Enver Pasha in Naciye Sultan's Memoirs

Naciye Sultan is the granddaughter of Sultan Abdulmecid. She recognised Enver Pasha from photographs and the eulogies she heard about him, liked him, and married him with the suitor of Enver Pasha. In these memoirs published in Vatan newspaper in 1952, a different portrait of Enver Pasha emerges with what Naciye Sultana says about her husband Enver Pasha. Naciye Sultana had three suitors. One of them was Enver Pasha. One day, Vahidettin Efendi, the uncle of Naciye Sultan, said to Naciye Sultan: "My daughter, I am coming to you today not as an uncle but as an accountant sent by the Sultan. There are three people who want you. Your Majesty orders you to choose one of them. You have to decide". There were pictures of my three suitors placed in front of me. I preferred Enver Bey among them. It was obvious from his picture that Enver Bey was a handsome and chivalrous young man. But I also knew that he was Enver, the hero of Hürriyet. He was a person who created a completely different atmosphere in the country. For this reason, I told Vahidettin Efendi that I had chosen Mr Enver. The Sultan was very pleased with this situation. We started to exchange letters. We had never seen each other. While Mr Enver was away, our wedding was held at Dolmabahçe Palace in 1911. One day I received a letter from Enver in Berlin. War had been declared between us and Italy. He wrote that he was going to Benghazi and its neighbourhood as the General Commander. Enver, who went to Libya as a fugitive, had nothing but one hundred liras, one hundred cartridges and a pistol". In his letter to Naciye Sultan, Enver Bey describes the war in Tripolitania. "For the first time in this country, a unity was formed among the opponents. For the first time, these tribes, which had been fighting each other, took a united front against the enemy. They forgot the blood feuds that had been going on between them for centuries. One day during an attack, Enver Bey saw one of the Arab tribes hesitating and said, "Let the brave ones follow me. War is the work of the brave. Those who are afraid of death should return to their tents. I will go on the offensive with these forty Turkish soldiers. We know how to die like men", the Arab tribes followed Enver Bey and won an important victory against the Italians. He returned home to participate in the Balkan War and Enver Bey was about to embark on dangerous adventures again. In the 1st Balkan War, we were defeated in the Balkan War due to the negligence of the Hürriyet and İtilaf party. For this reason, the Unionists overthrew the government with the Bâb-ı Âli raid and took over the administration. Mr Enver played a leading role in this event. Acting at the head of the army, he liberated Edirne from Bulgarian occupation in July 1913. He returned to Istanbul. I met Enver Bey for the first time. I saw Enver Bey, who had been operated on twice, on his sick bed for the first time. The wedding ceremony was held on 5 March 1914 in the building that is now Işık High School. As long as I lived with him, I never heard a single bad word from him. Enver Pasha lived first and foremost for his country. The war ended. Enver Pasha decided to leave the country with his friends. His friends Talat and Cemal Pashas, Dr Nazım, Baheeddin Şakir, Azmi, Bedri and İsmail Canbulat travelled to Odessa on a German warship. I received less news from Enver Pasha. He wrote that he was at a farm in Berlin. He had travelled to Russia twice and returned to Berlin. He had decided to go to Russia again. Enver Pasha's whole aim was to pass from Russia to Turkestan and to liberate the Turks of Central Asia and Indian Muslims. I received the last letter from my husband on 4 August 1922. In this letter he wrote that he wanted to move to Switzerland. But in order to fulfil this project, he had to convince everyone that he was dead. He even asked me to pretend to believe him if I received the news of his death. He was in Gushembe at the time. On 4 August they came to a valley in Fergana province at the foot of the Himalayan mountains. It was the first day of Eid al-Adha. He gathered around him those who fought against the Russians with him, and they were preparing to perform the Eid prayer. The Central Asian Turks who fought for independence were called "BASMACI" there. The Russians surrounded Enver Pasha and his friends and attacked. Enver Pasha drew his sword and defended himself. A handful of people fought heroically against the crowded Russian forces. As a result, they were all martyred. At first they could not realise which one of them was Enver Pasha. However, they recognised Enver by the trousers on his feet and the "Koran" in his arm. He also had a picture of our children in his bosom. Ismet Bey, who was Cemal Pasha's aide, came to me and told me that Enver Pasha was a martyr. He brought the pictures and letters they found in Enver Pasha's bosom. They had Enver Pasha's blood stains on them.

Sincerely...