Three Pashas

The Three Pashas[1] also known as the Young Turk triumvirate[2][3] or CUP triumvirate[4] consisted
of Mehmed Talaat Pasha (1874–1921), the Grand Vizier (prime minister) and Minister of the Interior;
Ismail Enver Pasha (1881–1922), the Minister of War; and Ahmed Cemal Pasha (1872–1922), the Minister
of the Navy, who effectively ruled the Ottoman Empire after the 1913 Ottoman coup. According to
historian Hans-Lukas Kieser, Talat's power increased over time and eclipsed the others after 1913–1914.[5]

The Three Pashas, all members of the Committee of Union and Progress, were largely responsible for the
Empire's entry into World War I in 1914 and also largely responsible for the death of over one million
Armenians in the Armenian genocide. The Turkish public widely criticized the Three Pashas for causing
the Ottoman Empire to enter WWI.[6] All three met violent deaths after the war - Talaat and Cemal were
assassinated, while Enver died leading the Basmachi Revolt near Dushanbe, present-day Tajikistan.

After their deaths, Talaat and Enver's remains have been reburied at the Monument of Liberty in Istanbul
and many of Turkey's streets have been renamed in their honour.

Contents
Legacy
Historiography
Involvement in Armenian genocide
Reputation in the Republic of Turkey
See also
References

Legacy
Western scholars hold that after the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état, these three men became the de facto rulers
of the Ottoman Empire until its dissolution following World War I.[7] They were members of the
Committee of Union and Progress,[8] a progressive organization that they eventually came to control and
transform into a primarily Pan-Turkist political party.[9]

The Three Pashas were the principal players in the Ottoman–German Alliance and the Ottoman Empire's
entry into World War I on the side of the Central Powers.[10] One of the three, Ahmed Cemal, was opposed
to an alliance with Germany, and French and Russian diplomacy attempted to keep the Ottoman Empire
out of the war; but Germany was agitating for a commitment. Finally, on 29 October, the point of no return
was reached when Admiral Wilhelm Souchon took SMS Goeben, SMS Breslau, and a squadron of
Ottoman warships into the Black Sea (see pursuit of Goeben and Breslau) and raided the Russian ports of
Odessa, Sevastopol, and Theodosia. It was claimed that Ahmed Cemal agreed in early October 1914 to
authorize Admiral Souchon to launch a pre-emptive strike.

Ismail Enver had only once taken the control of any military activity (Battle of Sarıkamış), and left the
Third Army in ruins. The First Suez Offensive and Arab Revolt are Ahmed Cemal's most significant
failures.
Historiography

While the triumvirate consisted of Talat, Enver, and Cemal, some

say Halil Bey was a fourth member of this clique. Historian Hans-
Lukas Kieser asserts that this state of rule by the Three Pashas
triumvirate is only accurate for the year 1913–1914, and that Talat
Pasha would increasingly become a more central figure within the
Union and Progress party state, especially once he also became
Grand Vizier in 1917.[11] Alternatively, it would also be accurate
to call the Unionist regime a clique or even an oligarchy, as many
prominent Unionists held some form of de jure or de facto power.
Other than the Three Pashas and Halil Bey, personalities such as
Dr. Nazım, Bahaeddin Şakir, Mehmed Reşid, Ziya Gökalp, and
the party's secretary general Midhat Şükrü also dominated the
Central Committee without formal positions in the Ottoman
government. The CUP regime was also less hierarchically
totalitarian than future European dictatorships. Instead of relying
on strict and rigid chains of command the regime functioned The front page of the Ottoman
through the balancing of factions through massive corruption and newspaper İkdam on 4 November
kickbacks.[12] Individual governors were allowed much autonomy, 1918 after the Three Pashas fled the
such as Cemal Pasha's governorship of Syria and Rahmi Bey's country following World War I. The
governorship of the Izmir vilayet. This lack of rule of law, lack of paper reads in part, "Their response
respect to the constitution, and extreme corruption would worsen to eliminate the Armenian problem
as the regime aged. was to attempt the elimination of the
Armenians themselves." Showing
left to right Cemal Pasha; Talaat
Involvement in Armenian genocide Pasha; Enver Pasha.

As de facto rulers, the Three Pashas have been considered the

masterminds behind the Armenian genocide. After the war the three were put on trial (in their absence) and
sentenced to death, although the sentences were not carried out. Talaat and Cemal were assassinated in
exile in 1921 and 1922 by Armenians; Enver died in a Red Army ambush in Tajikistan in 1922 while
trying to raise a Muslim anti-Russian insurrection.

Reputation in the Republic of Turkey

After World War I and the ensuing Turkish War of Independence, much of the population of the newly
established Republic of Turkey as well its founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk[13] widely criticized the Three
Pashas for having caused the Ottoman Empire's entrance into World War I,[6] and the subsequent collapse
of the state.[14] As early as 1912, Atatürk (then just Mustafa Kemal) had severed his ties to the Three
Pashas' Committee of Union and Progress, dissatisfied with the direction that they had taken the party,[15]
as well as developing a rivalry with Enver Pasha.[14] Although Enver Pasha later attempted to join the
Turkish War of Independence, the Angora (Ankara) government under Atatürk blocked his return to
Turkey and his efforts to join the war effort.

See also
Young Turk Revolution
Second Constitutional Era
1913 Ottoman coup d'état
 Armenian genocide

References
1. Ottoman Turkish: ‫اوچ ﭘﺎﺷﻼر‬, Turkish: Üç Paşalar
2. Kieser 2018, p. xii.
3. Yacoubian, George S. Jr (2020–2021). "Toward Permanent Peace and Stability in Artsakh"
(https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/huribri24&div=33&id=&pag
e=). Human Rights Brief. 24: 147.
4. Tanvir Wasti, Syed (2020). "A review of the Turco-Italian war of 1911–1912 and related
letters of Enver Pasha". Middle Eastern Studies. 56 (1): 131–141.
doi:10.1080/00263206.2019.1627336
(https://doi.org/10.1080%2F00263206.2019.1627336).
5. Kieser 2018, p. xiii.
6. Barry M. Rubin; Kemal Kirişci (1 January 2001). Turkey in World Politics: An Emerging
Multiregional Power (https://books.google.com/books?id=M01_djppi18C&pg=PA168).
Lynne Rienner Publishers. p. 168. ISBN 978-1-55587-954-9.
7. Emin, 310; Kayali, 195
8. Derogy, 332; Kayali, 195
9. Allen, 614
10. "Ottoman Empire enters the First World War - The Ottoman Empire | NZHistory, New
Zealand history online" (https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/ottoman-empire/enters-the-war).
nzhistory.govt.nz. Retrieved 2017-10-25.
11. Kieser 2018.
12. Kieser 2018, p. 220.
13. George Sellers Harris; Bilge Criss (2009). Studies in Atatürk's Turkey: The American
Dimension (https://books.google.com/books?id=KsNvyTwz9y0C&pg=PA85). BRILL. p. 85.
ISBN 90-04-17434-6.
14. Muammer Kaylan. The Kemalists: Islamic Revival and the Fate of Secular Turkey (https://bo
oks.google.com/books?id=aEh_IofABkYC&pg=PA77). Prometheus Books, Publishers.
p. 77. ISBN 978-1-61592-897-2.
15. Erik Jan Zürcher (1 January 1984). The Unionist Factor: The Rôle [sic] of the Committee of
Union and Progress in the Turkish National Movement, 1905-1926 (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=BUGIBa78aWwC&pg=PA59). BRILL. p. 59. ISBN 90-04-07262-4.

Allen, W.E.D. and R. Muratoff. Caucasian Battlefields: A History Of The Wars On The Turco-
Caucasian Border, 1828-1921. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953. 614 pp.
Bedrossyan, Mark D. The First Genocide of the 20th Century: The Perpetrators and the
Victims. Flushing, NY: Voskedar Publishing, 1983. 479 pp.
Derogy, Jacques. Resistance and Revenge: "Fun Times" The Armenian Assassination of
the Turkish Leaders Responsible for the 1915 Massacres and Deportations. New
Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers and Zoryan Institute, April 1990. 332 pp.
Düzel, Neşe (2005-05-23). "Ermeni mallarını kimler aldı?". Radikal. "Enver Paşa, Talat
Paşa, Bahaittin Şakir gibi bir dizi insanın ailelerine maaş bağlanıyor... Bu maaşlar,
Ermenilerden kalan mülkler, paralar ve fonlardan bağlanıyor."
Emin [Yalman], Ahmed. Turkey in the World War. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
1930. 310 pp.
Joseph, John. Muslim-Christian Relations and Inter-Christian Rivalries in the Middle East.
Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1983. 240 pp.
 Kayalı, Hasan. "Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman
Empire, 1908-1918" 195 pp.
Kieser, Hans-Lukas (26 June 2018), Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of
Genocide, Princeton University Press (published 2018), ISBN 978-0-691-15762-7

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