Halil Kut

Who was Halil Kut?

Halil Kut was an Ottoman and Turkish regional governor and military commander. Halil Pasha was the uncle of Enver Pasha, who was the War Minister during World War I and one of the main organizers of the Armenian Genocide and the Assyrian Genocide.

He oversaw the massacre of Armenian men, women and children in Bitlis, Mush, and Beyazit. Many of the victims were buried alive in specially prepared ditches. He also crossed into neighboring Persia and massacred the Armenian, Assyrian, and Persian population.

Kut claimed in his memoirs that he personally killed "more or less" 300,000 Armenians. During a meeting at Yerevan in the summer of 1918, in front of many Armenians Kut declared: "I have endeavored to wipe out the Armenian nation to the last individual."