Nuri Killigil

Nuri Killigil
Born 1889 (1889)
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Died 2 March 1949(1949-03-02) (aged 59–60)
Sütlüce, Istanbul, Turkey
Allegiance Ottoman Empire
Years of service Ottoman Empire: 1911-1919
Rank Lieutenant general
Commands held Africa Groups Command, Army of Islam
Battles/wars Italo-Turkish War
First World War
Battle of Baku

Nuri Killigil, also known as Nuri Pasha (1889–1949) was an Ottoman general in the Ottoman Army. He was the half-brother of Ottoman Minister of War, Enver Pasha. During World War II, he helped to establish the Turkestan legion of the Schutzstaffel, the major paramilitary of Nazi Germany.[1]

Military career

Libya

Infantry Machine-Gun Captain Nuri Efendi was sent to Libya on an illegal Greek ship with Major Jafar al-Askari Bey and 10,000 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.[2] 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).[2]

Caucasus

Nuri Bey's elder brother Enver Pasha, commander of the Ottoman Army, who saw an opportunity in Caucuses after the Russian Revolution took Russia out of Word War I, called back Nuri Bey from Libya. He was promoted to Mirliva Fahri (honorary) Ferik and gave the mission to form and command the Army of Islam. Nuri Bey came to Yelizavetpol (present day: Ganja) on May 25, 1918 and began to organize his forces.[3] The Army of Islam was formed officially on July 10, 1918[4]

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.[5]

Later life

In 1938, Killigil bought a coal mining plant in Turkey. He began to organize the production of guns, bullets, gas masks, and other war equipment. After some time, he announced the end of the production of weapons, but still secretly continued production.

Killigil established contact with Franz von Papen, the Nazi ambassador in Ankara in 1941 in order to win German support for the Pan-Turkic cause.[1] With his assistance, the Turkestan legion was formed by the Schutzstaffel.[1] During World War II, Killigil was in Germany attempting to achieve the recognition of the independence of Azerbaijan. The attempts were unsuccessful.[6]

He was killed on March 2, 1949 by an explosion in his factory that also killed 26 other people.

Sources

  1. 1 2 3 "Turkey in the First World War — Nuri Paşa (Killigil)". turkeyswar.com. Archived from the original on 2013-02-27. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
  2. 1 2 Hamit Pehlivanlı, "Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa Kuzey Afrika'da (1914-1918)", Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi Dergisi, Sayı 47, Cilt: XVI, Temmuz 2000. (in Turkish)
  3. ↑ Ajun Kurter, Türk Hava Kuvvetleri Tarihi, Cilt: IV, 3rd edition, Türk Hava Kuvvetleri Komutanlığı, 2009, p. 92.
  4. ↑ Edward J. Erickson, Order to Die: A History of the Ottoman Army in the First World War, Greenwoodpress, 2001, ISBN 0-313-31516-7, p. 189.
  5. ↑ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1982). The Republic of Armenia, Vol. II: From Versailles to London, 1919-1920. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 136–37. ISBN 0-520-04186-0.
  6. ↑ Gilyazov, I. "Тюркизм: становление и развитие (характеристика основных этапов): Учебное пособие для студентов-тюркологов". Kazan: Kazan State. University Press, 2002. - 70.
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