Mahmud Muhtar Pasha

For the Egyptian sculptor, see Mahmoud Mokhtar.

Mahmud Muhtar Pasha (before 1934) Mahmut Muhtar Katırcıoğlu (after 1934)
File:Mahmud Muhtar Pasha.jpg Mahmud Muhtar Pasha in 1916
Birth name	Mahmud Muhtar
Born	1867 Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Died	15 March 1935 (aged 67–68) On a passenger ship going from Alexandria to Napoli
Allegiance	Ottoman Empire
Rank	Ferik
Commands held	1st Division, III Corps, Naval Minister
Battles/wars	Greco-Turkish War (1897) Italo-Turkish War Balkan Wars

Mahmud Muhtar Pasha (Turkish: Mahmut Muhtar Paşa; 1867 – 15 March 1935), known as Mahmut Muhtar Katırcıoğlu after 1934, was a Ottoman soldier and diplomat, and later a Turkish citizen, and the son of the grand vizier Veysel Pasha. He was born in Constantinople and returned there in 1893 after seven years' military education in Germany. He was a participant in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, in spite of the prohibition of the Sultan. In 1910, he became Minister of Navy in Ibrahim Hakkı Pasha's cabinet and brought about the building of the first Turkish dreadnought.

At the outbreak of the First Balkan War in 1912, he went to the front, commanded the III Corps in the Battle of Kirk Kilisse, and was severely wounded. He wrote an account of his experiences in the Balkan War titled Why We Lost Rumelia (Turkish: Rumeli'yi Neden Kaybettik), of which a German and a French version appeared in 1913.

On 30 May 1929, Mahmud Muhtar Pasha was put on trial before the Supreme Court (formerly Ottoman Turkish: Divan'ı Ali‎, today Turkish: Yüce Divan) for charges on damnifying the state treasury by remitting 20,000 pound without security to the British Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company in conjunction with works for the Anatolian Railway Company. On 3 November 1929, he was sentenced to payment of 22,000 Turkish gold coins discounted five percent.

See also

• List of Turkish diplomats