Who is Talaat Pasha and what did he do?

Talat Pasha, one of the founders of the Committee for Union and Progress, a very important Ottoman statesman. As such, the question of who Talaat Pasha, statesman and politician was, is curious. Talaat Pasha, a figure of great value to the Ottoman Empire, was shot dead in front of his house in Berlin. We have collected answers to questions like who is Talaat Pasha and what did Talaat Pasha do in this list.

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Who is Talaat Pasha?

Mehmet Talaat was born in 1874 in Kirkcalli, Edirne Province. He received his first education in Fez, then graduated from the Edirne Military High School. He took over the management of the house after his father’s death. Between 1898 and 1908 he worked as a postal clerk at the Thessaloniki Post Office. After serving here for 10 years, he became postmaster. Talaat, who speaks Greek, took French lessons while working as a civil servant.

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Join the Young Turk movement

Talat Bey became aware of the Young Turk’s idea at an early age and joined an opposition organization of low-ranking officers and bureaucrats. Talaat Bey was arrested with his friend in 1896 and sentenced to 3 years in prison. He was pardoned in 1898 after spending 1.5 years in Edirne Prison. But he was not allowed to live in Edirne and was sent to Thessaloniki.

From 1899 until 1907 he worked as a clerk in the Post and Telegraph Department of Thessaloniki Province. In July 1906, when the opposition decided to organize a new organization, a committee consisting of Ismail Kanbulat, Mithat Shukro Bey, and Talat Bey established the organization, which later became the Ottoman Freedom Association. Ismail Kanbulat and Mustafa Rahmi Bey and Talat Bey participated in the management of the organization. The association, made up of low-ranking officers, merged with the “Association for Progress and the Ottoman Union” on September 17, 1907. Talat Bey worked as a clerk in this new organization. When he was dismissed from his position at the Post Office in 1907, he began to use all his time for the community. He went to Istanbul twice before the proclamation of the constitutional monarchy and made efforts to establish a branch of the society in Istanbul.

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After the 1908 revolution, he became one of the most important politicians in the Ottoman Empire.

After the revolution of 1908, the society’s name was changed to “Ottoman Union and Progressive Society”. Talaat Bey became one of the most important administrators in society. However, he was one of the most important policy makers in the Ottoman Empire between 1908-1918. He also became the first Grand President of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Builders, founded in 1909, and served with that title for one year.

Talat Bey became a candidate from Edirne in the 1908 elections and entered Parliament with 90 votes. When the assembly opened, Ahmed Reza Bey received 205 votes and was elected president. Talaat Bey obtained 116 votes and was elected first vice president.

Talaat Pasha became a target of the rebels in the March 31 Revolution

Talaat and Nazim Bey became targets of the rebels in the March 31 Revolution. On the third day of the rebellion, Talaat Bey went to Iastephanos with Dr. Nazim Bey to gather members of parliament and members of Ayan and join the army of action. Together with the deputies and notables assembled at the Yacht Club, he signed the telegram sent to the Grand Ministry stating that the Sultan’s rights would be protected as long as he remained loyal to ‘Law-u Esasi’. Talaat Bey headed the delegation, which said that he ascended the throne to Rashad Effendi with Ghazi Ahmed Mukhtar Pasha after Sultan Abdul Hamid was deposed.

He became Grand Minister on 3 February 1917.

When Said Halim Pasha resigned due to health problems on 3 February 1917, Talaat Bey was appointed grand vizier, with the rank of vizier. Thus, Talat Bey became the first deputy to be appointed Grand Vizier in the Ottoman Empire. Talaat Pasha personally went to peace talks with Russia, which withdrew from the war after the Bolshevik Revolution. He met people who played an important role in Soviet diplomacy, such as Dzhegrin and Lev Mikhailovich Karahan, and revolutionaries such as Leon Trotsky and Karl Radek. Talaat Pasha signed the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, which was signed on March 3, 1918, as the representative of the Ottoman Empire. Thanks to the efforts of Talaat Pasha, Russia returned all the lands (Artvin, Ardahan, Kars and Batum) that it occupied in the war of 93 to the Ottoman Empire.

After the defeat of the Ottomans in the war, Talaat Pasha submitted his resignation from the Grand Ministry on October 8, 1918.

Talaat Pasha’s death

Talaat Pasha was shot in the head by the Armenian assassin Soghomon Tehlirian at close range in front of his house in Berlin on March 15, 1921. There was a great turnout at Talaat Pasha’s funeral prayer in Berlin.

The captured killer confessed to the murder he had committed. At the end of the two-day trial, the defense witnesses presented by the Turkish side were not heard and the murderer Tahlerian was acquitted. The reason for the decision was cited as Teherian’s insanity and trauma over the deportation.

After Talat Pasha was killed, the Turkish Grand National Assembly adopted a law in 1926. Thanks to this law, his family was allocated a home and a martyr’s pension was granted.

Talaat Pasha and Ataturk

After the death of Talat Pasha, Ataturk shed tears and said the following words: “The country has lost a great son, a great organizer of the revolution.”

These words of Atatürk prove that Talat Pasha was a very important person for the Turkish nation.