Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was appointed as [[Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire|Grand Vizier]] in July 1912 at age 72, largely due to his prestige as an old military hero. His premiership was a result of the [[Savior Officers]] ({{lang-tr|Halâskâr Zâbitân}}) forcing the dissolution of the previous [[Committee of Union and Progress]] (CUP) government under Grand Vizier [[Mehmed Said Pasha]]. The Savior Officers were partisans of the opposition [[Freedom and Accord Party]] (also known as the Liberal Union or Entente) who felt cheated after the infamous 1912 elections, known as the "Election of Clubs" ({{lang-tr|links=no|Sopalı Seçimler}}), in which the CUP had employed electoral fraud and violence to gain 269 of the 275 seats in the [[Chamber of Deputies (Ottoman Empire)|Chamber of Deputies]] ({{lang-tr|links=no|Meclis-i Mebusan}}, the popularly elected lower house of the national [[General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire|General Assembly]]) while leaving only 6 to the opposition.
The non-party, independent [[Cabinet (government)|cabinet]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=Bernard|title=The Emergence of Modern Turkey|year=1961|location=[[Ankara]]|authorlinkauthor-link=Bernard Lewis|title-link=The Emergence of Modern Turkey}}</ref> formed by Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was known as the "Great Cabinet" ({{lang-tr|links=no|Büyuk Kabine}}) because it included three former Grand Viziers as ministers and sometimes as the "Father-Son Cabinet" ({{lang-tr|links=no|Baba-Oğul Kabinesi}}) because it included Ahmed Muhtar Pasha's son, [[Mahmud Muhtar Pasha]], as Minister of the Navy.{{sfn|Dumont|1997|p=56}} Because the Great Cabinet did not include any members of the CUP, rumors began to spread that the government would dissolve the Chamber of Deputies, which was dominated by CUP after the fraudulent 1912 elections.{{sfn|Kuran|1945|p=284}} A few days after Ahmed Muhtar Pasha took office, the Savior Officers sent a letter of threat to the President of the Chamber of Deputies (and CUP member), [[Halil Menteşe|Halil Bey]], demanding that the Chamber be dissolved for new elections within 48 hours.<ref>{{cite book|last=Arar|first=İsmail|title=Osmanlı Mebusan Meclisi Reisi Halil Menteşe'nin Anıları|trans-title=Memoirs of Halil Menteşe, President of the Chamber of Deputies|year=1986|publisher=Hürriyet Vakfı Yayınları|page=160|url=https://books.google.com/?id=sJ5pAAAAMAAJ&q=tehdit+mektubu|language=Turkishtr}}</ref> The CUP members in the Chamber condemned and censured this threat.<ref>{{cite web|title=Meclis-i Mebusan Zabıt Ceridesi - Kırkyedinci İnikad|url=http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/TUTANAK/MECMEB/mmbd02ic01c002/mmbd02ic01c002ink047.pdf|publisher=[[Grand National Assembly of Turkey]]|accessdateaccess-date=7 April 2013|location=[[Chamber of Deputies (Ottoman Empire)]]|language=Turkishtr}}</ref> However, thanks to a law he had passed through the [[Senate of the Ottoman Empire|Senate]], Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was able, with the sultan's support, to [[dissolution of parliament|dissolve the Chamber]] with ease on 5 August.
After the dissolution of the Chamber, the [[First Balkan War]] erupted early in October 1912, catching Ahmed Muhtar Pasha's administration off-guard. [[Martial law]] was declared, and Ahmed Muhtar Pasha resigned as Grand Vizier on 29 October after just four months in the premier's office.
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===Sources===
* {{cite book|last1=Dumont|first1=Paul|last2=Georgeon|first2=Gregoire François|authorlink2author-link2 = François Georgeon |last3=Tanilli|first3=Server|title=Bir İmparatorluğun Ölümü: 1908–1923|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAvwmQEACAAJ|accessdateaccess-date=27 July 2014|year=1997|publisher=Cumhuriyet Yayınları|location=[[Istanbul]]|language=Turkishtr}}
* {{cite book|last=Kuran|first=Ahmed Bedevî|title=İnkılâp Tarihimiz ve Jön Türkler|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8m2RBvCCvUIC|year=1945|publisher=Tan Matbaası}}
