Halil Kut – ‘the last Ottoman Pasha’

ABSTRACT

The siege of British Indian forces by the Ottoman Army at Kut-al-Amara ın Iraq during the First World War, which ended on 29 April 1916 with the surrender of the garrison under the command of Major General Sir Charles Townshend, was an important mılıtary defeat for Great Britain. The article provides supplementary information on aspects of the 147 day long siege and surrender, based mainly on the memoirs of the Turkish General H. K. Pasha, whose forces took well over 10,000 British Indian officers and men into custody at Kut-al-Amara.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Halil Kut (1882–1957) was born in Istanbul and was an uncle of the Young Turk leader Enver Pasha (1881–1922) who, along with Talât and Cemal Pashas, governed Turkey during the years of the First World War. Halil was a year younger in age than Enver but both were classfellows in the War Academy. During his War Academy years, Halil was also a friend of Mustafa Kemal [later Atatürk, the first President of the Republic of Turkey]. In 1934, when the Law related to the adoption of Surnames was passed in Turkey, Halil Pasha took the surname Kut from the place of his greatest triumph. It is also appropriate that, in Turkish, meanings of the word ‘kut’ also include fortune, good luck and happiness. In non-Turkish sources, the usual spelling for the name Halil is Khalil.

2. Erhan Çifci (ed.), Kutü’l-Amare Kahramanı Halil Kut Paşa'nın Hatıraları [The Memoirs of the Hero of Kut al Amara, Halil Pasha] (Istanbul: TİMAŞ Yayınları), First Printing, September 2015, Second Printing, May 2016, p.252; Eyyup Bostancı (ed.), Bitmeyen Savaşta Kut’ül Amare – Halil Paşa'nın Hatıratı (Dr Necdet Özgelen'in Katkılarıyla) [Kut al Amara in the Unending War – Halil Pasha's Memoirs (with contributions from Dr Necdet Özgelen)] (Istanbul: Akıl Fikir Yayınları, March 2016), First Printing, p.370. These two books will henceforth be referred to in the Endnotes as E. Çifci (ed.) and E. Bostancı (ed.).

3. Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend (1861–1924) was granted a commission with the Royal Marine Light Infantry in 1881. In 1884, he was a member of the relief expedition sent to rescue General Charles Gordon at Khartoum. In 1895, when he held the rank of Captain, he and his garrison were besieged in Chitral Fort (in present-day Pakistan). They were subsequently relieved by British and Kashmiri forces after 46 days, and Townshend returned to London as a hero. Townshend interested himself in the theories of War by studying Napoleon, Clausewitz, Moltke, Foch and other authorities. He was a Francophile, fluent in French, and he also married a French lady, Alice Cahen d'Anvers. Because of his love of everything French, many of his junior officers called him Alphonse, at least in private. After the Kut surrender, he was offered no military position on his return to England. He wrote a detailed account of his days in Iraq, which was published (see endnote no. 4). There are several biographies of Major General Townshend; one of the most recent ones is N. S. Nash, Chitral Charlie – The Rise and Fall of Major General Charles Townshend (London: Pen and Sword Military, 2010), p.326. Townshend deservedly comes in for a lot of criticism in British sources because post-war reports indicated that while he lived in comfort as a guest of the Ottomans, the men who surrendered with him were treated badly as prisoners and large numbers succumbed to illness, hunger and exhaustion.

4. Major General Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend, My Campaign in Mesopotamia, (London: Thornton Butterworth, 1920), p.400. Henceforth, this book is referred to in the Endnotes as Townshend, My Campaign.

5. This is the number for the number of prisoners given in the following source: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/battles/mesopotamia.htm. Other accounts give figures ranging from 8000 to 13,300 men. The latter figure is given by Halil Pasha in his memoirs.

6. David Fromkin, A Peace to end all Peace (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2009), in which Chapter 25 is titled ‘Turkey's Triumph at the Tigris’, pp.200–203.

7. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Dr Edward J. Erickson (1950) is a professor, scholar and also decorated former officer of the Marine Corps with a special interest in military history. He has published several books on late Ottoman military history.

8. Edward J. Erickson, Ottoman Army Effectiveness in World War I – A comparative study (London and New York: Routledge, 2007), p.229. This source will be referred to as Erickson, Ottoman Army Effectiveness.

9. The four case studies, in chronological order, comprise: Gallipoli (1915), Kut-al-Amara (1916), Gaza-Beersheba (1917) and Megiddo (1918).

10. Aubrey Herbert, Mons, Anzac and Kut (London: Edwin Arnold, 1919), p.251. Instead of the author's name the title page of this collection of three diaries has the inscription ‘By an M.P.’. The contents of the book as well as the persons and events described therein indicate that the author could be none other than Aubrey Herbert. Subsequent editions of the book do give the author's name.

11. Aubrey Herbert (1880–1923), whose full name was Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herbert, was the son of the 4th Earl of Carnarvon. Educated at Eton and Balliol, he is said to have spoken many languages including Arabic, Turkish, Albanian and Greek. He became a diplomat, writer and intelligence officer. He was friends with Sir Mark Sykes, T. E. Lawrence, John Buchan and Hilaire Belloc, among many others. From 1911 until his death he was a Conservative Member of Parliament.

12. Major Charles Harrison Barber, Besieged in Kut and After (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood, 1918), p.344. The first edition of the book, published in 1917, was reviewed in the British Medical Journal of 4 August 1917.

13. Sir Arnold Talbot Wilson (1885–1940) was a graduate of Sandhurst, an administrator, an author and later a Member of Parliament. He spent several years in Iraq where he was British Civil Commissioner in Baghdad. He was in favour of an active and continuing British role in the governance of Iraq but returned to Britain in 1920 after he was recalled. On the outbreak of the Second World War he volunteered and enlisted in the Royal Air Force as a gunner. He died during the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 when his plane was shot down by enemy fire, and is buried in France.

14. Sir Arnold T. Wilson, Loyalties – Mesopotamia, Vol. I, 1914–1917 (London: Oxford University Press, 1936), Chapter VII, pp.91–100.

15. Charles Townshend, Desert Hell – The British Invasion of Mesopotamia (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 2011), p.591. First published in the UK as When God made Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914--1921 (London: Faber & Faber, 2010), p.624. In the author's note to the book, Charles Townshend says: ‘It has been an odd experience to write a book with a key character bearing the same name as me’. This book will be referred to in the Endnotes as Charles Townshend, Desert Hell.

16. Eugene Rogan, The Fall of the Ottomans – The Great War in the Middle East (New York: Basic Books, 2015), p.460. Reference will be made henceforth in the Endnotes to this book as Rogan, Fall of the Ottomans.

17. Faruk Necdet Özgelen (1923) joined the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Istanbul in 1942. In 1944 he was sent down from the University because of minor involvement in some right-wing political activity. To support himself, he found employment in the small arms factory in Sütlüce, Istanbul whose owner was Nuri Killigil Pasha, the younger brother of Enver Pasha. Here he came to the notice of Halil Pasha, who for several years after retirement from the Army helped his nephew Nuri Pasha in the administration of the factory. Halil Pasha guided Necdet Özgelen and treated him like a son (and eventually dictated his memoirs to him). Necdet Özgelen was eventually able to return to his medical studies and graduate in 1949. While employed as a doctor and completing his specialization, he remained close to Halil Pasha and his family to whom he owed a large debt of gratitude. Özgelen continued to monitor the Pasha's health closely till the latter's death in 1957.

18. Şevket Süreyya Aydemir (1897–1976) was a Turkish intellectual and writer who combined nationalistic and leftist ideologies. He was the author of over a dozen books, including three volume biographies each of Kemal Atatürk, Ismet İnönü and Enver Pasha.

19. Between 10 October 1967 and 29 December 1967.

20. See, for example, the following: H. A. Kara and E. Erol, ‘100. Yılında Kut’ül Amare Savaşı’nı Hatırlamak: İngiliz Askerlerinin Hatıratlarında Kut’ül Amare'de Savaşın Ötesinde Yaşananlar’ [To Remember the Kut Al Amara Battle on its 100th Anniversary: Experiences beyond the War in Kut Al Amara in the Memoirs of English Soldiers], Turkish Studies Vol.10/13 (Fall 2015), pp.123–40. This is an article by two professors in the Turkish Military Academy, Ankara; Murat Bardakçı, ‘Kut kahramanı Halil Paşa 1921′de sınırdışı edildi’ [The hero of Kut, Halil Pasha was deported from Turkey in 1921], Habertürk (01 May 2016). This newspaper article refers to many interesting episodes in the life of the Pasha and deals with a decision by the Council of Ministers in Ankara that was repealed a year later. lber Ortaylı, ‘Kûtu'l Amâre Zaferi’ [The Kut al Amara Victory], Hürriyet (24 April 2016). This article in a daily newspaper gives a short background account of the war for readers of today.

21. M. Özçelik, ‘Kut’ül Amare Zaferinin Türk Basınına Yansımaları’ [Reflections of the Kut Al Amara Victory in the Turkish Press], Turkish Studies Vol.10/9 (Summer 2015), pp.367--388.

22. Colonel Dr H. Hoşoğlu, Captain Dr M. Şahin and Captain Ö. Körpe (eds.), ‘Unutulan Zafer: Kutü’l Ammare – 100’üncü Yılında Yeniden Anlamak Sempozyumu’ [Kut-ul-Amara, the Forgotten Victory – Understanding it Anew in its Hundredth Year] (Istanbul: Harp Akademileri Basımevi, 2016), p.536.

23. Originally published in 1920 under the title Osmanlı-İngiliz Irak Seferi ve Hatalarımız [The Turco-British Campaign in Mesopotamia and Our Mistakes], reference has been made several times to these memoirs in Charles Townshend, Desert Hell, as a translation of this document into English is available in the British National Archives. The new augmented edition bears the title Kûtülamâre Hücum ve Muhasarası – Binbaşı Mehmed Emin Bey'in Hatıratı [Kut-al-Amara Attack and Siege – Recollections of Major Mehmed Emin Bey] (Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, 2016), p.487.

24. Mehmed Emin Zeki Bey (1880–1948) was an Ottoman military officer and author. Born in Sulaymaniyah, Northern Iraq, he had an excellent knowledge of Turkish, Arabic and Kurdish. He fought on several fronts, and was a director of military operations in the Ottoman VIth Army under Halil Pasha at Kut-al-Amara. After 1923 he stayed on in Iraq and became a Minister in the Iraqi government during the 1930s.

25. Mehmet Emin Dinç, ‘Halil (Kut) Paşa'nın askerî ve siyâsî faaliyetleri’ [The military and political activities of Halil (Kut) Pasha] (PhD thesis supervised by Ahmet Özgiray, Ege University, 1998), pp.150.

26. Ahmed Bey (later Hacı Ahmed Pasha) (1860–1947) was a technical officer in the Ottoman Ministry of Works. After the rise of Enver Pasha in the Ottoman hierarchy, Ahmed Bey was elevated at the request of his son to the rank of a civilian Pasha and later was appointed Surre Emini [Trustee of the Ceremony of the Royal Purse] in charge of the formal procession of the Ottoman Sultan's annual gifts to the Emirate of Mecca. For information on this ceremony, refer to S. Tanvir Wasti, ‘The Ottoman Ceremony of the Royal Purse’, Middle Eastern Studies Vol.41, No.2 (March 2005), pp.193–200. Ahmed Pasha was also among the many prominent Turks exiled by the British authorities in Istanbul to Malta from 1919–1921. Among the other deportees was the poet and writer üleyman Nazîf, who did not hesitate to use his wit at the Pasha's expense. See S. Tanvir Wasti, ‘Süleyman Nazîf – A Multi-Faceted Personality’, Middle Eastern Studies Vol.50, No.3 (May 2014), pp.493–508.

27. İsmail Enver [Bey, later Pasha] (1881–1922) was a graduate of the Ottoman War Academy and a leader of the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. Subsequently in 1914 he became the Minister of War of the Ottoman Empire, and married the Princess Naciye. He was one of the ‘triumvirate’ of the Committee of Union and Progress along with Talât and Cemal Pashas. After Turkey's defeat in the First World War he left Turkey in November 1918 and went to Central Asia to fight the Bolsheviks. He was killed in battle in Tajikistan, and his remains were, after several decades, brought back to Turkey.

28. Nuri [Bey, later Pasha] (1889–1949) graduated from the Ottoman War Academy in 1908, and later served in many theatres of war. He also led an army into Azerbaijan after the Russian Revolution of 1917, taking Baku in September 1918. Nuri Pasha adopted the surname Killigil after the law relating to surnames was passed in 1934. After his retirement from the Armed Forces, he became a businessman and entrepreneur, setting up a small arms factory in Sütlüce, Istanbul. On 2 March 1949, Nuri Pasha and 26 others were killed in an unexplained series of explosions [apparently caused deliberately] at the same factory.

29. The ranks and services of most Ottoman officers during the decade 1912–1922 along with the battles fought have been catalogued in İsmet Görgülü, On Yıllık Harbin Kadrosu [The Cadres of the Ten Year War] (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1993), p.359, plus maps.

30. It is of interest to note that, for this conflict, the cream of the young Ottoman military class repaired to the [then] Ottoman territory of Libya by all means available, organized the local Arabs, and turned them into an efficient fighting force that pinned the Italian invaders down on the Libyan beach heads. These officers also included Mustafa Kemal [later Atatürk] and many others. See S. Tanvir Wasti, ‘Amir Shakib Arslan and the CUP Triumvirate’, Middle Eastern Studies Vol.44, No.6 (November 2008), Endnote No.29, pp.925–936.

31. Erzurum did fall to the Russians in February 1916, and Mahmud Kâmil Pasha was relieved of his command.

32. A detailed description of the assembly of this river craft from ‘Assyrian’ times is given in Charles Townshend, Desert Hell, pp. 8–9.

33. Nureddin İbrahim Pasha (1873–1932), also known as Sakallı Nureddin Pasha [Bearded Nureddin Pasha] was the son of the Ottoman Field Marshal İbrahim Pasha. He was an honest and highly competent soldier who had a successful military career. According to Erickson, Ottoman Army Effectiveness, p.70, Nureddin spoke Arabic, French, German and Russian in addition to Ottoman Turkish. He was appointed Commander of the Iraq front on 20 April 1915, but Enver Pasha replaced him by appointing his own uncle, Halil in his place. After the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, he took part in politics and became a Member of Parliament, but remains a controversial figure. See, for example, Rahim Apak, Yetmişlik Bir Subayın Hatıraları [The Memoirs of a Septuagenarian Army Officer] (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1988), pp.262–5, regarding the death of the former Ottoman Minister Ali Kemal.

34. The district south of Baghdad where the tomb of Selman-ı Fârisî [Salman the Persian] otherwise called Selman-ı Pak [Salman the Pure] who died in 656 AD is located. Selman was a companion of the Prophet Muhammed and the first Iranian known to have accepted Islam. The ruins of the ancient city of Ctesiphon [founded in the fourth century BC] are also in the same area.

35. E. Çifci (ed.), pp.147–8, and E. Bostancı (ed.), pp.151–2. See endnote no. 2.

36. A town in the loop of the Tigris, about 100 miles south of Baghdad.

37. E. Çifci (ed.), pp.149–50, and E. Bostancı (ed.), pp.154–6.

38. Townshend, My Campaign. The sentence quoted by Halil Pasha is given in Townshend's Preface to the book, p.10.

39. Also known as Goltz Pasha [in Turkish as Goltz Paşa or occasionally as Golç Paşa], Freiherr Wilhelm Leopold Colmar von der Goltz was a Prussian Field Marshal. Born in 1843, he was also a prolific military writer, who was sent to the Ottoman Empire at the request of the sultan Abdülhamid II after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877--1878. Between 1883 and 1895, he helped the reorganization of the Turkish Army and also taught at the War Academy. He was recalled from retirement after the start of the First World War, and appointed Adviser to the Ottoman government. He died of typhus in Baghdad on 19 April 1916, just 10 days before the surrender of Kut-al-Amara by the British forces.

40. Lieutenant General Sir Fenton John Aylmer (1862–1935), a friend of General Townshend, whom he had helped rescue at the siege in Chitral. However, his relief efforts at Kut-al-Amara failed.

41. The Turkish text of Halil Pasha's letter is to be found in E. Çifci (ed.), p.156, and E. Bostancı (ed.), pp.166–7. The French text and English translation are given in Townshend, My Campaign, p.294.

42. Townshend, My Campaign, pp.294–5.

43. The First World War took place at a time when honour and chivalry in combat and respect for the opponent had not completely died out. Many examples of gentlemanly behaviour have been recorded in memoirs of Gallipoli and other battles of the War.

44. Lieutenant General Sir George Frederick Gorringe (1868–1945) was the replacement for General Aylmer and had plenty of troops at his command, but was also unable to reach and save Kut-al-Amara.

45. Refer to Nikolas Gardner, ‘Sepoys and the Siege of Kut-al-Amara, December 1915 – April 1916’, War in History Vol.11, No.3 (July 2004), pp.307–26, and also İsmet Üzen, ‘Türklerin Kut’ül-amare Kuşatması Sırasında İngiliz Ordusunda Bulunan Hintli Askerlerin Tutumu (Aralık 1915 – Nisan 1916)’ [The Attitude of Indian Soldiers in the British Army during the Siege of Kut-ul-amara (December 1915 – April 1916)], Gazi Akademik Bakış Vol.2, No.3 (2008), pp.81–102.

46. E. Çifci (ed.), pp.158–9, and E. Bostancı (ed.), pp.168–70.

47. Julnar means the flower of the pomegranate in Arabic [taken from the Persian Gul = flower and Nar = pomegranate].

48. E. Çifci (ed.), p.160, and E. Bostancı (ed.), p.172.

49. It is suggested by Townshend (p.336) as well as other sources, e.g. Fromkin (p.202), that Enver Pasha was in favour of publicly humiliating the British by demanding abject surrender.

50. Baltacı Mehmed Pasha (1662–1712) was twice Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. In 1709, Charles XII of Sweden was defeated by the Russians in the battle of Poltava and took refuge in Ottoman territory, with Peter I of Russia in pursuit. In the resulting war, Baltacı Mehmed Pasha commanded the Ottoman armies and encircled the Russian army near the Pruth River, a tributary of the Danube, forcing Peter to sue for peace. It has been suggested [at least in literature] that Mehmed Pasha was involved in an affair with the future-Empress Catherine I of Russia, then the consort of Peter. Surrounded by Turkish troops, Catherine suggested bribing Mehmed Pasha with her jewels to encourage the Pasha into allowing a retreat. The Ottoman Sultan later dismissed Mehmed Pasha and sent him into exile.

51. T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), was one of the sons of Sir Thomas Chapman and Sara Maden, a governess of his daughters in Ireland. As Mr and Mrs Lawrence, Sir Thomas and Sara escaped to begin a second life together at Oxford. T. E. Lawrence became an archaeological scholar, strategist and author. He took a first class degree in History at Oxford, and worked with D. G. Hogarth and Sir Leonard Woolley at Carchemish [in Turkish, Karkamış] before joining British Intelligence at the start of the First World War in 1914. In October 1916, he accompanied the diplomat Sir Ronald Storrs on a mission to Arabia, where Ḥusain, Sherif of Mecca, had launched a revolt against the Turks. Lawrence joined one of Husain's sons, Faiṣal, then commanding an Arab force southwest of Medina, abetted the efforts at rebellion with arms and gold and later helped in the taking of Damascus by Faisal's soldiers in 1918. His book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, is his highly personal attempt at describing the Arab Revolt and has been called ‘a novel travelling under the cover of autobiography’. See Charles Hill, Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft and World Order (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), p.8.

52. E. Çifci (ed.), p.161, and E. Bostancı (ed.), p.175. See also Fromkin, p.202.

53. See p.99, Chapter VII in Sir Arnold T. Wilson, Loyalties – Mesopotamia, Vol. I, 1914–1917, pp.9–99.

54. Charles Townshend, Desert Hell, p.250; Rogan, Fall of the Ottomans, p.260.

55. Townshend (p.336) writes that Halil Pasha said: ‘They are as much yours as they ever were’.

56. Captain E. O. Mousley, The Secrets of a Kuttite (London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1921), p.392.

57. E. Çifci (ed.), p.163, and E. Bostancı (ed.), pp.178–9.

58. Charles Townshend, Desert Hell, p.253.

59. Rogan, Fall of the Ottomans, p.266.

60. Halil Pasha gives the names of three surahs of the Quran commonly recited in memory of the dead, i.e. Yâsîn [No. 36, with the same English title], Tebareke or Al-Mulk [No.67, with the English title ‘The Sovereignty’] and the Fâtiha [No.1, with the English title ‘The Opening’].

61. When adjusted to the Gregorian calendar, this date [with an addition of 13 days in the month and 584 years] becomes 29 April 1916.

62. Musa Kâzım Karabekir (1882–1948) was born in Istanbul as the son of an Army General. He was the commander of the Eastern Army in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War and later an important general in the Turkish War of Independence. After the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, he also served as Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly before his death. He published many books and memoirs, both autobiographical and political.

63. E. Çifci (ed.), p.243, and E. Bostancı (ed.), p.270.

64. Refer to S. Tanvir Wasti, ‘The Defence of Medina, 1916–19’, Middle Eastern Studies Vol.27, No.4 (October 1991), pp.642–53.

65. Erickson, Ottoman Army Effectiveness, p.61.

66. Sir Arnold T. Wilson, Loyalties – Mesopotamia, Vol. I, 1914–1917, p.126.