#enver pasha

[mapsontheweb]

Life of Enver Pasha 1881-1922

by Yellowapple1000/reddit

[coolseabird]

"WAR IS ON AGAIN—CONSTANTINOPLE RED WITH BLOOD—NAZIM PASHA ASSASSINATED", The Day Book. (Chicago, IL), Jan. 24 1913. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83045487/1913-01-24/ed-1/.

WAR IS ON AGAIN—CONSTANTINOPLE RED WITH BLOOD—NAZIM PASHA ASSASSINATED

Constantinople, Jan. 24.—The streets of this city are running red with blood today. The hospitals are full of wounded. The dead are piled in heaps.

The police made feeble efforts to stop the course of the revolution through the night. It was no use. As soon as a prison was filled with revolutionists, the people stormed it and freed the prisoners.

Nazim Pasha, commander-in-chief of the Turkish armies, is dead, the victim of an assassin's bullet.

Enver Bey, leader of the Young Turks, is dictator of the empire, and in full control. The Turkish peace plenipotentiaries have been recalled from London.

The Turkish ambassadors at Vienna and St. Petersburg have been recalled for court-martial for treason.

The order has been given that the Balkan war must go on. Mahmoud Shevket Pasha, who was leader of the Young Turks when Abdul the Damned was deposed and Mehmed raised to the throne, has been proclaimed grand vizier. And he is completely under the control of Enver Bey.

Talaat Bey, Enver Bey's closest friend, has seized the portfolio of the interior. The troops that are suspected of being loyal to Kiamil Pasha, the late grand vizier, have been sent to Liberty Hill, outside Constantinople, and the city filled with Enver Bey's men.

The revolution and assassination of Nazim Pasha followed closely on the announcement that the grand council of the empire had agreed to give up the Holy City of Adrianople and the Aegean Islands.

Hurried meetings of the Young Turks were called in all parts of the city. Enver Bey and Talaat Bey went to the grand vizierate and stalled into the council chamber, where they demanded the immediate resignation of Kiamil Pasha and the cabinet, for treason to the empire.

Outside the street was jammed with Young Turks, waiting in forbidding silence the result of the Enver Bey’s demand.

There was nothing else for Kiamil to do but give in. He wrote out his resignation and handed it to Enver Bey.

Enver Bey went out, and, waving the resignation above his head, shouted: “I have here the resignation of every member of the cabinet.”

The street resounded with the wild cheers of the people, and the cheering spread to all quarters of the city.

Enver Bey jumped into a carriage and was driven at top speed to the Sultan’s palace.

There he told what he had done, and ordered the Sultan to proclaim Mahmoud Shevket Pasha grand vizier. The Sultan did so, and Enver Bey made him practically a prisoner in his palace.

Enver Bey then drove back to the grand vizierate. Nazim Pasha appeared at a window. Enver Bey was denied admittance. He threatened to call on the people to storm the house.

Someone standing behind Nazim Pasha fired a shot into the crowd. The next moment Nazim Pasha crumpled up on the floor. And it is said that it was Enver Bey’s own hand that fired the bullet that ended the life of the man called the Kitchener of Turkey.

With the news of the assassination of Nazim Pasha, the blood lust of the people rose to its height. They ran through the streets, seeking those who had held to the old government.

Enver Bey issued an order suppressing every newspaper in the city except those controlled by the Young Turks.

Preparations for going on with the war were made immediately.

Talaat Bey’s first proclamation as minister of the interior was as follows: “We shall save the national honor of the Turkish empire or die in the attempt. The government that countenanced such a surrender as that of Adrianople and the Aegean islands has been overthrown. The change in the cabinet means that we do not accept all the terms offered by the allies. We do not desire a continuation of the war, but we shall hold Adrianople at any cost.”

London, Jan. 24.—The London ambassadors of the powers were summoned to the foreign office by Sir Edward Grey, secretary of state for foreign affairs. He told them immediate action by the powers was imperative to prevent a renewal of the Balkan war, which would almost certainly cause a general European war.

The ambassadors have been given discretionary powers by their governments, and on their action within the next twenty-four hours depends the peace of Europe.

Rechid Pasha and his Ottoman colleagues refuse to be interviewed as to their instructions.

Dr. Daneff, the Bulgarian minister, said: “Apparently our only course is to renew the war and take by force what we hoped to gain by peaceable negotiations. I refer to Adrianople."

Vienna, Jan. 24.—The demobilization of the Austro-Hungarian troops massed on the Balkan and Russian borders has been abandoned.

The only hope for European peace is felt to lie in immediate concerted action by the powers.

St. Petersburg, Jan. 24.—It is reported that the Russian government has asked both the Triple Alliance and Triple Entente to forget all minor differences, and intervene in Turkey.

[famousdeaths]

İsmail Enver, better known as Enver Pasha, was an Ottoman military officer, revolutionary, and convicted war criminal who formed one-third of the dictatorial tr...

Link: Enver Pasha

[turkishpashaenjoyer]

Enver: How come you stopped calling me stuff like “darling”? Naciye: You don’t remember what happened last time? I called you ‘my love’ and you passed out. Enver: How else was I supposed to react?

[anatolienne]

my napoleon

[aoawarfare]

Enver Pasha and the Basmachi

What happens when a former Ottoman Pasha, sentenced to death in absentia finds himself in Central Asia? If you're Enver Pasha, you first align with the Bolsheviks before jumping ship and joining the Basmachi. Learn how Enver led the Basmachi until his death in a small village in eastern Bukhara.

I know it’s been a while, but last time we talked about how Bolshevik General, Mikhail Frunze, entered Central Asia and neutered the Musburo, overthrew both the Khivan and Bukharan Emir, and developed a counter-insurgency strategy to crush the Basmachi.

We also talked about how he encountered four problems with his plan:

Frunze, in his efforts to overthrow the Bukharan Emir, woke up the hornet’s nest that was the Bukharan Basmachi.

By threatening Mohammed Alim Khan, he drove an estimated 30,000 volunteers into Basmachi units by the summer of 1920.

Frunze left Central Asia in 1920 to fight against the White General Pyotr Wrangel.

It was now up to the officers Frunze left behind to defeat the Basmachi for good.

By eliminating the White armies and the emirs, Frunze limited his number of enemies. This is true, but he also concentrated the survivors under one banner: the Basmachi banner. This, in turn, revitalized the Basmachi enough that they could have been a serious threat to Russian power in the region.

Ibrahim-Bek was a talented commander who evaded the Red Army’s forces while infiltrated and harassing their rear. By the fall of 1921, he had retaken most of eastern and central Bukhara.

And then Enver Pasha arrived.

Enver Pasha and the Bolsheviks

Enver Pasha started his stormy career in the Ottoman Empire. He was a member of the Committee of Union and Progress, took part in the 1908 Young Turk Revolt that reestablished the Ottoman constitution and parliamentary democracy. He also helped organize the coup that would bring the CUP directly into power, with Enver taking over the Army. Then he pushed the Ottomans into the First World War and was responsible, not only for some of the Ottoman’s worst defeats, but also for the Armenian Genocide. So, he was a real bastard. He was so bad the Turkish Court-Martials of 1919-20 found him guilty of "plunging the country into war without a legitimate reason, forced deportation of Armenians and leaving the country without permission" and condemned him to death.

So, when he arrives in Russia in late 1920, he’s a bit desperate. He doesn’t have many places he can go; he still has these illusions of grandeur that he can take on Mustafa Kemal back in what is now modern-day Turkey and return to power, and he thinks he’s a gifted general. The best way to understand Enver is to read this passage from a letter he once wrote:

“The other day I read a German book, and one sentence inspired me: "When we can't realize our ideals, we can at least idealize our reality.” - Şuhnaz Yilmaz, An Ottoman Warrior Abroad: Enver Paşa as an Expatriate

He actually traveled to Moscow intending to work with the Bolsheviks and he tries, but there is a lot of distrust between the two. He quickly realizes that he doesn’t have a place with the Bolsheviks. Their aims are different, and they don’t seem very interested in returning him to power in Turkey.

In fact, the Bolsheviks were courting Kemal’s government and when forced to choose between Kemal and Enver, they choose Kemal. This is a huge blow for Enver, and he reaches out to Zeki Velidi Toghan to figure out next steps.

We’ve met Velidi in our episode on the fathers of the Jadids and we’ll learn more about his secret society in an upcoming episode. Velidi was a Bashkir nationalist who helped create an autonomous Bashkir government in 1918 before the Bolsheviks crushed it. He joined the White cause until it became clear they would lose and then sided with the Bolsheviks. However, by 1921 he had grown disillusioned with Communism and was creating secret societies and reaching out to Basmachi leaders. He reached out to Velidi, claiming:

“I have decided that I must go to eastern Bukhara. If we succeed, we shall be victors for the faith. If not, we shall fall as martyrs on the field of battle. We must fight for Turkestan. If we fear the death which rate ordained and prefer to live as dogs, we shall deserve the curses of our forebears and of our descendants alike. But if we have the courage to die for freedom, we shall ensure the freedom and happiness of those who follow us.” - Martha Olcott, The Basmachi or Freeman's Revolt in Turkestan 1918-1924

Velidi tried to dissuade him, explaining:

“The Russians are about to wash their hands of external matters. Henceforth they can concentrate all of their resources in Turkestan. Our organization in proportion to its duties, is very weak. This year Turkistan is suffering from a great famine. Ferghana is experiencing a crisis in its attempts to feed the Basmachi. After joining the Basmachi you would want to fight with regular fronts. At present, it is not feasible to keep a standing army larger than five-six thousand strong. It is only possible to conduct guerilla warfare. As for the Basmachi in eastern Bukhara it is not possible to cooperate with them unless agreements are entered into with the Afghans and the Emir…will not allow you to be recognized [as a leader] They will not accept you as such.” - H. B. Paksoy, The Basmachi Movement from Within: An Account of Zeki Velidi Toghan, pg. 389-390

Enver ignored his advice and told the Bolsheviks he wanted to hunt around Bukhara. They let him go, Marx knows why. Once he reaches Bukhara he disappears. Toghan would later have to flee into the Basmachi’s hands as well before fleeing for Afghanistan in 1923

Enver Pasha and the Basmachi

The Basmachi were not enthused to see Enver. In fact, Ibrahim-Bek, who despised Enver actually arrested him as a double agent. The Emir Muhammad Alim Khan had to intercede and grant Enver permission to raise an army and fight against the Bolsheviks before Ibrahim released him. At this point, Ibrahim had retaken most of eastern and central Bukhara and made it very clear he knew who the enemy was. He told Enver, “I have to make war not just on the Russians, but really against the Jadids.” - (Adeeb Khalid, Making Uzbekistan, pg. 88)

Enver, however, wasn’t interested in local affairs. He wanted to create a massive army that would defeat both the Bolsheviks and the British in India and Afghanistan, uniting the region under the banners of Pan-Turkism. The problem was that Enver’s definition of Turkism was heavy on the Ottoman Turkic whereas the Central Asians version of Turkic meant something else entirely. To learn more, please listen to our interview with Adeeb Khalid.

It was clear that Enver didn’t actually care about the people of Central Asia, the men he was trying to lead, or even the situation on the ground. As Mustafa Cho’qoy wrote:

“Enver, like all Turks in general, know nothing of Turkestan and Bukhara, he had no understanding of the character of their internal events.” - Adeeb Khalid, Making Uzbekistan

He came in making several poorly defined assumptions and didn’t adapt when those assumptions were proven very, very wrong. In doing so, he alienated Ibrahim-Bek, who was maybe the Basmachi’s best commander, and he eventually alienated the Emirs in Afghanistan. Enver wasn’t going to be second fiddle to an Emir hiding in Afghanistan. He was going to be the star which of course angered Emir Muhammed Alim Khan. The emir withdrew whatever support he was able to offer Enver from Afghanistan, making him reliant on a populace that was growing ambivalent. And yet, he was able to organize three thousand soldiers under his direct command and it is estimated he could coordinate with a total of 16,000 soldiers in the region.

The Enver Paradox

The problem with Enver is that he is a walking contradiction. While he made serious mistakes by alienating Ibrahim and the Bukharan Emir and had no real plan beyond Pan-Turkism and let’s repeat what we did during the world war because thatworked out well, he also drew many intelligent men to his cause like Velidi and former Jadids like Usmon-xoja, cousin to Fayzulla Xojaev who was leading the Bukharan People’s Soviet Republic. So, he was able to tap into something festering within Bukhara at the time. His reputation as a general during the World War may have also helped with recruitment and he liked to act as if he was a great “war hero.”

Enver Pasha

[image Description: A black and white photo of a man standing at an angle and staring into the camera. he is wearing a fez and a dark military uniform with golden epaulettes. He is holding his white gloves against his hip. He has short black hair and a thick mustache with tips that point upwards]

The Bolsheviks were certainly worried when they found out he had joined the ranks of the Basmachi. A Soviet official wrote:

“What will be the outcome of this enterprise? From a military point of view, there can be only one opinion, that the large Soviet Federation which knew how to contain the English and the French attack when fighting Denikin, Kolchak and Wrangel, is strong enough to destroy the enterprise of Enver Papa.... It is not the military aspect of this affair which makes us worry, it is more the political aspect... In effect, the past glory of Enver as man of the Muslim state, can still attract crowds of ignorant dehgans in some remote regions today." - Şuhnaz Yilmaz, An Ottoman Warrior Abroad: Enver Pasha as an Expatriate

They sent one of their own to Turkestan to assess the situation and found things were dire. This encouraged them to make small concessions to the indigenous people, but nothing like the structural changes Velidi and other Jadids were asking for. Instead, they sent a directive to the central committees of the republics to “cleanse Turkestan, Bukhara, and Khiva of anti-Soviet Turko-Afghan elements” (pg. 149, Adeeb Khalid). These concessions were a tool against the Basmachi, not a policy change. They would be taken away as soon as the Basmachi were defeated.

Enver’s Campaigns with the Basmachi

Enver started his campaign with an act of typical bravo. He sent the Soviets an ultimatum:

“In the event of Soviet Russia finding it unnecessary to respect the wishes of the Muslim peoples, who are under the oppressive yoke of dishonest Commissars, and who have sprung to arms to free their territory from the alien power of Moscow, I must warn you Mr. Commissar that two weeks after the handing over of the present memorandum from the supreme council I shall act according to my own judgment.” - Şuhnaz Yilmaz, An Ottoman Warrior Abroad: Enver Pasha as an Expatriate

Of course, the Russians ignored him, and he took Dushanbe in January 1922, including its stock of 120 rifles and two machine guns. He then turned his attention on Baisun, a small, mountain village that sat on the pass between eastern and western Bukhara. It was protected by the 5th Rifle Regiment and was a target appropriate for a regular army unit, not a guerrilla unit. Instead of spreading his forces out, thus forcing the Russians to spread their forces thin, Enver constricted the Basmachi into easy to slaughter units that then charged against the 5thRegiment’s machine guns and artillery.

After several days of firing from their garrison, the 5th Regiment created a right column that, utilizing the cover of darkness, marched around Enver’s headquarters. Enver, thinking like a regular army general instead of a guerrilla fighter, had his men build trenches in which to defend their headquarters. But the Basmachi didn’t have the training to effectively man a trench.

The 5th Regiment surprised the Basmachi by bombarding their position with high explosives and machine gun fire. While Enver’s soldiers were being slaughtered, he escaped, his force effectively broken.

Yet, he would continue to fight throughout the summer, trying to rally around a bridgehead at Denau at the end of June, and losing 165 men in the process. In response, the Red Army Commander S. S. Kamenev created the Bukharan Forces Group which included 7,530 men. This was made up of two cavalry brigades, two cavalry squadron, and one rifle division.

Kamenev split his forces into two columns, one to seal the Afghan border and another to chase Enver from the Gissar valley where he was headquartered.

Enver retreated further east and headquartered at Baldzhuan. A three-day battle occurred with the Bolshevik artillery supposedly inflicting 12,000 casualties on the Basmachi.

After the attack, Enver Pasha retreated to a small village near Dushanbe and was caught by a Red Army Bashkir cavalry brigade. Enver either died while charging into machine gun fire or escaped the surprise attack for four days before being cut down by machine gun fire at an ambush at the city of Chaghan. There are even some claims that Enver was cut down during a knife fight with Cavalry Brigade Commander, Yakov Melkumov. He died on August 4th, 1922. When he died, Selim Pasha, his second-in-command wrote to Toghan to suppress the news of his death:

“He said that the Committee must give out that Enver was not dead; simply that he had disappeared. This was necessary in order to keep the movement going; if it were known that Enver were dead it would collapse altogether.” - Şuhnaz Yilmaz, An Ottoman Warrior Abroad: Enver Pasha as an Expatriate

The Russians would not realize he was dead until October 1922 and the British would believe he was alive until 1923, wondering if they should support his cause if they could confirm he was still alive. When Enver died, the Basmachi’s forces stood at approximately 4,000 soldiers.

Why did Enver Fail?

When Enver arrived in Turkestan, the Basmachi had approximately 17,000 soldiers, had reclaimed eastern and central Bukhara, were supported by the Bukharan Emir in Afghanistan, and gathering everyone who hated the Bolsheviks to their cause. When Enver died, the Basmachi were shattered, their forces numbering a few thousand, the Emir’s influence non-existent, and the indigenous people of Turkestan either ambivalent or turned completely against them. How did this happen? Was Enver really that terrible of a general? Yes.

The answer is complicated, but it breaks down into three different reasons:

While the Basmachi were enjoying a resurgence, there is nothing suggesting it was a sustainable resurgence. Remember Frunze arrived in 1920 and overthrew everything people knew. No more Musburo, no more Khiva, no more Bukhara. Of course, people are going to flee into whatever seems familiar or whatever promises to restore order. The problem is that the Basmachi didn’t have the capability to live up to these promises, many promises the Basmachi never actually made.

The Basmachi weren’t united, and they weren’t organized. They were small groups of soldiers who served different warlords. Madamin-Bek and General Monstrov got the closest to actually uniting and organizing the Basmachi and they still had to occasionally make deals with the Bolshevik to survive. And as soon as Madamin died, that organization fell apart. Ibrahim-Bek is the Basmachi’s best commander, but he had no interest in working with anyone besides the Bukharan Emir. Enver did nothing to try and unite these different forces. In fact, he exasperated the divides.

Simply put, the Basmachi weren’t built to sustain or support the resurgence they experienced after the fall of Bukhara.

Enver Pasha had no idea what he was doing. He ran to Central Asia because he was wanted in Turkey and Europe. He thought the Bolsheviks would help him regain power in Turkey and when that didn’t happen he needed a new cause. He clung to the Basmachi because he conflated their cause with Pan-Turkism and because who else would take him? But he didn’t know anything about Turkestan, the Basmachi, or the cause they were fighting. He was taking advantage of a situation that he didn’t fully understand, so of course that’s going to blow up in his face.

He didn’t appreciate the tactics best suited for guerilla warfare. He fought the war like it was a regular war relying on trenches and mass attacks. Those tactics are a death sentence for a guerilla movement and the Basmachi paid the price.

The Turkestan of 1921-1922 was very different from the Turkestan of 1918-1920. The Bolsheviks hold on the region was tenuous, but it was stronger than it had been earlier in the civil war. They had the benefit of a state that could supply their armies, they had the benefit of having local cadre willing to bring communism to the people, they had the benefit of being able to offer food, supplies, and security to the people. The Basmachi had none of that nor were they interested in building that capacity. Frunze’s strategy works because he focuses on the military component and the social/economic component. The Basmachi were focused on the military and survival component. They didn’t have an answer to the social and economic needs and Enver was clueless.

And yet, despite all these setbacks, the death of Enver Pasha did not spell the death of the Basmachi, for there was still Ibrahim-Bek. Ibrahim refused to work with Enver Pasha and led his own attacks while the Red Army forced on Enver. It was now up to Ibrahim to gather the remaining Basmachi forces and continue the war.

References

The Basmachi or Freeman's Revolt in Turkestan 1918-1924 by Martha B. Olcott

The Basmachi Movement from Within: An Account of Zeki Velidi Toghan by H. B. Paksoy

Some Aspects of the Basmachi Movement and the Role of Enver Pasha in Turkestan by Mehmet Shahingoz and Amina Akhantaeva

An Ottoman Warrior Abroad: Enver Pasha as an Expatriate by Şuhnaz Yilmaz

Enver Pasha in Central Asia Support for the National Struggle Documentation in the Moscow Archives by Hazratali Tursuny and Mrs. Moldabaevayy

Enver Pasha and the Basmachi Movement in Central Asia by S. R. Sonyel

Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR by Adeeb Khalid

Central Asia: A History by Adeeb Khalid

Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan by Robert F. Baumann

[zvaigzdelasas]

[O]n Tuesday, October 3, Azerbaijan re-issued a map of the capital of the former Armenian separatist enclave (Stepanakert in Armenian, Khankendi in Azerbaijani), with street names in Azerbaijani. One of these streets is named after Turkish military officer Enver Pasha, one of the main instigators of the Armenian genocide of 1915. The map was first published in August 2021. The map is re-issued at a time when Baku is intensifying its efforts to convince the international community that it will respect the rights of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians wishing to remain in the enclave.

3 Oct 23

[marfa-g]

i was asked to tell about Enver Pasha on behalf of Lawrence.

//I liked the passage in which the Arabs and Ned tell stories from life, waiting out the night attack of the Turks.

///The translation can be read in the description of the picture

[harminuya]

az*rbaijan has named one of the streets in Stepanakert, where 70000+ Armenians were living a monthe ago, after one of the architects of the Armenian Genocide (enver pasha). According to UN az*rbaijan only wants to "reintegrate" armenians and there's no pressure to leave Artsakh.

[gulyas069]

Kamala Harris parading Liz and Dick Cheney around like "please vote for me, my fellow Armenian Americans, I even got my best friend Enver Pasha on board"

[gillespiejr]

This article was published in 2005. It is scarily relevant and if certain excerpts had been taken and presented to me as a description of what is happening today, I would believe it without a second thought.

"The Only Good Jew is a Dead Armenian"

The old woman was telling a tale of massacre. She had just heard of another Israeli family murdered by terrorists, and there were tears in her eyes as she remembered back those many years. "I had luck," she said in Armenian. "I hid from the Turks behind a trellis. I saw my mother and father shot down, my baby sister spitted on a scimitar."

The old woman, who'd been a young girl in the year Turkey slaughtered several million Armenians under the cover of World War One, understood the link between Armenian and Israeli corpses. Because Armenia, the first Christian state in history, whose prosperity was a reproach to Turkish squalor, and whose high culture was an insult to their ignorance, was, like Israel, an infidel island in a sea of Islam. And for that there could be no forgiveness.

The Arab complaint today against Jews, while wretchedly tired, is identical to their excuse for murdering them in their beds: failure to provide Palestinian statehood, refusal to relinquish occupied territories. For the murder of Jews to appear plausible, though, the victims must be stigmatized. Epithets like Zionist oppressors and Fascist murderers are used incessantly to browbeat hearers and achieve that purpose. This is a tactic taken straight from the Ottoman Turks of 1915.

Then, the Armenians were accused of all manner of crimes, from rebellion to robbery to kidnapping Muslim infants. Exactly how a civilized people who had peacefully existed for centuries in their ancestral lands, and whose Christian conversion predated Constantine, had suddenly become rebels, thieves, and pedophiles, was never explained. Just as in Germany of the 1930s, libel preceded genocide. The allegation of babies skewered on bayonets is a much favored emotional trigger of slanderous propaganda, which outrage upon truth and trust is more felt than believed.

Armenians did not help themselves by their passivity in the face of destruction. Says Vahakn Dadrian in his comparison of the Armenian and Jewish predicaments, "Jews and Armenians developed an ethos of submissiveness intended to mollify the agents of persecution. When the victimizers are not held accountable, that becomes a source of new incentives for victimization." In other words, radical Islam, then and now, thinks it can get away with murder.

Today, one of radical Islam's goals is to despoil the Jews of the land of Israel. In 1915, the plan of the Young Turks led by the mass murderer Enver Pasha – a model for Heinrich Himmler – was to rid Armenia of Armenians by butchering them all and resettling Muslims there. The Arabs of 2005 would be content for the Jews to pack up and leave Israel for the Diaspora. And so they kill them to drive them out. The Ottoman Turks, on the other hand, would have exterminated the entire Armenian Diaspora if their reach had been long enough, so deep was their feeling of inferiority and so rabid their hatred. As it stood, three-quarters of the Armenian population was destroyed.

The key difference between the two countries is that despite historic occupation by Romans, Seljuk and Ottoman Turks, and Bolsheviks, Armenia is today unwanted by anyone. No longer does it serve as a bridge and invasion route, since the wars of East versus West have ceased in that part of the world — at least for the foreseeable future. That war, ongoing in one way or another since Xerxes invaded Greece, is now transferred to the Middle East, Israel being correctly perceived by Islam as The West. And the land of Israel, a harsh, bony spit of desert, is lusted after by Islam as a woman who is not to be shared with another suitor. In the long run, Israel might not be able to prevail, to continue to exist as a forward-looking, non-Muslim Western state. Unless the United States continues its massive moral and material support, beginning under Truman and continuing under the Bush Administration, sustained through every crisis, the Jewish island could eventually sink under the heavy weight of Arab populations and constant assaults — even as Israel gallantly fights a long slow defeat. Jews could neither conquer their enemies nor assimilate them, and so would be forced to return to the Diaspora from whence they came.

Before that occurred, however, there would be many acts of heroism and valor by the Israelis, and, sadly, many deaths among them. They would certainly not go gentle into that good night, but would rage, rage, against the dying of the light. Therefore it is imperative to the maintenance of freedom and peace in the world that the rabid, highly dangerous, but growing anti-Semitism in Europe and America be denounced and combated by every means and at every opportunity.

The old Armenian woman, my grandmother, having witnessed the slaughter of her people in the past and the continuing murder of Israelis in the present, had a foreboding of the future. She slowly and somberly shook her wizened head. "For Muslims today," she said, "it seems like the only good Jew is a dead Armenian."

by Christopher Baldwi

[ask-hws-uzbekistan]

What is your relationship with turkey like? :]

You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?? I...I gotta go I hear someone calling me!

She only ran about a few steps before passing out on the floor. Sometimes I wonder what she sees in that guy...

Anyway, I'll be taking over for her in case you wanted the real answer.

She had tried to fight Iran once before with Turkey and Crimea back in 1578, but had to retreat for a while to take care of matters at home. Said matters being my brother and I rebelling against her rule on us. She did end up taking large areas of land from Iran, so I guess that's a win?

And then she did it again in 1616. She asked Turkey about a cooperative military offensive against Iran, to which he accepted and attacked Iran again. I kinda feel bad for Iran...that must have been annoying at best.

She used to talk to him and visit him quite often around the 1500s and 1600s. She also asked him for help in the face of Russian expansion around the 1700s and 1800s. However, we all know what happened...

One of his military generals, Enver Pasha, tried helping us in the Basmachi Revolt against the Bolsheviks, but unfortunately died in battle in 1918. His remains stayed in Tajikistan until the late 90s, where he was brought back to Turkey.

Initially Turkey did have good relations with the USSR due to the shared ideas of revolution and the overthrowing of the monarchy, but things got cold after Turkey joined NATO.

They never really talked to each other after that...

Until we all became independent. Turkey was the first nation to recognize all of our independences, and things were going well. Until Turkey took Muhammad Solih, the Uzbek President's opposition candidate, in to stay. Uzbekistan asked for him back, but in Karimov's tenure that meant bad news...and so Turkey refused. This started the deterioration of their relationship(all of us too, if I'm being honest–she was very cold and brash during this time and just did whatever she could to achieve her goals). She had also raided a lot of his office buildings and jailed his employees on accounts of "terrorism" for having prayer mats and religious books in the offices.

After Karimov died in 2016, a new era was ushered in as Vice President Mirziyoyev took office as President in 2017. He began to thaw relationships with the rest of us, including Turkey. My sister also finally joined the Organization of Turkic States as a full member in 2019! They started talking to each other like normal again, and they even worked on a drama together about the last prince of the Khwarazmian Empire, starring a Turkish and Uzbek actor and actress as the main characters who fall in love.

Hmm. I wonder if that reminds me of something...

Turkey's politicians constantly highlight how important Uzbekistan is as a gateway to other Central Asian countries(me totally me), and she's starting to move away from trading with Russia in favor of Turkey. He also gives her a lot of military weapons, like drones, and they've begun training together recently.

So to sum it up, I think they both benefit each other a lot economically, and Turkey's also very similar culturally with the rest of us.

Wait why do I see Kyrgyzstan with a suitcase looking angry?

Oh no I better stop him. Thanks for having me, the cooler brother- OH GOD

[turkishpashaenjoyer]

Baby Enver just enjoying the power comes with his new military rank <3

[aoawarfare]

The Basmachi

The last couple of episodes, we’ve been exploring how the Russian Revolution affected Central Asia from several different perspectives. So far, we’ve talked about the Russian Settlers, the Alash Orda, the Jadids, and the Bukharan and Khivan Emirs. You may be thinking, that’s plenty of peoples and we’re ready to move onto 1918, but we have one more perspective to add and that’s the Basmachi, a guerrilla movement that reinvented itself numerous times during the 1920s and clashed with the Soviets from 1918 to the 1930s.

Who the Basmachi Were and Were Not

Who were the Basmachi? To answer that question, we must first clarify who the Basmachi were not. Interest in the Basmachi seemed to have picked up, in the US at least, in the 80s because of the Soviet-Afghan War. A lot of analysts positioned the Basmachi as a precursor to the Taliban and wanted to use the Basmachi as an example of Islam’s inherent danger to Soviet Communism. This has stuck and when talking about the Basmachi, the instinct is to think of them as this organized nationalistic-Islamic insurgency that was anti-Soviet and was one of the first examples of Soviet fundamentalism vs a Western ideology. And there seems to be this thinking that if you understand the Basmachi, you’ll understand the current iteration of the Taliban and how to fight in Central Asia.

Of course, the biggest issue with that interpretation is that it rewrites history to explain a modern phenomenon and also conflating a conflict that took place primarily in modern day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and parts of Turkmenistan with a conflict that took place primarily in Afghanistan. So, you know, all kinds of wrong.

The Basmachi were not precursors to the Taliban. The Basmachi came out of a number of conditions and factors unique to Central Asia following WWI and the Russian Revolution.

The Basmachi had periods of extreme organization and efficiency, but more times than their scope of operations was village focused or focused on a collection of roads. The level of organization depended on the local commanders. There was an effort to create a region wide movement, but we’ll get into that and why it failed later in the series.

Ibrahim Bek

[Image Description: A black and white photo of a man with dark skin and a scruffy beard. he is wearing a grey turban, a grey and white long dress shirt, and an embroidered blanket over his shoulders.]

The Basmachi relied on the population for supplies, and they could be as much of a pestilence as the Soviets for the population, despite the Basmachi’s claims they protected the people from Soviet “cruelty.”

They were Muslims and they had a specific vision for the future of Central Asia that was heavily Islamic, but within that vision was a gradient of views and beliefs. While they wanted a recognizably Islamic government, not all could be considered Islamic fundamentalists. They were not nationalistic. Their concept of Central Asia didn’t take into account nationalism or even state building. Their goal was to protect the customary practices of the past, preserve a form of government that was not only recognizable to them, but was also obviously Islamic, and to protect land and food from Soviet requisitions. The Basmachi were not even a pure anti-Soviet movement. They considered the Jadids and other urban modernizers to be as dangerous, if not more so, than the Soviets. Ibrohim-bek, a Basmachi leader, once said:

“I have to make war not just on the Russians, but really against the Jadids.” - Adeeb Khalid, Making Uzbekistan, pg. 88

And Ibrohim even thanked a Red Army commander, who defeated a Jadid led unit at Dushanbe, saying:

“Comrades, we thank you for fighting with the Jadids. I, Ibrohim-bek, praise you for this and shake your hand, as friend and comrade, and open to you the path to all four sides. I am also able to give you forage. We have nothing against you, we will beat the Jadids, who overthrew our power.” - Adeeb Khalid, Making Uzbekistan, pg. 88

            For the Basmachi, they were fighting a defensive war against the Soviets, a turf war with the Russian Settlers, and a civil war against the Jadids and other Muslim modernizers.

Basmachi in 1917

The Basmachi were created out of the combined horrors of 1916 and the famine that followed.

While the most famous Central Asia famine of the 20th century may be the Kazakh Famine of the 30s, Central Asia experienced an equally devastating famine from 1915 to 1920. In 1915, Turkestan’s ability to internally produce needed grains was at 90%. By 1917 it dropped down to 48%. This was made worse by the Tsarist’s efforts to recruit Russian Settlers (who planted most of the grain in the Steppe) and Russia’s decision to stop sending grain to Turkestan (who was dependent on Russia for food because of colonial policies and decisions). Then shipments stopped completely when the Whites took Orenburg, cutting Turkestan off from the rest of Russia.

According to scholar, Marco Buttino, between 1917 and 1920, the Russian settlers reduced the acreage of cultivated land by 28% and its livestock by 7%, the sedentary indigenous population cut their acreage of cultivated land by 39% and their livestock by 48%, and the semi-nomadic population by 46% and 63% respectively. According to an estimate conducted by the Turkestan government (which we’ll get into later in the season) by 1919, 970,000 people were suffering from hunger, about 30% of those people were in the Ferghana valley. Between 1917 and 1920, it is estimated that the settler population dropped from 797,000 to 610,000 and the indigenous population dropped from 6,362,000 to 4,727,000, a majority of whom were semi-nomadic. All estimates are from Marco Buttino’s article.

Given those sober statistics, it’s probably not surprising that the Basmachi emerged first from the Ferghana Valley and that the Ferghana would be one of their most stable areas of operations.

The first bands were led by a kurbashi (leader) from the local police force, the old governments of Khiva and Bukhara as they fell into Russian hands, disgruntled Jadids, and former criminals. They were originally based in Ferghana, but versions of the Basmachi would appear in the rural areas of Khiva and Bukhara after the Soviets defeated the emirs in 1920. The Basmachi would also attract former leaders of other states such as Zeki Velidi Togan of the short-lived Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and Enver Pasha of Ottoman fame.

Enver Pasha

[Image Description: A black and white picture of a man with a thick mustache with the tips twisted upwards. He is wearing a dark fez and a dark uniform with golden epaulettes and many medals. His arms are crossed and facing directly into the camera]

The Basmachi would spend most of 1917 forming their core group of fighters and establishing territorial ownership while fighting both Russian Settlers, Jadids, and anyone else they deemed a threat. The Basmachi may have remained little more than armed thugs if not for the fall of Kokand in 1918 and the pressures of the Russian Civil War who drove a wild collection of skilled men into the ranks of the Basmachi. These men would quickly rise through the ranks and lead the Basmachi, turning them into a persistence and violent headache for the Soviet Union.

Leaders of the Basmachi

Some of the most famous leaders of the Basmachi are Irgush Bey, Madamin Bey, Ibrahim Bek, and Junaid Khan (who we already met. He was the one who organized a coup against the Khivan Emir following the Russian Revolution). To learn more about him, listen to our episode about the Khiva Khanate during the Russian Revolution.

Irgush Bey

Irgush organized and led the first Basmachi attack of 1918. Irgush had originally been a former police officer who was asked by the Kokand Autonomy to be the chief of its militia. When the Kokand Autonomy fell (which we’ll talk about in our next episode), Irgush fled to the Ferghana and organized a band of Basmachi. By the end of 1918, he had over 4,000 fighters under his command. That would blossom to an estimated 20,000 by the end of 1919. Irgush had the support of Ulama of the Ferghana and represented the more extreme version of the Basmachi. Being in Ferghana, Irgush often had to contend with Madamin-Bey, one of the most famous and effective Basmachi leaders for ultimate control of the region.

Madamin Bey

Madamin Bey family came from the hereditary military elite of the Kokand Khanate before the Russians dismantled it. He was supported by the more moderate members of the Basmachi and the Ferghana area, making it hard, but not impossible to work with Irgush. Madamin Bey and Irgush would unite the Basmachi of the Ferghana in 1919 and Madamin would even ally with a White Russian General against the Bolsheviks, before switching sides. We’ll get into all of that in a different episode, but Madamin Bey was able to provide much needed organization and vision to the Basmachi movement.

Ibrahim Bek

Besides Madamin, Ibrahim may have been the most effective commander the Basmachi ever had. He was born to the Lokai tribe, from which he recruited many of his fighters. He was based in the Bukharan area and fought for the return of the Bukharan Emir after the Red Army deposed him. He was vehemently anti-Jadid and one of the longest lasting Basmachi leaders

Tactics

Like the IRA during the Irish War of Independence, the Basmachi were reliant on the population for men, supplies, and safety. Unlike the IRA, there wasn’t a universal, region wide plan, goal, or form of leadership or government. At first, the leaders were focused on protecting territory and food supplies from everyone and anyone-including other Basmachi leaders. It is best to think of them as gang bosses or warlords at this point. Groups of armed and dangerous fighters who were very protective of their own territory and food supply, while espousing rhetoric of protecting Islamic and communal values.

The Basmachi recruited new fighters from the unemployed rural population of Central Asia. The potential recruits were often approached by the kurbashi themselves and were promised food, arms, and horses. While many recruits brought their own weapons, each Kurbashi was personally responsible for recruiting and caring for his troops. They often requisitioned provisions and extracted taxes from the population of their territory. They were better at it than the Soviets. Like in Ireland, it seems that most of the Central Asian population was “willing” to support the Basmachi, although we can also assume that those who resisted did not resist for long.

When the Basmachi could not requisition food from the population, they looked to the Soviets for supplies. Some Basmachi reached agreements with the Soviet forces during winter and when things were tough in order to receive food and supplies before breaking their agreements and returning to the war.

Others were able to receive provisions from the Soviet government itself, since the Soviets were reliant on existing authority figures, many who know the people who made up the Basmachi ranks and so they were willing to help using Soviet supplies.

The Basmachi preferred hit and run tactics, harassing isolated Russian units, and avoiding pitched battles. They fought on horseback, with whatever was at hand, usually swords, grenades, and Berdan rifles of the Russo-Turkish War. Like most guerilla movements they relied on an intimate knowledge of the terrain, mobility, and passive or active support of the populace. As one Russian military observer wrote:

“Without anything distinguishing them [the Basmachi] on the outside, clothed in the same way as the peasant population, they were all around our units, not hesitating to infiltrate, and unrecognizable and elusive, they devoted themselves to espionage that has no equal, whose network extends from the Afghan frontier to Tashkent” Robert F. Baumann, Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan, pg 96

The Basmachi were able to fill in a power vacuum within the Ferghana and other rural parts of Central Asia, but they were never able to establish a stable form of government themselves, nor did they seem particularly interested in doing so. Despite this, they would prove to be one of the Soviet’s most consistent and dangerous problems as they tried to consolidate Central Asia under Soviet rule.

References

Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR by Adeeb Khalid

The “Russian Civil Wars” 1916-1926 by Jonathan Smele, Published by Oxford University Press, 2017

“The Basmachi or Freemen’s Revolt in Turkestan 1918–24” by M. B. Olcott Soviet Studies, no. 3, 1981

Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan by Robert F. Baumann, Combat Studies Institute, 2010.

"The Final Phase in the Liquidation of the Anti-Soviet Resistance in Tadzhikistan: Ibrahim Bek and the Basmachi, 1924-1931" by William S. Ritter, Soviet Studies, no 4, 1985

"Revolution in the Borderlands: the Case of Central Asia in a Comparative Perspective" by Marco Buttino, A Companion to the Russian Revolution, John Wiley & Sons, 2020

[beardedmrbean]

[Huey Zoomer Anon]

Side note I’m not saying we should massacre the Benin or any other tribes who were part of the transatlantic trade

Though I meant put my foot up the certain people asses who want reparations or say the bronze items they use to pay for slaves should return to Africa

Nope, that shit staying in the Americas just like me. Want me to true a pure American tank if you try?

And Asian and Arab imperialism, wait didn’t we defeat one about 80 years ago? Wait the Ottoman Empire and Abssaud Caliphate didn’t exist in real life? Then where the fuck is instabul and Baghdad is at?

I think people really need to understand HOW corrupted academia can be. Keep in it was high quality schools that taught white boys and girls in the Victorian era to see non white people less than human

That whole thing with the bronzes was absurd and even activists here told them as much,

then this

Why are they asking anyone other than themselves for reparations here, who do they think sold the slaves to the slave traders.

The 'my brother in Christ we already paid you for them' line is both funny and true.

Maybe they should try their luck with Egypt, Iran, Morocco, and so on and so on.

Should send a bill to the palestenian authority too, since they did a bunch of slave trading through the ports in palestine when it was under Ottoman control as well as the other caliphates that steamrolled over the local population.

Several billion dollars just sitting there since the grafters that were in charge of hamass are now pig food, take their money.

Video I was telling you about a couple days ago, filming kids in Saudi Arabia who's parents were rich and you notice the kids aren't carrying their schoolbooks because their slave that their parents bought them carried those for them, this was in the 60's. 1960's mind you not 1860's though it was happening then too.

Let's get the Balkans involved too,

Ismail Enver is better known as Enver Pasha, one of the three pasha's, he's got as much responsibility for the Armenian genocide as it's possible to have.

So pro slavery and pro genocide, real winner there.

So Turkey and really any of the former Ottoman territories will owe the nations of the Balkans reparations for taking their sons and forcing them to fight their wars and taking their daughters and forcing them to be in their harems, and everything else they took slaves from that area from.

I think people really need to understand HOW corrupted academia can be. Keep in it was high quality schools that taught white boys and girls in the Victorian era to see non white people less than human

ya it's nuts, now we have folks in academia teaching the inverse of that, because somehow it's ok when they do it instead of just saying racism is evil like they should.

The fight was to be seen as equal, not superior.

Not sure how that message got lost.

[thomasthetankieengine]

As opposed to what?

Grigory Khristoforovich von Zass was from a noble Baltic German family and attended a private educational institution.

Enver Pasha graduated from a military academy.

Goebbels had a doctorate in philology and Oskar Direlwanger, the rapist , murderer, and torturer who led the Dirlewanger Brigade, earned a doctorate in economics.

Pol Pot was from a wealthy family and studied at the École d'ingénieur généraliste en informatique et technologies du numérique in France.