Said Halim Pasha

Said Halim Pasha (Ottoman Turkish: سعيد حليم پاشا‎; Turkish: Sait Halim Paşa; Albanian: Said Halimi; 18 January 1865 – 6 December 1921) was an Ottoman statesman of Tosk Albanian origin[1] who served as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1917. He was one of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide, and was later assassinated by Arshavir Shirakian as part of Operation Nemesis, a retribution campaign to kill perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.

In this Ottoman Turkish style name, the given name is Said Halim, the title is Pasha, and there is no family name.
Said Halim

Pasha
Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
In office
12 June 1913 – 4 February 1917
MonarchMehmed V
Preceded byMahmud Shevket Pasha
Succeeded byTalaat Pasha
Personal details
Born18 January 1865
Cairo, Khedivate of Egypt
Died6 December 1921(1921-12-06) (aged 56)
Rome, Kingdom of Italy
NationalityOttoman (Khedival Egyptian)
RelationsMuhammad Ali of Egypt (grandfather)

Biography

Born in Cairo, Egypt, he was the grandson of the Albanian Muhammad Ali of Egypt, often considered the founder of modern Egypt.

He was one of the signers in Ottoman–German Alliance. Yet, he resigned after the incident of the pursuit of Goeben and Breslau, an event which served to cement the Ottoman–German alliance during World War I. It is claimed that Mehmed V wanted a person in whom he trusted as Grand Vizier, and that he asked Said Halim to stay in his post as long as possible. Said Halim's term lasted until 1917, cut short because of continuous clashes between him and the Committee of Union and Progress, which by then controlled the Imperial Government of the Ottoman Empire.

During the Armenian Genocide, Said Halim signed his signature on deportation orders for the Armenian population. The Armenian Patriarch Zaven I Der Yeghiayan appealed to him to cease the terror being committed against Armenians, which Said Halim replied to by claiming reports of arrests and deportations were being greatly exaggerated. Der Yeghiayan himself was later deported.[2]

Said Halim was accused of treason during the court martial trials after World War I in the Ottoman Empire, as he had his signature under Ottoman–German Alliance. He was exiled on 29 May 1919 to a prison on Malta.[3] He was acquitted from the accusations and set free in 1921, and he moved to Sicily. He wanted to return to the Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but this request was rejected. He was assassinated soon after in Rome by Arshavir Shirakian, an agent of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, for his role in the Armenian Genocide.[2]

See also

Footnotes
  1. Danişmend (1971), p. 102.
  2. Arshavir Shirakian (2013). Arshavir Shiragian - The Legacy: Memoirs of an Armenian Patriot. Translated by Sonia Shiragian. Watertown, Massachusetts: Hairenik Association.
  3. Sukran Vahide (2005). Islam in Modern Turkey. State University of New York Press.
Political offices
Preceded by
Mahmud Şevket Pasha		 Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
12 June 1913 – 4 February 1917		 Succeeded by
Talaat Pasha


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