Background
He was born in Manastır into an Albanian family. His father was prominent civil servant of the area.
He was born in Manastır into an Albanian family. His father was prominent civil servant of the area.
From 1887 to 1890 he taught strategy and military geography in the Ottoman War College, while later until 1894 he studied in Germany under Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz.
He took advanced training in Germany, 1891-1894, fought in the 1897 war against Greece, and was promoted to the rank of colonel at the age of thirty-seven. The next few years saw him campaigning in Yemen. There he was promoted brigadier general in 1905. By the time he had been called back to Constantinople in 1908 to take over as the army's chief of staff, he had been promoted twice; to lieutenant general in 1907 and to full general's rank the next year.
As chief of staff, he tapped the talents of German military advisers to plan for a future Balkan war. Izzet feared that Turkey might soon face a hostile Balkan coalition. He also tried to avoid political involvement an impossible undertaking in the years after the Young Turk Revolution of 1908. In 1911/1912 he was again sent to subdue insurrection in Yemen this time it was a form of political exile. He was still nominally chief of staff, but he had lost central control over the army. His warnings to avoid a Balkan war at all cost were ignored. His well-founded plans for such a conflict called for a defensive posture until reinforcements could arrive from Asiatic Turkey. They too were cast aside, and the opening weeks of the First Balkan War in October 1912 brought the disaster he had feared. They also brought political turmoil, culminating in the establishment of the Young Turk dictatorship in the first half of 1913.
Following his sense of duty, Izzet served in several crucial posts during the first year in which the Young Turks were in power, notably as minister of war. He apparently feared that less-experienced figures from the Young Turk circle would botch such responsibilities unless he agreed to serve. Nonetheless, despite the shortcomings revealed by the Balkan Wars, he balked at purging the officer corps. That meant turning on his long-time comrades. He passed his post temporarily, he thought to the flamboyant Young Turk leader Enver Pasha in January 1914. Two years of semiretirement followed, as Enver used the War Ministry to establish himself as one of the commanding figures in the Turkish government.
After the outbreak of World War I, Izzet, then on the sidelines, opposed undertaking offensive operations in the Balkans or the Caucasus. Turkey's wartime role could only be a defensive one: barring the lines of communication between Russia and western Europe. As in 1912, his strategic insight failed to carry the day.
In April 1916, Izzet renewed his military career by taking command of the Second Army in eastern Anatolia. Under the spirited leadership of General Yudenich, the Russians had seized the Turkish stronghold at Erzurum. Enver put forth a grandiose scheme for a counterattack. The Turkish Third Army was to strike Yudenich from the west, while Izzet's forces advanced from the south. Such happy visions ignored hard realities: spring floods, difficult mountain terrain, and Yudenich's habit of striking first.
By the time Izzet could begin his offensive in August, the Second Army had to attack alone. Yudenich had launched a preemptive attack and shattered the Third Army. Critics have accused Izzet of making a mediocre situation worse. He dispersed his forces widely; he advanced in three separate directions; and he pushed into impassable mountainous terrain in some sectors, while moving with excessive caution elsewhere. Talented subordinates like General Mustafa Kemal could not save the situation. By the start of September Izzet was back at his starting line. His campaigning days were over.
Izzet served as Turkey's military representative at the peace negotiations with Soviet Russia and Rumania. And in October/November 1918, after the collapse of the Young Turk government, he took office as grand vizier. Using the captive British general, Charles Townshend, as go-between, Izzet's cabinet concluded the Mudros armistice. Turkey left the war on October 30; the Straits opened to allow Allied ships into the Black Sea. As Turkish forces were demobilized, the Allies took over key areas and lines of communication. On November 2 a German ship spirited away most of the Young Turk leaders. Izzet may have helped arrange their departure. In any event, he was blamed for the escape both inside and outside Turkey and fell from power on November 11.
During the declining years of the sultanate, 1918-1922, Izzet served in several cabinet positions. With the birth of the Turkish republic, the old soldier went into lasting retirement. He died in Istanbul, April 1,1937.