ENVER PASHA, Turldsh soldier and war minister: b. Constantinople about 1880. Of aristocratic descent, he was educated for the army and saw his first active service in Mace donia against the Serb and Bulgar komitadjis. He was one of the prime movers in the Young Turk revolution of 1908. Stationed at the time in Salonica, his activities were known at Con stantinople. In a friendly letter he was invited to return to the capital and promised promo tion. But Enver Bey—as he then was—knew better than to accept the invitation. He dis guised himself as a peasant and fled to the mountains, traveling rapidly from place to place, spreading the doctrine of revolt and put ting the final touches to the preparations. The speedy success of the revolution, the revival of the dormant constitution of 1876, and the subsequent fall of Abdul Hamid, raised Enver to the height of a popular national hero. He was lionized* in Paris and London; at the latter place he was introduced to both houses of Parliament. Under the new regime he was sent as military attache to Berlin, where he learnt German, studied the Prussian military organization, and became a close friend of the Kaiser. According to competent observers, the mighty emperor and the humble attache had much in common, especially dreams of bound less ambition. Fired with admiration for all things German, Enver returned to Constanti nople an ardent apostle of Teutonism and heartily threw himself into the work of assist ing the German Generals von der Goltz and Liman von Sanders to build up the Turkish army. That army, however, failed of its pur pose in the Tripolitain and Balkan wars, in both of which Enver played a prominent part.
Of youthful, almost boyish, appearance, poetical imagination and undoubted courage, though en tirely unscrupulous, he became the most pic turesque figure in Turkish politics. Those who stood in his way he simply shot down. In Jan nary 1913 he shot the Commander-in-Chief, Hussein Nazim Pash, and two aides-de-camp who attempted to stop him from entering the council chamber. (Prince Yussuf-ed-din, the heir to the throne, was murdered in February 1916 by order of Enver Pasha). In January 1914 Enver was appointed Minister for War and created a pasha. At the beginning of the European War six months later, Turkey de dared her neutrality. Although,' apparently, most of the ministers opposed entering the War, they were overborne by Enver Pasha, who not only had the whole Turkish army at his back, but had also adopted the German view that Turkey's salvation was bound up with the suc cess of German arms. Consult Buxton, C. R., 'Turkey in Revolution' (London 1909) ; 'Enver Pasha's Reign of Terror at Constantinople' (Current Opinion, September 1915) ; 'Enver Pasha' (Current Opinion, April 1916); Free man, L. R., 'Enver Pasha: Turkish Patriot' (Harpe?s Weekl August 1915) ; 'The Calvary of a Nation,' Atlantic. Monthly, November 1916) ; 'Why urkey Went In' (Harpe?s Weekly, 10 April 1915) ; 'The Turkish Atroci ties in Armenia' (Outlook, 29 Sept. 1915). See TURKEY; WAR, EUROPEAN: TURKISH CAMPAIGN.