Kıbrıslı Mehmed Kamil Pasha
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Kıbrıslı Mehmed Kamil Pasha (Mehmed Kamil Pasha the Cypriot), also spelled as Kâmil Pasha or Kiamil Pasha was an Ottoman statesman of Turkish Cypriot origin in the late 19th century and early 20th century, who became, as aside regional or international posts within the Ottoman state structure, grand vizier of the Empire during four different periods.
He was born in Lefkoşa in 1833, son of Captain Salih Ağa from the village of Gaziler, in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus today. His first post was in the household of the Khedive of Egypt who at that time was only nominally dependent to the central Ottoman power in İstanbul. In the course of this appointment he visited London for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in charge of one of the Khedive's sons. Kiamil's sojourn in England left in him a lifelong admiration for Britain and during his career within the Ottoman state, he was always known to be an Anglophile.
Having full command of English, thenceforth to the close of his career he zealously sought the friendship of England for Turkey.
After remaining in Egypt for ten years, Mehmed Kamil exchanged the service of Abbas I for that of the Ottoman Government as of 1860 and for the ensuing nineteen years -that is to say until he first entered the Cabinet-, he filled very numerous administrative appointments in every part of the Empire. He governed, or helped to govern provinces such as Eastern Rumelia, Hercegovina, Kosovo, and his native Cyprus.
Between 1885 and 1913 he filled the office of Grand Vizier four times. His periods of office were;
- from 25 September 1885 to 4 September 1891, under Abdülhamid II's reign,
- from 2 October 1895 to 7 November 1895, under Abdülhamid II's reign,
- from 5 August 1908 to 14 February 1909, under Abdülhamid II's reign and during the Second Constitutional Era in the Ottoman Empire,
- and from 29 October 1912 to 23 January 1913, under Mehmed V Reşad's reign and during the Second Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire.
In May 1913, he returned to his native Cyprus which he had not seen since he had ceased to govern it as far back as 1864.
The reason was no happy one. On 23 January 1913, Enver Pasha, one of the Young Turk leaders, had burst with some of his associates into the Sublime Porte while the Cabinet was actually in session, Yakup Cemil had shot the Minister of War Nazım Pasha dead at the Council table and the group had literally overturned by force Mehmed Kamil Paşa's fourth and last Prime Ministry. Unable to remain in Turkey after this bloody coup, the ex-Grand Vizier was invited by his friend Lord Kitchener to stay with him in Cairo, and after three months in Egypt, Mehmed Kamil Pasha decided to wait a favourable turn of fortune in his native Cyprus.
But five weeks after his return to Cyprus came the assassination of his Young Turk successor in the Grand Vizierate, Mahmud Şevket Pasha, possibly to avenge the murder of Nazım Pasha; and the prominent Old Turks were either expelled or had to flee from Turkey. Among the expelled was Mehmed Kamil Pasha's family, who joined him.
On 14 November 1913, while full of plans for revisiting England in 1914, Mehmed Kamil Paşa suddenly died of syncope and was buried in the court of Arab Ahmed Pasha Mosque.
Sir Ronald Storrs, British Governor of Cyprus from 1926 to 1932, caused a memorial to be raised over Mehmed Kamil Pasha's grave. He also composed the English inscription, carved on the headstone below a Turkish one in old lettering. It runs as follows:
His Highness Kiamil Pasha
Son of Captain Salih Agha of Pyroi
Born in Nicosia in 1833
Treasury Clerk
Commissioner of Larnaca
Director of Evqaf
Four times Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
A Great Turk and
A Great Man.
