Hasan Rami Pasha

Hasan Rami Pasha (1842 – 1923) was an Ottoman admiral and naval minister under Abdul Hamid II. He is remembered above all for the blunt report in which he told the Sultan that the fleet he had been ordered to take to war was almost out of commission — and for the disgrace that followed the 1908 revolution, when the navy's decayed state was laid at his door. ¹

He was born in Selanik (Thessaloniki) to a Turkish family in 1842 and graduated from the naval academy in 1856. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 he commanded a warship; in 1882 he was appointed commander of the navy, and three years later he became an adjutant of Sultan Abdul Hamid II — a prestigious but inactive post. ¹ The Turkish article adds that he rose to the rank of ferik in 1892 and commanded the Mediterranean fleet. ²

On the eve of the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, Hasan Rami was tasked with taking the fleet to the Dardanelles. He found that almost all the ships and most of the weapons needed major repairs, and that earlier reports to the Sultan about the navy's readiness had been false; his report recommended buying new warships instead of repairing the old ones. ¹ The two articles differ on his ministry: the English article has him appointed naval minister in 1906, its succession box giving 1906–1907, while the Turkish article gives him as fleet commander from 1897 and Minister of the Navy from 1903, on the death of his predecessor Hasan Hüsnü Pasha, with destroyers and torpedo boats purchased in his term. This record states both readings. ^{1 2}

After the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 he was dismissed, put on trial and downgraded, held responsible for the miserable condition of the navy; the Turkish article adds that he was sent into exile. One of his subordinates, Rauf Orbay — the future prime minister — recorded his disappointment that the reforming commander of earlier years became a passive minister. Hasan Rami spent his last years in Istanbul and died there in 1923. His memoirs, written to clear his name and blaming his predecessor's policies, were republished in 2013 together with Rauf Bey's criticisms. ^{1 2}

No source consulted states his religion: neither article names one, and Wikidata carries no religion value for him at all, so his faith is recorded as unknown. ³

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