ABSTRACT
There are few characters in Turkish history whose rise and fall have been as rapid and as dramatic as those of Enver Paşa. Starting out as an unknown graduate of the Imperial War College, he was only in his mid-twenties when he became the ‘hero of freedom’ after the Young Turk Revolution of 1908. Thus started his meteoric rise from the ranks of a lieutenant-colonel to a virtual dictator during the rule of the Triumvirate in 1913. Within a year, when he married an Ottoman princess, he also joined the royal family as the son-in-law of the Sultan. Rapidly achieving the power and titles he sought, Enver became the Minister of War as battle clouds were gathering over Europe. Hence, at the outset of the First World War, he emerged as one of the most important Ottoman political and military leaders who determined the fate of a crumbling empire, which in return shaped his own destiny.
