Mahmud Muhtar Pasha

Mahmud Muhtar Pasha (Turkish: Mahmut Muhtar Paşa; 1867 – 15 March 1935), known as Mahmut Muhtar Katırcıoğlu after 1934, was an Ottoman-born Turkish military officer and diplomat, the son of the Grand Vizier Ahmed Muhtar Pasha.

He was born in Constantinople and returned there in 1893 after seven years' military education in Germany. He was a participant in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, in spite of the prohibition of the Sultan. In 1910, he became Minister of Navy in Ibrahim Hakkı Pasha's cabinet and brought about the building of the first Turkish dreadnought. He married Princess Nimetullah Khanum Effendi, a daughter of Isma'il Pasha and had together five Children.

At the outbreak of the First Balkan War in 1912, he went to the front, commanded the III Corps in the Battle of Kirk Kilisse, and was severely wounded. He wrote an account of his experiences in the Balkan War titled Why We Lost Rumelia (Turkish: Rumeli'yi Neden Kaybettik), of which a German and a French version appeared in 1913.

On 30 May 1929, Mahmud Muhtar Pasha was put on trial before the Supreme Court (formerly Ottoman Turkish: Divan'ı Ali‎, today Turkish: Yüce Divan) for charges on damnifying the state treasury by remitting 20,000 pound without security to the British Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company in conjunction with works for the Anatolian Railway Company. On 3 November 1929, he was sentenced to payment of 22,000 Turkish gold coins discounted five percent.