ABSTRACT
Turkish government official during the First World War. Born into a poor farming family in Edirne in Ottoman Thrace in 1874, Talât was one of the earliest leaders of the Young Turk revolutionary movement. Talât played a major part in the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, after which he was elected to the parliament. He served as minister of the interior from 1909 to 1911 and from 1913 to 1918. Talât did much to involve his nation in the First World War. He believed that in the event of a general war Turkey should ally itself with Russia to protect the Straits; a proposal of alliance, however, was rejected by Russian Foreign Minister Serge Sazonov. Talât had demanded a guarantee of the territorial integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire and abolition of the capitulations that impaired her sovereignty as preconditions for such an alliance, but the Russians were unable to secure the approval of France and England and rejected the offer. Unable to bring about an alliance with Russia, Talât became convinced that Germany was the only country willing to ally with Turkey, although for some time he vacillated between pro-Entente and pro-German members of the Ottoman government. On 2 August 1914, Talât was present at the signing of the Turco-German Secret Alliance Treaty.
