Süleyman Askerî

Süleyman Askerî Bey, also known as Suleyman Askeri, Sulayman Askari, Sulaiman al-Askari (Modern Turkish: Süleyman el-Askerî) and unofficially known as Suleyman Askeri Pasha[2] (1884 in Prizren, Kosovo Vilayet – 14 April 1915 in Berjasiya) was a military officer who served in the Ottoman Army. Askerî was of Circassian descent and co founder of the Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa (Special Organisation), a group involved in guerilla warfare.[3]

Süleyman Askerî Bey[1]
Born1884 (1884)
Prizren, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died14 April 1915(1915-04-14) (aged 30–31)
Berjisiya, Basra Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Allegiance Ottoman Empire
Years of service1902–1915
RankKaymakam
Commands heldChief of staff of the Bingazi Area Command (Aziz Ali), Staff officer of the X Corps, Chief of Staff of Trabzon Redif Division, Chief of the Special Organization, Commander of the Iraq Area Command (Governor of Basra Vilayet)
Battles/warsItalo-Turkish War
Balkan Wars
First World War
Other workChief of the General Staff of the Provisional Government of Western Thrace

Life

Süleyman Askerî was born to General Vehbi Pasha, who served as military staff at Edirne in 1898 and then in Anatolia,[4] in 1884 in Prizren. He graduated from the Ottoman Military Academy in 1902 and graduated from the Ottoman Military College on 5 November 1905 as Distinguished Captain (Mümtaz Yüzbaşı ).

He was assigned to Monastir (present-day Bitola) under the command of the Third Army stationed at Salonica (present-day Thessaloniki). During the days he stayed in Monastir, he joined the Committee of Union and Progress and he married Fadime Hanım, who was an aristocrat of Filibe (present-day Plovdiv). They had two daughters, Fatma and Dilek. During the Young Turk Revolution (1908), First Lieutenant Atıf Kamçıl stated that he asked the CUP Monastir branch for a gun and had talks with Süleyman Askerî, the branch's guide about the assassination of Shemsi Pasha.[5] Askerî was closest friend of Kuşçubaşzade Eşref (Sencer). According to Philip Hendrick Stoddard, he was a brother-in-law of Mehmed Nuri (Conker),[6] who was the oldest friend of Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk).[7]

In 1909, he was promoted to the rank of Kolağası and appointed to the gendarmerie regiment in Baghdad. In 1911, after the Kingdom of Italy invaded the vilayet of Tripoli (present-day Libya), he went there and participated in operations in Benghazi. In 1912, he took part in the Balkan Wars as the chief of staff of Trabzon Redif Division[8] and then became the Chief of the General Staff of the provisional government (31 August 1913 – 25 October 1913) established in Western Thrace.[9] On 13 November 1913, he was appointed to the chief of the Ottoman Special Organisation when it was officially formed.[10]

He was martyred in 1915 in a series of devastating Ottoman military defeats.[11]

See also

Battle of Shaiba

Sources
  1. T.C. Genelkurmay Harp Tarihi Başkanlığı Yayınları, Türk İstiklâl Harbine Katılan Tümen ve Daha Üst Kademelerdeki Komutanların Biyografileri, Genkurmay Başkanlığı Basımevi, Ankara, 1972, p. 18. (in Turkish)
  2. Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, Makedonyaʾdan Orta Asyaʾya Enver Paşa: cilt III: 1914-1922, Remzi kitabevi, p. 192. (in Turkish)
  3. Gingeras, Ryan (2009). Sorrowful Shores: Violence, Ethnicity, and the End of the Ottoman Empire 1912-1923. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 58, 180. ISBN 9780199561520.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  4. Celâl Bayar, Ben de Yazdım: Millî Mücadeleʼye Gidiş, Baha Matbaası, 1965, p. 1289. (in Turkish)
  5. Hanioğlu, M. Șükrü (2001). Preparation for a Revolution: The Young Turks, 1902-1908. Oxford University Press. p. 472. ISBN 9780199771110.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  6. The Ottoman Government and the Arabs, 1911 to 1918: A Preliminary Study of the Teskilât-ı Mahsusa, Princeton University, 1963, p. 175.
  7. Erik Jan Zürcher, The Unionist Factor: The Role of the Committee of Union and Progress in the Turkish National Movement, 1905-1926, BRILL, 1984, ISBN 978-90-04-07262-6, p. 48.
  8. Fuat Balkan, Turgut Gürer (ed.), Komitacı: BJK'nin kurucusu Fuat Balkan'ın anıları, Gürer Yayınları, 2008, ISBN 978-9944-0-8102-3, p. 42. (in Turkish)
  9. Стайко Трифонов, Тракия. «Административна уредба, политически и стопански живот, 1912-1915», Глава II. Административна уредба и управление на Западна Тракия. (in Bulgarian)
  10. Erdal İlter, Kuruluşunun 75. Yılı Anısına Millî İstihbarat Tarihçesi, Millî Emniyet Hizmetleri Riyâseti (M.E.H)/(MAH), (1927/1965), Millî İstihbarat Teşkilât Müsteşarlığı, Ankara, 2002, ISBN 975-19-2712-9, Enver Paşa ve Teşkilâtı Mahsûsa (1913-1918). (in Turkish)
  11. David E. McNabb (14 April 2016). Oil and the Creation of Iraq: Policy Failures and the 1914-1918 War in Mesopotamia. Routledge. pp. 121–. ISBN 978-1-317-27291-5.
Military offices
Preceded by
-		 Chief of the Special Organization
27 November 1913 – 14 April 1915		 Succeeded by
Ali Başhampa
Preceded by
-		 Commander of the Iraq Area Command
20 December 1914 – 14 April 1915		 Succeeded by
Nureddin Bey
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