Quick Facts
Biography
Halil Rifat Pasha (Modern Turkish: Halil Rıfat Paşa; 1820–9 November 1901) was an Ottoman statesman and a grand vizier for six years between 1895 till his death 1901, under the reign of Abdülhamid II.
Education
He was born at Serres and received education in an islamic type parish school in Thessaloniki, then continued to Mekteb-i Mülkiye in Istanbul.
Life and career
After his education years, he started to work as a mailing clerk in Vidin, then worked as secretary in the office of the Governor of Salonika. He advanced by degrees and was appointed to higher official positions by passage of time, including at Rustchuk. In 1882 he was appointed as mutasarrıf of Vidin, then in 1886 he was appointed as governor of Sivas, where he started a road-building programme. He was subsequently appointed governor of Aidin (1889) and later of Monastir, where he fought brigandage units which was rife in the province. He was appointed as minister of internal affairs in 1893 . Then he was appointed as grand vizier in November 1895 . The most important events in his era as grand vizier were the riots of Sason (in 1895) and in Crete (in 1897), as well as the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 which ended with Ottoman victory.
Trivia
His motto in road building campaign was "Any place where you can't go is not yours" (Turkish: Gidemediğin yer senin değildir.)