to his active role in the war , he was made Lieutenant Colonel in 1912 . However , the defeat cost the CUP in popularity , and it fell from government , to be replaced by the Liberal Union . In October 1912 , the First Balkan War broke out , where the Ottoman armies suffered severe defeats at the hands of the Balkan League . These military reversals weakened the government , and gave Enver his chance to grab for power . In a coup in January 1913 , the Young Turks took power , with Enver as War Minister , and left the peace negotiations then under way in London . The renewed hostilities only worsened the Empire ' s situation , however , as the two major remaining strongholds of Adrianople ( Edirne ) and Yannina fell to the Bulgarians and the Greeks , respectively , forcing the Ottomans to concede defeat at the Treaty of London . In June 1913 , however , the Second Balkan War broke out between the Balkan Allies . Enver Bey took advantage of the situation and led an army into Eastern Thrace , recovering Adrianople from the Bulgarians , who had concentrated their forces against the Serbs and Greeks . After this success , Enver Bey became a Pasha , and recognised by some Turks as the " conquerer of Edirne " . After these political and military achievements , he introduced a military dictatorship that came to be called the Three Pashas ( Enver Pasha , Talaat Pasha , and Djemal Pasha ) . In 1914 , he was again Minister of War in the cabinet of Sait Halim Pasha , and married HIH Princess Emine Naciye Sultan ( Istanbul , Ortaköy , Ortaköy Palace , November 25 , 1898 – Istanbul , Nişantaşı , Nişantaşı Palace , December 5 , 1957 ) , the daughter of Prince Süleyman , thus entering the royal family . His power grew steadily while Europe marched towards total war . First World War . Enver Pasha was an architect of the Ottoman - German Alliance , and expected a quick victory in the war that would benefit the Ottoman Empire . Without informing the other members of 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 October 29 , 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 raided the Russian ports of Odessa , Sevastopol and Theodosia . Russia declared war on Ottoman Empire on November 2 , and Britain followed suit on November 5 . Most of the Turkish cabinet members and CUP leaders were against such a rushed entry to the war , but Enver Pasha thought that it was the right thing to do . 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 . War Minister . Enver proved ineffective as War Minister , and frequently over the next four years the Germans had to support the Ottoman government with generals such as Otto Liman von Sanders , Erich von Falkenhayn , Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz , and Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein . The Germans also gave the Ottoman government military supplies , soldiers , and fuel . Enver Pasha ’ s message to the army and the people was “ war until final victory ” . During the war , living conditions deteriorated rapidly , and discontent grew . The government of CUP spent much more money than it took in , and the inflation rate over the four years of war was greater than 1600 % . Battle of Sarikamish , 1914 . 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 1877 - 78 . Enver thought of himself as a great military leader , while the German military adviser , Liman von Sanders , thought of him as a military buffoon . 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 Sarikamish in December – January 1914 – 1915 . His strategy seemed feasible on paper , but he had ignored external conditions , such as the terrain and the weather . Enver ' s army ( 90 , 000 men ) was defeated by the Russian force ( 100 , 000 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 Istanbul , Enver Pasha blamed his failure on his Armenian soldiers , forgetting that in January 1915 , an Armenian named Hovannes saved his life during a battle by carrying Enver through battle lines on his back . Nonetheless , Ismail Pasha later initiated the deportations and massacres of Western Armenians culminating in the Armenian Genocide . Commanding the forces of the capital 1915 – 1918 . After his defeat at Sarıkamısh , Enver returned to Istanbul and took command of the Turkish forces around the capital . He was confident that the capital was safe from any Allied attacks . The British and French were planning on forcing the approaches to Istanbul in the hope of knocking the Ottomans out of the war . A large Allied fleet , largely composed of older battleships unfit for duty against the German High Seas 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 Liman von Sanders , who led the successful defence of Gallipoli , along with Mustafa Kemal . 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 . Henry Morgenthau , the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire , managed to convince Enver not to go through with this plan . Yildirim . Enver ’ s plan was for Falkenhayn ’ s Yildirim Army Group to retake Baghdad , recently taken by Maude . This was a pipedream for logistical reasons . Turkish troops were deserting freely , and when Enver visited Beirut in June 1917 soldiers were forbidden to be stationed along his route for fear that he would be assassinated , and lack of rolling stock meant that troops were often detrained at Damascus and marched south . War Crimes committed by Enver Pasha . Enver Pasha , throughout 1915 - 1918 , carried out mass - orchestrated killings and specifically , a genocide against the Ottoman Armenians ; the death toll is argued to be around 800 , 000 - 1 . 5 million . He , along with other members of the political group , The Young Turks , intentionally drove the Armenian citizenry from their homes , villages , and dwellings and forced them to a subsequent death march across the Syrian Desert , or Deir ez - Zor . Army of Islam . During 1917 , due to the Russian Revolution and subsequent Civil War , the Russian army in the Caucasus had ceased to exist . At the same time , the CUP managed to win the friendship of the Bolsheviks with the signing of the Ottoman - Russian friendship treaty ( January 1 , 1918 ) . Enver looked for victory when Russia withdrew from the Caucasus region . When Enver discussed his plans for taking over southern Russia , the Germans told him to keep out . Undeterred , Enver 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 was also moving forward to pre - war borders . The Third Army , moved towards the Democratic Republic of Armenia , which formed the frontline in the Caucasus . General Tovmas Nazarbekian was the commander on the Caucasus front and Andranik Ozanian took the command of Armenia within the Ottoman Empire . Vehib Pasha forced Armenians to retreat and then captured Trabzon , where the Russians had left huge quantities of supplies . Then the army turned towards Georgia . The Army of Islam , under the control of Nuri Pasha , moved forward and attacked Australian , New Zealand , British , and Canadian troops led by General Lionel Charles Dunsterville at Baku . General Dunsterville ordered the evacuation of the city on September 14 , after six weeks of occupation , and withdrew to Iran ; most of the Armenian population escaped with British forces . The Ottomans and their Azeri allies , after the Battle of Baku , entered the city on September 15 . However , after the Armistice of Mudros between Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire on October 30 , Ottoman troops were replaced by the Triple Entente . These conquests in the Caucasus counted for very little in the war as a whole . Armistice and exile . Faced with defeat , the Sultan dismissed Enver from his post as War Minister on October 4 , 1918 , while the rest of Talat Pasha ' s government resigned on October 14 , 1918 . On October 30 , 1918 , the Ottoman Empire capitulated by signing the Armistice of Mudros . Two days later the " Three Pashas " all fled into exile . On January 1 , 1919 , the new government expelled Enver Pasha from the army . He was tried " in absentia " in the Turkish Courts - Martial of 1919 - 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 . Enver first went to Germany in October 1918 where he communicated and worked with German Communist figures like Karl Radek . In October 1919 , Enver left for Moscow in order to serve as a secret envoy for his friend General Hans von Seeckt who wished for a German - Soviet alliance . In August 1920 , Enver sent Seeckt a letter in which he offered on behalf of the Soviet Union the partition of Poland in return for German arms deliveries to Soviet Russia . Besides working for General von Seeckt , Enver envisioned cooperation between the new Soviet Russian government against the British , and went to Moscow . There he was well - received , and established contacts with representatives from Central Asia and other exiled CUP members as the director of the Soviet Government ' s Asiatic Department . He also met with Bolshevik leaders , including Lenin . He tried to support the Turkish national movement and corresponded with Mustafa Kemal , giving him the guarantee that he didn ' t intend to intervene in the movement in Anatolia . Enver Pasha went to Baku between September 1 and 8 , 1920 to take part in the failed " Congress of Eastern Peoples " , representing Libya , Tunisia , Algeria and Morocco . He later returned to Berlin where he tried to establish a secret organization that would transfer Russian military assistance to Turkey , an attempt that eventually failed . Relations with Mustafa Kemal . A great deal of thought - provoking pieces has been written about the relations between the two men who played a pivotal role in the Turkish history of the 20th century . Enver , as many suggest , disliked Kemal due to his circumspect attitude as to the political agenda pursued by the CUP , and considered him as a serious rival . Kemal thought of Enver as a dangerous leader with the potential of leading the country to the ultimate tragedy . When Kemal organised the resistance movement against the invading forces after the Armistice of 1918 , Enver , who was in exile initially in Germany and then in Russia , was eager to return to Turkey , but all of his attempts to join the war were stubbornly blocked by the Ankara government . Pan - Turkism and death , 1921 - 22 . On July 30 , 1921 , with the Turkish War of Independence in full swing , Enver decided to return to Anatolia . He went to Batum to be close to the new border . However , Mustafa Kemal didn ' t want him among the Turkish revolutionaries . Mustafa Kemal had stopped all friendly ties with Enver Pasha and the CUP as early as 1914 , and he explicitly rejected the pan - Turkic ideas and what Mustafa Kemal perceived as Enver Pasha ' s utopian goals ( see : Kemalism ) . Enver Pasha changed his plans and traveled to Moscow where he managed to win the trust of the Soviet authorities . In November 1921 he was sent by Lenin to Bukhara in the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to help suppress an uprising against the local pro - Moscow Bolshevik regime . However , instead he made secret contacts with some of the rebellion ' s leaders and , along with a small number of followers , defected to the " basmachi " side . His aim was to unite the numerous basmachi groups under his own command and mount a co - ordinated offensive against the Bolsheviks in order to realize his pan - Turkish dreams . After a number of successful military operations he managed to establish himself as the rebels ' supreme commander , and turned their disorganized forces into a small but well - drilled army . His command structure was built along German lines and his staff included a number of experienced Turkish officers . From David Fromkin ' s - A Peace to End All Peace , New York 1989 , chapter 56 , page 487 - " However Enver ' s personal weaknesses reasserted themselves . He was a vain , strutting man who loved uniforms , medals and titles . For use in stamping official documents , he ordered a golden seal that described him as ' Commander - in - Chief of all the Armies of Islam , Son - in - Law of the Caliph and Representative of the Prophet . ' Soon he was calling himself Emir of Turkestan , a practice not conducive to good relations with the Emir whose cause he served . At some point in the first half of 1922 , the Emir of Bukhara broke off relations with him , depriving him of troops and much - needed financial support . The Emir of Afghanistan also failed to march to his aid . " On August 4 , 1922 , however , as he allowed his troops to celebrate the Idi Qurbon holiday and kept a guard of 30 men at his headquarters near the village of Ab - i - Derya near Dushanbe , the Red Army Bashkir cavalry brigade under the command of Yakov Melkumov launched a surprise attack . According to some sources , Enver and some 25 of his men mounted their horses and charged the approaching troops , during which Enver was killed by machine - gun fire . In his memoirs Enver Pasha ' s aide Yaver Suphi Bey stated that Enver Pasha died of a bullet wound right above his heart during a cavalry charge . Alternatively , according to Melkumov ' s memoirs , Enver managed to escape on horseback and hid for four days in the village of Chaghan . His hideout was located after a Red Army officer infiltrated the village in disguise . Melkumov ' s troops then stormed Chaghan , and in the ensuing combat Enver was killed by Melkumov himself . From David Fromkin ' s - A Peace to End All Peace , chapter 56 , page 488 with many cited references - " There are several accounts of how Enver died . According to the most persuasive of them , when the Russians attacked he gripped his pocket Koran and , as always , charged straight ahead . Later his decapitated body was found on the field of battle . His Koran was taken from his lifeless fingers and was filed in the archives of the Soviet secret police . " Enver ' s body was buried near Ab - i - Derya . In 1996 , his remains were brought to Republic of Turkey and reburied at Abide - i Hürriyet ( Monument of Liberty ) cemetery in Şişli , Istanbul . Today in modern Turkey , Enver ’ s image remains controversial , since there are still those who blame the Pasha for the Turkish entrance into the World War and subsequent collapse of the empire . Yet quite a significant number of Turks still see him as the man who failed to secure the ultimate Ottoman victory due to global conditions which were beyond his control , and therefore , tend to maintain rather supportive attitude towards the leader of Young Turks ’ regime . Issue . By his marriage , he had : His widow remarried his brother HE Damat Mohammed Kamil Beyefendi ( 1900 – 1962 ) in 1923 , and had one daughter :