Halil Kut

Halil Kut (1881-August 20, 1957) was an Ottoman and Turkish regional governor, military commander and Armenian Genocide perpatraitor. Halil Pasha was the uncle of Enver Pasha, who was the War Minister during World War I and one of the main organizers of the Armenian Genocide.

He oversaw the massacre of all Armenian men, women and children in Bitlis, Mush, and Beyazit. Many of the victims were buried alive in especially prepared ditches. He also crossed into neighboring Persia and massacred the Armenian, Syrian, and Persian population.

Kut claimed in his memoirs that he personally killed "more or less" 300,000 Armenians. During a meeting at Yerevan in the summer of 1918, in front of many Armenians Kut declared: "I have endeavored to wipe out the Armenian nation to the last individual."

Early career
He graduated from the War Academy (Staff College) at Constantinople in 1905 as a Distinguished Captain (Mümtaz Yüzbaşı).

For three years following his graduation he served the Third Army in Macedonia. When the constitutional order was restored in 1908, the government sent him to Iran to organize dissidence against the Shah which Persia had the Persian Constitutional Revolution. After the Countercoup (1909) of 13 April 1909, he was called back and became the commander of the Imperial Guard.

Initially he was involved in fighting insurgents and bandits around Selanik prior to the Balkan Wars. He was at Salonica to command the mobile gendarmerie units in the region. He was also commanded a unit during Balkan Wars. He was among the group of young officers sent to Libya (Trablusgarp) in 1911 to organize the defense against the Italian invasion during the Italo-Turkish War. Before World War I, he served as the commander of the gendarmerie regiment in Van.

World War I
When Turkey entered the World War, he was working at the High Command in Constantinople. He later served as the divisional commander in 3rd Ottoman army on the Russian border, thereby also involved in operations against the Armenians who were allied to the Russians. Later, he was one of the senior commanders of the Ottoman forces in Mesopotamia, now Iraq, during World War I.

In 1915, he was the commander of the forces capturing Kut in southern Iraq and taking General Townshend prisoner. After this successful campaign, he was promoted to General. He was appointed governor of the Baghdad province (present day Iraq and Kuwait combined) and was also the commander of the Sixth Army from 19 April 1916 till the end of the war in 1918.

His greatest success during his tactical - after 19 April 1916 operational - command in Iraq was the encirclement and 143 day Siege of Kut, and the eventual surrender of the British Expeditionary Armies on 29 April 1916. However, credit for this success is shared with his senior officer and predecessor as Commander of the 6th Ottoman Army, German Field-Marshal Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, who had died 10 days before this surrender.

In 1917, Halil Pasha was ordered by the Minister of Defense Enver Pasha to move some of his troops to the Persian Campaign It was an unsuccessful attempt to destabilize the British supported government there. This limited his ability to defend Baghdad and led to the Fall of Baghdad. After which fresh British forces were massed at the Iraq front after this surrender.

Armenian Genocide
Halil Pasha had a supporting role in the Armenian Genocide. He took part in the civilian killings during the Siege of Van and was also the uncle of Enver Pasha, one of the Three Pashas who had organized the genocide. In his memoirs, he would proudly admit to his role in the genocide and his intention to kill every Armenian in the world. Halil had also tried to justify the genocide and accused the Armenians of being a threat to the Ottoman Empire, a common claim in Armenian Genocide denial. His extact words (literally translated) are:

Late years
He was jailed by the British Occupying Forces in Constantinople, but escaped and fled to Moscow. In accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Moscow (1921) signed between the Ankara Government and the Soviet leadership, he carried the gold bullion sent by Lenin to Ankara, to pay for Turkey's return of Batum to the Soviets. Since he was not permitted to stay in Turkey at the time, he first moved back to Moscow and then to Berlin.

He was permitted to return to Turkey after the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. He died in 1957 in Istanbul.