Grand Vizier Slain By Assassins.

New York Times 100 years ago today, June 12, 1913:
Schefket Pasha, Turkish War Minister, Shot from an Automobile.
AID DE CAMP KILLED, TOO
Correspondent Donohoe Pictures the Man Who Caused Killing of Nazim Pasha.
By Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Thursday, June 12.— The murder yesterday of Schefket Pasha, the Grand Vizier of Turkey, in the streets of Constantinople — probably by members of a plot to overthrow the Young Turk regime of which he was the head — calls from M. H. Donohue, the Balkan war correspondent of The Daily Chronicle, an estimate of the character of the dead man.
    The Grand Vizier was shot while being driven in a motor car from the Ministry of War to the Sublime Porte, the assassins firing ten shots at him from another car. Ibrahim Bey, his aid, was also wounded, both dying in a short time.
    Donohue made the acquaintance of Schefket in 1909, and thereafter saw much of him.
    "Shefket had many faults," he says, "but was handsome and generous to a degree. It is said of him that he never forgot his friends and rarely forgave his enemies. He lacked caution and discernment and had a tendency to insincerity."
    Schefket, as I remember him, was a remarkable causeur, possessing, for a Turk, a very lively imagination. I have sat listening to him for hours, telling stories of his adventurous military life. The man had the true gift of the raconteur, and the most prosaic incidents, coming from his lips, sounded like a new version of the "Arabian Nights."
    "One of the dead man's weaknesses was an inordinate variety and love of the picturesque, whether in an incident or a uniform. He would pose ten times a day before the camera, and was wont to stand for amateur and professional photographers with his head well thrown back, those dark Arab eyes of his flashing like diamonds, one hand on his hip, and the other grasping firmly the hilt of his sword.
    "Although loving power, Shefket is believed to have been drawn unwillingly into the ranks of the conspirators who planned the coup d'état. Once a party to the conspiracy, he seemed to have lost all sense of perspective. He flung military discretion to the winds, broke off negotiations, and light-heartedly embarked upon the second campaign, which the Turks were told was to reverse the inglorious defeats of Kirk Killisseh and Lule Burgas and preserve Adrianople to the Empire. All the world knows how grievously Schefket and his advisers disappointed their countrymen.
    "Despite certain political differences, Shefket preserved a certain attachment for the murdered Nazim Pasha, and in private never ceased to deplore the fatal bullet which robbed Nazim of life and Turkey of an able soldier. According to the plan submitted for Shefket's approval, the coup d'état was to have been accomplished without bloodshed, but when the band of conspirators and their supporters rushed from Stamboul and invaded the precincts of the Sublime Porte this undertaking was forgotten; angry passions and personal animosities surged uppermost, and Nazim and his aid de camp, the handsome and accomplished Tewfik Bey, fell victims.
    "From this moment Shefket realized that his earthly days were numbered, and that he was a doomed man. 'Blood must be requited by blood,' was a saying not unknown to the murdered Grand Vizier, and he literally paid 'measure for measure.' Ever since that January day when the Cabinet of Kiamil was overthrown and the Young Turks climbed back into power Shefket daily lived haunted by the spectre of the assassin. Friends and sympathizers of the dead Nazim had sworn to take the lives of both the Grand Vizier and Enver Bey, and if Shefket lived so long it was perhaps because opportunities for killing him were lacking.
    "Shefket was the best-hated man in Turkey. Like most politicians, he was hated by those who in the course of his administration he had driven from the army and those whom his enmity had sent into exile, or whom he had court-martialed and put in a felon's cell; but the one unforgettable crime for which Shefket was tried and found guilty by the public conscience of Turkey was participation in the assassination of Nazim."
    Referring to Shefket's reputation for being a hard worker during his occupancy of the War Office, Donohue says: "During the Italian war and as an example to members of the headquarters staff, who had all the Turk's love of indolence, Shefket remained at his post day and night, always in full uniform. He usually slept on a camp bed, placed near his writing table. In the Spring of last year, and while the Italian war was in progress, I often visited the dead Grand Vizier at the War Office as early as 6 in the morning, and usually found him already busy at work. Soldier-like, he looked always ready for any militancy. He was a simple and sympathetic man, but a convinced adherent of the Prussian military school, and, like so many of his countrymen, a fervent admirer of von der Goltz and his speeches.
    "A month ago the Grand Vizier was urged to make arrangements for escaping his enemies by a sudden flight from the capital. It was then felt that the end of the Cabinet, if not of the life of Shefket himself, was not far off; but he turned a deaf ear to all these entreaties, usually replying: 'Mashallah! What God wills will be.' And so Shefket declined to fly from the capital, remaining for the death which had been promised him by his enemies."

    CONSTANTINOPLE, June 11.— Mahmoud Shefket Pasha, the Turkish Grand Vizier and Minister of War, was shot and killed by assassins to-day. His Aid de Camp, Ibrahim Bey, was also killed. Prince Said Haiim, Foreign Minister and ex-President of the Council of State, has been appointed Grand Vizier ad interim. All the other Ministers retain their portfolios.
    The following official account of the assassination has been issued:
    "On leaving the Ministry of War this morning the Grand Vizier entered a motor car with the intention of proceeding to the Sublime Porte. But the car was obliged to stop while going through Bayezid and Divan Yolu Square because the road was torn up. Some persons in another car, whose identity has not been established, fired ten shots at the car. The Grand Vizier, who was severely wounded, was taken back to the Ministry of War, where he died half an hour later.
    "Ibrahim Bey, who was accompanying Mahmoud Schefket Pasha, was also hit by some of the bullets and subsequently died."
    A man named Tepal Tewfik has been arrested; he is suspected of being one of the assassins. He had in his possession two revolvers and some cartridges.
    It is believed in Government circles here that the assassination of the Grand Vizier was the outcome of a plot against the Committee of Union and Progress.
    Mahmoud Schefket Pasha had held office as Grand Vizier since Jan. 23 of this year, when Kiamil Pasha resigned. On the same day Nazim Pasha, the commander of the Turkish Army at the Tchatalja lines, was shot dead during a demonstration in Constantinople.
    Mahmoud Schefket Pasha was a pure Arab, and a native of Bagdad. He was brought to Constantinople with his family when he was a boy. After studying at the military school he was graduated at 18 years of age with the highest honors. He was a great favorite of the former Sultan Abdul Hamid, who appointed him to the General Staff. Afterward he proceeded to Germany and stayed there ten years, studying the organization of the German Army.
    Despite his close intimacy with Abdul Hamid, Schefket Pasha was the moving spirit in fostering the military revolution which brought about that Sultan's fall. In that uprising he was assisted by Enver Bey. After Schefket Pasha had put an end to the cabal which surrounded Abdul Hamid, the old Sultan attempted to recover his autocracy, and the late Grand Vizier then caused his deposition, and has his brother, Mehmed V., placed on the throne.
    Soon after the outbreak of the Balkan war Mahmoud Schefket Pasha was appointed Chief of the Commissariat Department of the Turkish War Office, and he was one of those present at the Grand Council of the Empire which decided in January this year to accept the proposal of the European powers to bring the war to an end.