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Mehmed Talat PasaTurkish statesman, Ottoman Interior Minister, war criminal
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Biography of Mehmed Talaat Pasha
Mehmed Talaat Pasha was a Turkish statesman, the Minister of Interior of the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1918. He was also one of the main organizers of the mass deportation and genocide of Armenians, making him a war criminal.
Early Life and Career
Talaat Pasha was born in 1874 in Kyrdzhali, a province of Edirne. He came from a military family and completed his education at a prestigious school in Edirne. Initially, he worked as a telegraph employee and joined the Young Turk movement, actively fighting against the tyranny of Abdul Hamid II. In 1893, he was arrested for his political activities but was released after two years and exiled to Thessaloniki, where he became the leader of the local branch of the Young Turk party. From 1898 to 1908, he worked as a postman in Thessaloniki and eventually became the head of the city's postal service.
Political Career
After the Young Turk revolution of 1908, Talaat Pasha was elected as a deputy in the parliament. In 1909 to 1912, he served as the Minister of Interior. In 1911, he became a member of the "Union and Progress" party. He later held the position of Minister of Post and Telegraph in 1912, and during the Balkan Wars from 1912 to 1913, he served in the army. Talaat Pasha was one of the main organizers of the state coup on January 23, 1913, which brought him back to the position of Minister of Interior and also made him the chairman of the Central Committee of the Young Turk party. He strongly advocated for Ottomanism, the forced Turkicization of non-Turkish peoples within the empire, and was a fervent supporter of Pan-Islamism. He was part of the "Triumvirate" along with Enver Pasha and Djemal Pasha, who implemented the genocide and deportation of the Armenian population.
Later Years and Trial
In his memoirs published in 1946, Talaat Pasha admitted to the forced deportation and extermination of Armenians, but he justified it as a means to protect the "national interests" of the Turks and prevent the creation of an Armenian state in the bordering provinces with Russia. On October 7, 1918, Talaat Pasha acknowledged the failure of the Young Turk policies and resigned from power. He fled to Germany under the name Ali Salibey. In 1919, the Extraordinary Field Tribunal held in Constantinople sentenced Talaat Pasha to death in absentia for his war crimes and the "extermination of the Armenian population of the empire." On March 15, 1921, Talaat Pasha was assassinated in Berlin by Soghomon Tehlirian as part of Operation Nemesis, a mission to punish the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide, with Talaat Pasha being the first on the list. Tehlirian was acquitted by the Berlin court.
