His career in Ottoman politics began when he was elected as a deputy from Adrianople (Edirne) to the Chamber of Deputies in 1908, then Minister of the Interior and Minister of Finance, and finally Grand Vizier in 1917. As the minister of interior, Talaat Pasha on 24 April 1915 the arrest and deportation of Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople (now Istanbul), 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, and thus is held responsible for the death of around 1 million Armenians.