Vehib was born in 1877 in Yanya, Janina Vilayet (present day: Ioannina, Greece), then part of the Ottoman Empire. Coming from a prominent family of the city his father, Mehmet Emin Efendi, had served as its mayor.[8] He was an Albanian.[1][2][9] His elder brother Esad Pasha defended Gallipoli in 1915. His younger brother Mehmet Nakyettin Bey was the father of Kâzım Taşkent the founder of Yapı Kredi, the first nationwide private bank in Turkey. Vehib himself graduated from the Imperial School of Military Engineering (Mühendishane-i Berrî-i Hümâyûn) in 1899, then from the Ottoman Military College (Staff College, Mekteb-i Erkân-ı Harbiye-i Şâhâne) as a staffcaptain and joined the Fourth Army, which was then stationed in Yemen. In 1909, after the 31 March Incident, Vehib was called to Constantinople, where he began to work at the Ministry of War. Shortly afterwards Mahmud Shevket Pasha appointed Vehib as the Commander of the Cadet School (Military high school, Askerî İdadi). He reached the rank of Major.
Balkan wars
Vehib, as his brother's representative, surrendering the city of Ioannina to the Greek general Alexandros Soutsos.
Vehib Pasha repeatedly condemned the Armenian genocide and gave testimony confirming its existence. He gave evidence to the Mazhar Commission for the Istanbul trials.
"The massacre and destruction of the Armenians and the plunder and pillage of their goods were the results of decision reached by Ittihad's [the Young Turks] Central Committee ... The atrocities were carried out under a program that was determined upon and involved a definite case of premeditation. It was [also] ascertained that these atrocities and crimes were encouraged by the district attorneys whose dereliction of judicial duties in face of their occurrence and especially their remaining indifferent renders them accessories to these crimes."[10][11][12]
"In summary, here are my convictions. The Armenian deportations were carried out in a manner entirely unbecoming to humanity, civilization, and government. The massacre and annihilation of the Armenians, and the looting and plunder of their properties were the result of the decision of the Central Committee of Ittihad and Terakki. The butchers of human beings, who operated in the command zone of the Third Army, were procured and engaged by Dr. Bahaeddin Şakir. The high ranking governmental officials did submit to his directives and order ... He stopped by at all major centers where he orally transmitted his instructions to the party's local bodies and to the governmental authorities."[13]
In 1916, Vehib noticed that a labor battalion of 2,000 Turco-Armenian soldiers had gone missing. He later discovered that the entire battalion had been executed, with the men being tied together in fours and shot. Outraged, he ordered the arrests of Kör Nuri, the gendarmerie commander in charge of the labor battalions, and Çerkez Kadir, the brigand chief who carried out the killings. Vehib had both men court-martialed and hanged for the massacre, and warned his troops not to commit atrocities. Vehib also attempted to have Bahaeddin Şakir and Provincial Governor Ahmed Muammer Bey, who had issued the orders to carry out the massacre, court-martialed. However, Şakir fled and Muammer was transferred out of Vehib's jurisdiction. Şakir was later assassinated by Armenian vigilantes as part of Operation Nemesis.[14][15]
War of Independence
Vehib did not participate in the Turkish War of Independence. After his return to Constantinople at the end of World War I, he was prosecuted for misuse of his office and jailed in Bekirağa prison. He escaped to Italy. His citizenship was revoked by the new government of Turkey. He spent some time in Italy, Germany, Romania, Greece and Egypt. His dislike of Mustafa Kemal was well known and he never hid his contempt for the new leader of Turkey who had once fought under his command at Gallipoli. He did not return to Istanbul until 1940.[16]
Abyssinia
When the Italians invaded Ethiopia in Second Italo-Ethiopian War in the mid-1930s, Vehib volunteered to fight for the Ethiopians. In Ethiopia, he was known as Wehib Pasha, and served as the Chief-of-Staff to Ras Nasibu, the Ethiopian Commander-in-Chief on the southern front. In an interview with The New York Times, he remarked "Out there will be the grave of Italian Fascism. When the Italian native troops hear of ME they will desert."[17] Vehib designed a strong defensive line for the Ethiopians which was known as the "Hindenburg Wall", in reference to the famous German defensive line of World War I, the Hindenburg Line. However, the Italians broke through these defenses during the Battle of the Ogaden in April 1936. After the war was lost, Vehib left Ethiopia and returned to Istanbul.[18]
^ abVehib Pasha, the Albanian, was perhaps a tiger; but he was likewise both valiant soldier and grand- seigneur. (Rafael de Nogales, Four Years Beneath the Crescent, C. Scribner's sons, 1926, p. 22.)
^ abThe Ottoman Albanian Vehib Pasha spoke to the Armenians in the language that any romantic nationalist could comprehend, and his point was clearly to cow his opponents with the depth of Ottoman determination. (Michael A. Reynolds, The Ottoman-Russian Struggle for Eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus, 1908-1918: Identity, Ideology and the Geopolitics of World Order, Volume 1, Princeton University, 2003, p. 424.)
^Vehib Pasha said I've been the commander of the Caucasian front for one and a half years. I researched Caucasians and learned. You Caucasians love cleanliness like us Albanians. I won't make these dirty Turkish soldiers to enter into the Caucasus, especially with this guise. (Vehip Paşa «Ben bir buçuk yıldır Kafkas cephesi kumandanıyım. Kafkasyalıları tetkik ettim öğrendim. Siz Kafkasyalılar da, biz Arnavutlar gibi temizliği seviyorsunuz. Bu pis Türk neferlerini, hem de bu kılıkta Kafkasya'ya sokamam.» diyor., Naki Keykurun, Azerbaycan İstiklâl Mücadelesinin Hatıraları, Azerbaycan Gençlik Derneği, 1964, p. 64.)
