On the eve of April 10, 1919, Mehmet Kemal Bey, kaymakam of the Boğazlıyan province and one of the criminals behind the deportation and massacres of the Armenians in Yozgat in 1915, was hanged in Bayazit Square in Constantinople (Istanbul) in the presence of officials and soldiers. The commander of the Constantinople gendarmerie was present, accompanied by an honour guard, as well as the police chief, Halil Bey, Constantinople’s mayor, a number of leaders of çete squadrons, and religious leaders. In all, more than 10,000 people witnessed the execution.
During the trial, Kemal had admitted his guilt, saying that he had simply conscientiously implemented his government’s order. “Dear citizens: I am a Turkish official. I carried out the orders I was given; I conscientiously did my duty. I swear that I am innocent. This is my last declaration for today and tomorrow. To please foreign people, [our government] is hanging me. If this is justice, may justice perish forever,” Mehmet Kemal Bey addressed the people. A French source indicates that he added: “Long live Muslims and Turkey! Death to the Armenians, the eternal enemies of the Empire.”
Of the dozens of the Ottoman Empire’s high-ranking officials directly responsible for the Armenian Genocide, the two other criminals who were executed were the Commander of the Yerznka (Erzinjan) gendarmerie, Hafız Abdullah Avni, and the governor of Baberd (Bayburt), later the head of the province of Urfa, Bahramzadeh Nusret, whose executions were carried out on July 22 and August 5, 1920, respectively.
The military courts avoided sentencing to death the others accused, since Mehmet Kemal’s execution had incensed the Turks. More than 10,000 people participated in Kemal’s funeral. He was buried the next day in a cemetery in Kadiköy, where a ceremony took place at which a wreath bearing the inscription “For the innocent Muslim martyr” was laid on his tomb.
Under the pressure of the Great Powers, the thirty-sixth and last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmet VI Vahideddin (1918-1922), and the representatives of the constantly-changing governments were quick to punish the instigators of the deportations and massacres of the Armenians during World War I. The fact that from December 1918, Ottoman governments were formed by members of the once-persecuted Party of Freedom and Accord (Hürriyet ve İtilâf Fırkası), opposed to the Committee of Union and Progress (the CUP, Ittihadİttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti), played an important role in this issue.
The Turkish press wrote with concern that the Ottoman Empire was forced to lay charges against the organisers of the Armenian massacres. The restoration of justice was not the motivation, but the desire to appear just in front of Europe was the only reason behind the trials. “The government handed over three to five people to the courts in connection with the deportations and massacres. How could the issue end with just that many? How could the deportations and massacres be limited to such a small circle?” In another article Refi Cevad Ulunay wrote, “The only thing that we are obliged to do is punish the murderers who drove an entire nation towards annihilation.”
In the words of Vahakn Dadrian, an Armenian-American historian, the existing literature on the Armenian Genocide has but scant references to the acts and methods of retribution against the principal figures of the wartime mass murder. The reasons are obvious. “First of all, those who were tried, convicted, condemned to death and eventually executed by the Turkish Military Tribunal in the 1919-1920 period of the Armistice, were an embarrassment to Turkey herself. The post-war Ottoman authorities only grudgingly and with much trepidation had agreed to institute these courts-martial. Pressing national interests, such as prospects of favourable or mild terms of a peace settlement, were considerations making these trials for Turkey an urgent necessity at the time. After all, the Allies had let it be known in so many ways that unless Turkey redeemed herself by severely punishing those responsible for the massacres against the Armenians, the terms of the projected peace were most likely to be very severe.”
During the months of October and November, 1918, the most discussed issue in the Ottoman parliament became that of holding those accused of involving the empire in World War I and organising the massacre of the Armenians accountable in court. On October 19, Prime Minister (Grand Vizier) Ahmed Izzet Pasha presented the government programme in parliament, which, however, did not include the issue of investigating the crimes committed during the war years. In response to criticisms, Ahmed Izzet announced, “We promise justice.”
To be continued, this chapter is from Tatul Hakobyan’s book- ARMENIANS and TURKS
Image – Mehmet Kemal Bey, kaymakam of the Boğazlıyan province
