Mehmed Talaat Pasha (; ; 1874 – 15 March 1921), commonly known as Talaat Pasha, was one of the triumvirate known as the Three Pashas that de facto ruled the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. His career in Ottoman politics began by becoming Deputy for Edirne in 1908, then Minister of the Interior and Minister of Finance, and finally Grand Vizier (equivalent to Prime Minister) in 1917. Acting as the Minister of Interior, Talaat Pasha on 24 April 1915 the arrest and deportation of Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople, most of them being ultimately murdered, and on 30 May 1915 requested the Tehcir Law (Temporary Deportation Law); these events initiated the Armenian Genocide. He is widely considered the main perpetrator of the Genocide. He was one of the leaders of les Jeunes Turcs movement and the first Turkish Grand Master of the Freemasonry, according to the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Turkey.