Page "Enver Pasha" Paragraph 25

On August 4, 1922, however, as he allowed his troops to celebrate the Idi Qurbon holiday and kept a guard of 30 men at his headquarters near the village of Ab-i-Derya near Dushanbe, the Red Army Bashkir cavalry brigade under the command of Yakov Melkumov ( Agop Melkumian ) launched a surprise attack.

According to some sources, Enver and some 25 of his men mounted their horses and charged the approaching troops, during which Enver was killed by machine-gun fire.

In his memoirs Enver Pasha's aide Yaver Suphi Bey stated that Enver Pasha died of a bullet wound right above his heart during a cavalry charge.

Alternatively, according to Melkumov's memoirs, Enver managed to escape on horseback and hid for four days in the village of Chaghan.

His hideout was located after a Red Army officer infiltrated the village in disguise.

Melkumov's troops then stormed Chaghan, and in the ensuing combat Enver was killed by Melkumov himself.