Halil Kut was an Ottoman-born Turkish regional governor and military commander. Halil Pasha was the uncle of Enver Pasha, who was the War Minister during World War I. He is famous for his victory over the British forces at the Siege of Kut. One of the main organizers of the Armenian and Assyrian genocides, he oversaw the massacre of Armenian men, women and children in Bitlis, Mush, and Beyazit. Many of the victims were buried alive in specially prepared ditches. He also crossed into neighboring Persia and massacred Armenians, Assyrians and Persians. Kut claimed in his memoirs that he personally killed "more or less" 300,000 Armenians. During a meeting at Yerevanin 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 at Constantinople in 1905 as a Distinguished Captain. 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 whom Persia had installed during the Persian Constitutional Revolution. After the Countercoup of 13 April 1909, he was called back and became the commander of the Imperial Guard. Initially he was at Salonica to command the mobile gendarmerie units in the region and was involved in fighting insurgents and bandits prior to the Balkan Wars. He also commanded a unit during Balkan Wars. He was among the group of young officers sent to Libya 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 the Ottoman empire entered the World War, Kut was working at the High Command in Istanbul. 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, 481 officer and 13,300 soldiers prisoners. After this successful campaign, he was promoted to General. He was appointed governor of the Baghdad province 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. 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.
Halil Pasha had a major role in the Armenian Genocide. He took part in the civilian killings during the Siege of Van in 1915. Kut had conducted "the massacre" of armed Armenian battalions which had sided with the occupying Imperial Russian forces as stated by the German Vice-consul of Erzurum, "Halil had the entire Armenian population in the areas of Bitlis, Muş, and Beyazit also massacred without pity. My company received a similar order. Many of the victims were buried alive in especially prepared ditches." The German vice-consul of Erzurum Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter reported that "Halil Bey's campaign in northern Persia included the massacre of his Armenian and Syrian battalions and the expulsion of the Armenian, Syrian, and Persian population out of Persia ..." After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I he was charged for his role in the Armenian Genocide before the Turkish Court-Martials. Kut was exiled to Malta but managed to evade prosecution flee from detention to Anatolia in August 1920. 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. His exact words are: The Government of Turkey does not accept that these events amounted to genocide, see Armenian Genocide denial.
Later 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 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 Batumi 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. His last wish was to have rakı poured on his grave, which led to controversy amongst conservatives in Turkey.
