Having risen up the ranks following the coup d'etat in the Ottoman Empire in 1913, Ismail Enver Pasha became Minister of War during World War I and formed one-third of the triumvirate leadership known as the "Three Pashas" (alongside Djemal Pasha and Talaat Pasha). However, despite the leadership in theory being a triumvirate, Enver Pasha was the de facto ruler and Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman forces - and he was the key orchestrator in both the Armenian Genocide and the brutal destruction of Greek nationals. Some historians have argued that, principle among Enver Pasha's reasons for the Armenian Genocide in particular was the fact he was a useless Minister of War and he required a scapegoat following the humiliating loss at the Battle of Sarikamish in 1915. Approximately 1.2 million Armenians, 500,000 Assyrians, 480,000 Anatolian Greeks and 350,000 Greek Pontians perished as a result of Enver Pasha's advance through Southern and Eastern Europe during and immediately after the Great War - that is an astonishing 2.5 million people killed as a result of the Ottoman ruler's commands. In fact, the term "genocide" was coined following Enver Pasha's horrendous murder of more than 2.5 million people.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
