Libya Infantry Machine-Gun
Captain Nuri Bey was sent to
Libya on a German ship with
Major Jafar al-Askari Bey and 10,000 pieces of gold. His mission was to organize and coordinate operations of
Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa forces with local forces against Italian and British forces. They landed on the shore between
Tobruk and
Sallum on February 21, 1915, and then went to
Ahmed Sharif es Senussi in Sallum. In 1917, in an attempt to organize the efforts which was dispersed by the British, the Ottoman General Staff established the "Africa Groups Command" (
Afrika Grupları Komutanlığı), of which the primary objective was the coastal regions of Libya.
Lieutenant Colonel Nuri Bey was appointed its first commander and his chief of staff was Staff
Major Abdurrahman Nafiz Bey (Gürman). The Army of Islam was formed officially on July 10, 1918. Liberation of the
Caucasus campaign begun and fierce fighting happened between
Bolshevik Baku Commune-
Armenians Dashnaktsutyun and
Islamic Army of the Caucasus. The
Islamic Army of the Caucasus led by Nuri Pasha took control of the whole
Azerbaijan and the capital
Baku on 15 September 1918. During this time, Nuri presided over the massacre of 30,000 Armenian civilians in the city of Baku. At the end of the war, Nuri was arrested by British troops and held in detention in
Batum, awaiting trial for wartime crimes. In August 1919, his supporters ambushed guards escorting him and helped him escape to
Erzurum. == Later life ==