Halil Kut
| Halil Kut | |
|---|---|
Halil Kut
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| Nickname(s) | The Hero of Kut Kutülamare Kahramanı |
| Born | 1881 Yenimahalle, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 20 August 1957 (aged 75–76) Istanbul, Turkey |
| Allegiance |
 Ottoman Empire Turkey
|
| Rank | Mirliva |
| Unit | Sixth Army |
Halil Kut (1881 – 20 August 1957) 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.
One of the main organizers of the Armenian and Assyrian genocides, 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 Armenians, Assyrians and Persians.
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."
He graduated from the War Academy (Staff College) at Constantinople in 1905 as a Distinguished Captain (Mümtaz Yüzbaşı).
For three years following his graduation he served the Third Army in Macedonia. When the constitutional order was restored in 1908, the government sent him to Iran to organize dissidence against the Shah whom Persia had installed during the Persian Constitutional Revolution. After the Countercoup (1909) of 13 April 1909, he was called back and became the commander of the Imperial Guard.
Initially he was at Salonica to command the mobile gendarmerie units in the region and was involved in fighting insurgents and bandits prior to the Balkan Wars. He also commanded a unit during Balkan Wars. He was among the group of young officers sent to Libya (Trablusgarp) in 1911 to organize the defense against the Italian invasion during the Italo-Turkish War. Before World War I, he served as the commander of the gendarmerie regiment in Van.
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