Mehmed Talat Totally Explained

Everything about Talaat Pasha totally explained

Mehmed Talat (1874-1921) also known as Talat Pasha was one of the first important members of the Committee of Union and Progress. He played an increasingly important part in Ottoman politics becoming deputy for Edirne, minister and finally in 1917 Grand Vizier a quote from the "Andonian Telegrams".

Early life

Mehmed Talat born in 1874 in Kırcaali town of Edirne Province from a family of junior civil servant working for the Ottoman Empire. His father was from a village in the mountainous south-eastern corner of present day Bulgaria. He had powerful build and a dark complexion . His manners were bluff, which caused him to leave the civil preparatory school without a certificate after a conflict with his teacher. Without earning the degree, he joined the staff of the telegraph company as a postal clerk in Edirne. His salary wasn't high, so he worked after hours as a Turkish language teacher in the Alliance Israelite School which served the Jewish community of Edirne Christian Armenians were located in both the Russian and Ottoman Empires. In eastern Anatolia, during the Caucasus Campaign some of the Ottoman Armenian population, following the Russian invaders, engaged in open warfare, With this conditions he led to an order for the Tehcir Law of June 1 1915 to February 8 1916 (deportation) of Armenians from the region, which academics define as vehicle of the Armenian Genocide.
Talat, as minister of the interior, bears much of the responsibility for the deportation of the Armenians from the empire's eastern provinces to Syria. Most historians blame him for the barbarity of the operation and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Although Talat was the minister of the interior, many historians argue that Enver Pasha deserves equal blame for the extermination of the Armenians. He is reported to have said the following to to Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr. in Ambassador Morgenthau's Story Grand vizier, 1917 In 1917, Talat became the grand vizier, but he was unable to reverse the downward spiral of Ottoman fortunes in his new position.
Over the next year, Jerusalem and Baghdad were lost and in October of 1918, the British shattered both Ottoman armies they faced. With defeat certain, Talat resigned on October 14, 1918.

Exile 1919 - 1921

Talat Pasha fled the Ottoman capital in a German submarine on 3 November 1918, from Istanbul harbour to Berlin. Just a week later the Porte capitulated to the Allies and signed the Armistice of Mudros.
Public opinion was shocked by the departure of Talat Pasha, even though he'd been known to turn a blind eye on corrupt ministers appointed because of their associations to CUP . Talat Pasha was known as a courageous and patriotic individual, and he'd willingly face the consequences.

Aubrey Herbert interview, 1921

The last official interview Talat granted was to Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert, a British intelligence agent. It was nine days before his assassination. The interview was short meetings with him during three days in a park in a small German town. The interview gave chance to Talat explain the policies of Ottoman Empire During the last 10 years.
These meetings corroborated earlier intelligence to the effect that Talat Pasha was seeking support from Muslim countries to form a serious opposition movement against the Allied Powers, and that he was soon intending to take refuge in Ankara, which Turkish national movement was forming. Furthermore, Talat Pasha also dared to make the threat that he was going to incite the Pan-Turanist and Pan-Islamist movements against England, unless she signed a peace treaty favorable for Turkey.
During this interview Talat maintained on several occasions that the CUP had always sought British friendship and advice; but Britain was in no mood to offer any assistance whatsoever.

Assassination, 1921

Before the assassination, the British intelligence services identified Talat in Stockholm where he'd gone for a few days. The British intelligence first planned to apprehend him in Berlin where he was planning to return, but then changed its mind because it feared the complications this would create in Germany. Another view in the British intelligence was that Talat should be apprehended by the British navy in the sea while returning from Scandinavia by ship. At the end, it was decided to let him return to Berlin, find out what he was trying to accomplish with his activities abroad, and to establish direct contact with him before giving the final verdict. This was achieved with the help of Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert.
Their intelligence service established contact with its counterpart in the Soviet Union to evaluate the situation. Talat Pasha's plans made the Russian officials as anxious as the British. The two intelligence services collaborated and signed among them the 'death warrant' of Talat. Information concerning his physical description and his whereabouts was forwarded to their men in Germany As a matter of fact, Talat was assassinated with a single bullet on 15 March 1921 as he came out of his house in Hardenbergstrasse, Charlottenburg by an Armenian Revolutionary Federation member from Erzurum named Soghomon Tehlirian. . Reading of these letters by the defense attorney in court helped acquit Tehlirian.

Posthumous Memoirs

In a very short time after the assassination of Talat on March 1921, the "Posthumous Memoirs of Talaat" was published on October volume of The New York Times Current History. In this memoir, he accepted that the deportation wasn't carried out lawfully everywhere. He claimed that in the region there was hatred among the Armenians and Kurdish which had their bitter history. He also claimed that there were officials who abused their authority. He also states that region become unlawful and people took preventive measures into their own hands. He accepts that the duty of the Government was to prevent these abuses and atrocities. He claimed that as the minister of interior, he ordered to arrest those who were responsible and punished them according to the law.|Mehmed Talat}}

Burial

He was buried into the Turkish Cemetery in Berlin. In 1943, his remains were taken to Istanbul and reburied in Şişli. His war memories were published after his death.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Talaat Pasha'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://mehmed_talat.totallyexplained.com">Mehmed Talat Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.