Nazim A Fine Soldier.

New York Times 100 years ago today, January 24, 1913:
Did Much to Restore Troops' Spirit at Tchatalja — New Vizier's Career.
    Nazim Pasha, War Minister and Generalissimo of the Turkish armies, was a man of great physical and mental strength. He was close to 60 years of age, and was characterized as the best Commander in Chief Turkey had possessed in recent times.
    Nazim took supreme command of the forces after Abdullah Pasha suffered defeat around Kirk-Kilisseh and Adrianople. He was appointed Minister of War in the first Kiamil Cabinet. This aroused the opposition of the Committee of Union and Progress, and practically resulted in the overthrow of the Ministry. He then became Commander of the First Army Corps, and was in command of the troops in Constantinople at the time of the revolutionary movement that dethroned Abdul Hamid.
    Nazim Pasha became Minister of War again in 1912 in the Mukhtar Cabinet and continued to hold office when the second Kiamil Cabinet was formed last October. He was in personal command of the troops that checked the advance of the Bulgarians at the Tchatalja lines. He reached that district in time to gather together the scattered troops after the battle of Tchorlu and, notwithstanding the disorganization of the army and the ravages of disease, he brought about a spirit of union among the discouraged soldiers through good generalship.
    Mahmud Shefket Pasha, the new Grand Vizier, was the commander of the constitutional army which forced the surrender of Abdul Hamid. At the beginning of the Young Turkish revolution he was stationed at Adrianople as Commander in Chief of the Third Army Corps. Until that time he had not taken part in any national event of importance, but he believed that the welfare of Turkey depended on the removal of Abdul Hamid as Sultan.
    The Young Turk Committee decided to ask Mahmud Shefket to lead the Liberal forces in the march to Constantinople. When the delegation reached him he asked a quarter of an hour to decide. At the end of that time he said: "To act as you want me to do would result in either of the three following contingencies. First of all, it may bring about civil war, the responsibility for which will be laid at my door. In the second place, it may bring about foreign intervention, which again will be a cause of reproach to me. Finally. I may be hanged for it. Nevertheless, since this happens to be the wish of the Liberal Party, I am willing to stand by the consequences of its decision."
    In less than a week's time, Mahmud was Military Dictator, and on April 24, 1909, he entered Constantinople, following an attack in which he used artillery. The Sultan was deposed on April 26 and his brother became his successor.
    With the reorganization of the Turkish Government, made necessary by the successful revolt, Mahmud Shefket Pasha became Minister of War. He retired soon afterward.
    Mahmud Shefket is an Arab and a native of Bagdad. When his family emigrated to Constantinople he was sent to the Harbie, or military school, where he distinguished himself by being graduated at 18 years with the highest honors. As a young soldier, he was one of the few whom the former Sultan selected from year to year for appointment to the General Staff. He was then sent to Germany as a representative of the Turkish Minister of War and he remained there over ten years, becoming an ardent admirer of German military institutions.