| Süleyman Askerî Bey[1] | |
| Birth Place: | Prizren, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire |
| Death Place: | Berjisiya, Basra Vilayet, Ottoman Empire |
| Allegiance: | Ottoman Empire |
| Serviceyears: | 1902–1915 |
| Rank: | Kaymakam |
| Commands: | Chief of staff of the Bingazi Area Command (Aziz Ali), Staff officer of the X Corps, Chief of Staff of Trabzon Redif Division, Chief of the Special Organization, Commander of the Iraq Area Command (Governor of Basra Vilayet) |
| Battles: | Italo-Turkish War Balkan Wars First World War |
| Laterwork: | Chief of the General Staff of the Provisional Government of Western Thrace |
Süleyman Askerî Bey, also known as Suleyman Askeri, Sulayman Askari, Sulaiman al-Askari (; Turkish: Süleyman Askeri) and unofficially known as Suleyman Askeri Pasha[2] (1884 - 14 April 1915), was a military officer who served in the Ottoman Army. Askerî was of Circassian descent and co founder of the Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa (Special Organisation), a group involved in guerilla warfare.[3]
Süleyman Askerî was born to General Vehbi Pasha, who served as military staff at Edirne in 1898 and then in Anatolia,[4] in 1884 in Prizren. He graduated from the Ottoman Military Academy in 1902 and graduated from the Ottoman Military College on 5 November 1905 as Distinguished Captain (Mümtaz Yüzbaşı).
He was assigned to Monastir (present-day Bitola) under the command of the Third Army stationed at Salonica (present-day Thessaloniki). During the days he stayed in Monastir, he joined the Committee of Union and Progress and he married Fadime Hanım, who was an aristocrat of Filibe (present-day Plovdiv). They had two daughters, Fatma and Dilek. During the Young Turk Revolution (1908), First Lieutenant Atıf Kamçıl stated that he asked the CUP Monastir branch for a gun and had talks with Süleyman Askerî, the branch's guide about the assassination of Shemsi Pasha.[5] Askerî was closest friend of Kuşçubaşzade Eşref (Sencer). According to Philip Hendrick Stoddard, he was a brother-in-law of Mehmed Nuri (Conker),[6] who was the oldest friend of Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk).[7]
In 1909, he was promoted to the rank of Kolağası and appointed to the gendarmerie regiment in Baghdad. In 1911, after the Kingdom of Italy invaded the vilayet of Tripoli (present-day Libya), he went there and participated in operations in Benghazi. In 1912, he took part in the Balkan Wars as the chief of staff of Trabzon Redif Division[8] and then became the Chief of the General Staff of the provisional government (31 August 1913 – 25 October 1913) established in Western Thrace.[9] On 13 November 1913, he was appointed to the chief of the Ottoman Special Organisation when it was officially formed.[10]
He took his own life in 1915 during a series of devastating Ottoman military defeats, in the middle of a British Ambush on the outskirts of Kut, Iraq.[11]