Halil Menteşe | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 24 October 1915 – 4 February 1917 | |
| Monarch | Mehmed V |
| Preceded by | Said Halim Pasha |
| Succeeded by | Ahmet Nesimi Bey |
| Member of the Chamber of Deputies | |
| Constituency | Menteşe(1908,1912,1914) |
| Member of the Grand National Assembly | |
| Constituency | İzmir(1935,1935,1939,1943,1946) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1874 |
| Died | 1948 (aged 73–74) |
| Nationality | Ottoman Turkish |
| Political party | Union and Progress Party |
Halil Menteşe (1874–1948) was aTurkish government minister and politician, who was a well known official of theCommittee of Union and Progress (CUP).[1][2] He was theMinister of Foreign Affairs and thePresident of the Chamber of Deputies in the last years of theOttoman Empire, and also served as an independent deputy fromİzmir in theRepublic of Turkey. He was one of the people most directly responsible for theArmenian genocide.[2]
Halil was born inMilas in 1874 to SalihEfendi and Şefika Hanım but was orphaned at a young age.[3][4] With his brother Galip, he went toİzmir where he completed his education.Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil was his mentor in the İzmir Lycée, and from there he studied inIstanbul University's Faculty of Law. Fearing arrest byHamidian authorities in 1894 he escaped toParis. There he graduated fromFaculty of Law of Paris and joined theYoung Turks, establishing contact with important members of theCommittee of Union and Progress (CUP) such asAhmet Rıza,Mizancı Murat, andDr. Nazım. With the death of his benefactor, he returned to Turkey in 1898, continuing an uneventful life in Milas until the1908 revolution. Halil was elected a CUP MP from Menteşe in thegeneral election for the parliament held after the revolution.[5]
He was part of a commission to liquidateAbdul Hamid II's assets after his deposition. Halil tookTalaat Bey's place when he stepped down from theinterior ministry on 19 February 1911. He accompanied the Ottoman sultanMehmed V on his visit to theRumelian provinces. Halil stepped down from the interior ministry in December, and was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies on 15 May 1912. After the 1912 general election which the committee rigged in favor of itself, the opposition organized a group in the military known as theSavior Officers to shutter parliament. In a session of parliament on 25 July, Halil read to theChamber of Deputies a death threat from the group, announcing that he was going to continue his position in government. The grand vizierMehmed Said Pasha acquiesced to the Savior officers, resulting in parliament dissolving on 5 August.[5]
With the CUP being persecuted he once again escaped to Paris, but returned to the Ottoman Empire after the1913 coup. He was appointed asPresident of Council of State inSaid Halim Pasha's cabinet, and accompanied Talaat to Bulgaria to negotiate a peace treaty to end theSecond Balkan War. With anew election held in 1914, Halil resigned his cabinet position to return to the parliamentary presidency. WithEnver, Talaat, and Said Halim, Halil was a key player inreaching an alliance with Germany, and with Talaat he traveled toBulgaria andRomania to ensure they would stay neutral or pro-German inthe coming war. Halil becameforeign minister in 1915, and also actingjustice minister in 1916 before being appointed justice minister in Talaat Pasha's cabinet once he became grand vizier. Talaat reappointed him President of Council of State in his cabinet reshuffle afterMehmed VI's ascension. Halil lost his ministries with the end of World War I and the fall of Talaat Pasha's cabinet.[5]
A special parliamentary committee organized to investigate the causes of the Ottoman Empire joining WWI summoned Halil to questioning several times but nothing could be definitively proved. He was finally arrested on 10 March 1919, and appeared before theSpecial Military Tribunal that was punishing CUP members and war profiteers. With 78 other politicians and generals he wasdetained in Malta, being released on 30 April 1921 in a deal made betweenMustafa Kemal Atatürk and the British to exchange British POWs for the release of the Malta exiles.[5]
Halil supported theProgressive Republican Party, which was founded in 1924 and banned in 1925. In 1926 he and many ex-Unionists wereaccused of conspiring to assassinate Mustafa Kemal, though Halil was not charged of any crimes in the end. Hereceived the surname "Menteşe" in 1934. Between1931–1946 Halil represented İzmir as an independent MP.[6] He retired to his estate inMilas in 1946, and died on 1 April 1948.[5]
Academic Ismail Arar calls Halil a quadrimvir of theThree Pashas clique.
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