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Turkey / Egypt / Armenia: Said Halim Pasha (1865 – 1921), Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1917

Turkey / Egypt / Armenia: Said Halim Pasha (1865 – 1921), Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1917

Said Halim Pasha (Ottoman Turkish: سعيد حليم پاشا ; Albanian: Said Halimi; 18 January 1865 – 5 December 1921) was a statesman who served as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1917. Born in Cairo, Egypt, he was the grandson of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, often considered the founder of modern Egypt.

He was one of the signatories to the Ottoman–German Alliance. Yet, he resigned after the incident of the pursuit of the battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau (a naval action in the Mediterranean Sea at the outbreak of the First World War), an event which served to cement the Ottoman–German alliance during World War I. It is claimed that Mehmed V wanted a person in whom he trusted as Grand Vizier, and that he asked Said Halim to stay in his post as long as possible. Said Halim's term lasted until 1917.

During the courts-martial trials in the Ottoman Empire after World War I, he was accused of treason as he had been a signatory to the Ottoman–German Alliance. He was exiled on 29 May 1919 to a prison in Malta. He was acquitted from the accusations and set free in 1921, and he moved to Sicily. He wanted to return to Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, but this request was rejected. He was assassinated soon after in Rome by Arshavir Shirakian, an agent of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, for his alleged role in the Armenian Genocide.

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