Early life and military career Ahmed Muhtar was born on 1 November 1839 to a
Turkish family in
Bursa in the
Ottoman Empire and was educated in the
Ottoman Military College in
Istanbul. His father was merchant Halil Efendi. He eventually became professor and then governor of the school. In 1856, he served as an
adjutant during the
Crimean War. In 1862, he was a staff officer in the disastrous
Montenegrin campaign. Between 1870 and 1871, he quelled rebellions in
Yemen. He gained the titles of
Pasha and Marshal and, in 1873, was made commander of the
Second Army Corps, holding the position until 1876. During the
1875 uprisings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he assumed control of the Ottoman forces there. On the outbreak of the
Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878, he was sent to take charge of operations in
Erzurum. Although the
Russians ultimately defeated the Ottomans in the war, Muhtar's victories against them in the eastern front won him the title
Gazi ("The Victorious"). In 1879, Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was appointed the commander of the Ottoman Empire's frontier with
Greece, before being sent in 1885 to serve as the Ottoman High Commissioner in
Egypt.
Later life and premiership ("Great Cabinet") Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was appointed as
Grand Vizier in July 1912 at age 72, largely due to his prestige as an old military hero. His premiership was a result of the
Savior Officers () forcing the dissolution of the previous
Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) government under Grand Vizier
Mehmed Said Pasha. The Savior Officers were partisans of the opposition
Freedom and Accord Party (also known as the Liberal Union or Entente) who felt cheated after the infamous 1912 elections, known as the "Election of Clubs" (), in which the CUP had employed electoral fraud and violence to gain 269 of the 275 seats in the
Chamber of Deputies (, the popularly elected lower house of the national
General Assembly) while leaving only 6 to the opposition. The non-party, independent
cabinet formed by Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was known as the "Great Cabinet" () because it included three former Grand Viziers as ministers and sometimes as the "Father-Son Cabinet" () because it included Ahmed Muhtar Pasha's son,
Mahmud Muhtar Pasha, as Minister of the Navy. Because the Great Cabinet did not include any members of the CUP, rumors began to spread that the government would dissolve the Chamber of Deputies, which was dominated by CUP after the fraudulent 1912 elections. A few days after Ahmed Muhtar Pasha took office, the Savior Officers sent a letter of threat to the President of the Chamber of Deputies (and CUP member),
Halil Bey, demanding that the Chamber be dissolved for new elections within 48 hours. The CUP members in the Chamber condemned and censured this threat. However, thanks to a law he had passed through the
Senate, Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was able, with the sultan's support, to
dissolve the Chamber with ease on 5 August. After the dissolution of the Chamber, the
First Balkan War erupted early in October 1912, catching Ahmed Muhtar Pasha's administration off-guard.
Martial law was declared, and Ahmed Muhtar Pasha resigned as Grand Vizier on 29 October after just four months in the premier's office.
Death Ahmed Muhtar Pasha died in
Istanbul on 21 January 1919 at the age of 79. His son
Mahmud Muhtar Pasha was also a high-ranking commander in the
Ottoman Army and the Minister of the
Navy in Ahmed Muhtar Pasha's own government. After the proclamation of the
Turkish Republic, the Turkish government published a postage stamp with his image to honor his legacy. ==Gallery==