Huseyin Hilmi Pasha

Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha was an Ottoman statesman and imperial administrator who served twice as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire during the Second Constitutional Era. He was also a president of the Turkish Red Crescent and an ambassador to Austria-Hungary. He was born in Midilli (Lesbos) in 1855 to a family of merchants from Kütahya. He received his primary education in Midilli and learned fluent French at an early age. He started his career as a clerk in the Ottoman bureaucracy and gradually rose through the ranks, becoming the governor of Adana in 1897 and of Yemen in 1902. In 1902, he was appointed as the Inspector-General of Macedonia, with responsibility over the vilayets of Salonica, Kosovo and Manastir. He was tasked with implementing reforms in the volatile Balkan region, where nationalist movements and insurgencies were threatening the Ottoman rule. He managed to establish a good administration and maintain order in the region, earning the trust and respect of the local population. He also befriended Namık Kemal, a prominent Ottoman writer and reformer who was exiled to Midilli. He supported the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, which restored the constitutional monarchy and ended the absolutist regime of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. He became the Minister of the Interior in the first cabinet of the new era, led by Kâmil Pasha. He succeeded Kâmil Pasha as the Grand Vizier in February 1909, but his term was cut short by the 31 March Incident, a reactionary coup attempt by the conservative and religious elements in the army and the society, who opposed the constitutional reforms and the secularization of the state. Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha resigned and fled to Europe, but returned after the coup was suppressed by the loyalist forces from Salonica. He became the Grand Vizier again in May 1909, replacing Ahmed Tevfik Pasha. He tried to implement further reforms and modernization in the Ottoman administration, but faced opposition and criticism from various factions and groups. He resigned in December 1909 and became a member of the Senate. He was appointed as the ambassador to Austria-Hungary in 1912, a position he held until the end of the First World War. He witnessed the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of the Turkish Republic. He died in Vienna in 1922, from natural causes. He was buried in the city. He is remembered as one of the most progressive and competent statesmen of the late Ottoman period, who contributed to the development and democratization of the empire.