Ali Rıza Pasha

Who was Ali Rıza Pasha?

Ali Rıza Pasha was one of the last grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, under the reign of the last Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI Vahdeddin, between 14 October 1919 and 2 March 1920.

He was born in 1860 in Istanbul, son of a major. He graduated from the Ottoman Military College in 1886. He held military and administrative posts such as the Governorship of Manastır in 1903, after which he was exiled to Libya upon the pressure exercised by Russia, since the Russian consul of the city had been assassinated during his tenure. In 1905, he was appointed to Yemen where he suppressed an uprising. With the beginning of the Second Constitutional Era in the Ottoman Empire in 1908, he became the Minister of War in grand vizier Kıbrıslı Mehmed Kamil Pasha's government but had to be removed due to objections raised by the Committee of Union and Progress. He was re-appointed to the same ministry in Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha's cabinet in 1909 but gave his demission because of the 31 March Incident. Appointed as supervisor for the European armies of the Ottoman Empire, the Balkan Wars erupted before he even had the time to assume his duties.