| Kemal Dervis | ||||||
Kemal Dervis, the new mega-minister of the Turkish economy, has an ancestor whose body is buried on an Aegean island, and whose head rests in the famous Ottoman-period graveyard at Karacaahmet in Istanbul. He was, historian Murat Bardakci tells us, Halil Hamid Pasa (1736-58) who was brought in as sadrazam (chief minister) by the sultan to tackle difficult economic and international problems.
Hamid took radical steps, earning a reputation as a reformer. But he stepped on many toes, including, it seems, those of the sultan himself.
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