Cemal Azmi

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Ottoman politician and governor (1868–1922)

title: "Cemal Azmi" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1868-births", "1922-deaths", "perpetrators-of-the-armenian-genocide", "committee-of-union-and-progress-politicians", "ottoman-people-of-world-war-i", "people-from-arapgir", "turks-from-the-ottoman-empire", "young-turks", "assassinated-politicians-from-the-ottoman-empire", "murdered-turkish-criminals", "people-from-the-ottoman-empire-murdered-abroad", "people-murdered-in-berlin", "deaths-by-firearm-in-germany", "people-assassinated-by-operation-nemesis", "people-murdered-in-1922", "people-sentenced-to-death-in-absentia-by-the-ottoman-special-military-tribunal", "turkish-people-murdered-abroad"] description: "Ottoman politician and governor (1868–1922)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cemal_Azmi" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Ottoman politician and governor (1868–1922) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

FieldValue
nameCemal Azmi
imageCemalAzmi.jpg
birth_date1868
birth_placeArapgir, Ottoman Empire
death_dateApril 17, 1922 (aged 53/54)
death_placeBerlin, Weimar Republic
death_causeAssassination by gunshot
resting_placeNeukölln cemetery
nationalityOttoman
parentsOsman Nuri Bey and Gülsüm Hanım
known_forGovernor of the Trebizond Vilayet and perpetrator of the Armenian genocide
::

| name = Cemal Azmi | image = CemalAzmi.jpg | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = 1868 | birth_place = Arapgir, Ottoman Empire | death_date = April 17, 1922 (aged 53/54) | death_place = Berlin, Weimar Republic | death_cause = Assassination by gunshot | resting_place = Neukölln cemetery | nationality = Ottoman | parents = Osman Nuri Bey and Gülsüm Hanım | known_for = Governor of the Trebizond Vilayet and perpetrator of the Armenian genocide Cemal Azmi (1868 – April 17, 1922), also spelled Jemal Azmi, was an Ottoman Turkish politician and governor of the Trebizond (now Trabzon) Vilayet (province) during World War I and the final years of the Ottoman Empire. He was one of the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide and was mainly responsible for the liquidation of Armenians in Trebizond Vilayet. He was known as the "butcher of Trebizond".

Family

Cemal Azmi was born in Arapgir, Ottoman Empire, in 1868. His father, Osman Nuri Bey, was a title agent and his mother's name was Gülsüm. In 1891 he studied at the Mulkiye Mektep.

Role in the Armenian genocide

Azmi was one of the founders of the Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa (Special Organization). Many members of this organization eventually participated in the Turkish National Movement and played special roles in the Armenian Genocide. Just prior to World War I, Azmi became the governor of Trebizond on July 7, 1914. During the Armenian Genocide in 1915, Azmi continued serving his duties as governor of the Trebizond Vilayet. Azmi favored conducting massacres outside of the city of Trebizond (now Trabzon). He was especially known for his persecution and violence towards Armenian children. Azmi, along with the collaboration of Nail Bey, ordered the drowning of thousands of women and children in the Black Sea.

Oscar S. Heizer, the American consul at Trebizond, reports: "This plan did not suit Nail Bey...Many of the children were loaded into boats and taken out to sea and thrown overboard". The Italian consul of Trebizond in 1915, Giacomo Gorrini, writes: "I saw thousands of innocent women and children placed on boats which were capsized in the Black Sea". The Trabzon trials also reported Armenians having been drowned in the Black Sea.

On April 12, 1919, during the 10th sitting of the Trabzon trials, it was testified by an eyewitness that Cemal Azmi turned a local hospital into a "pleasure dome" where he frequently had "sex orgies" with young Armenian girls. Azmi was also known for collecting girls up to the age of fifteen and boys up to the age of ten from orphanages and giving them to Muslim households.

Confiscation of Armenian assets

In the aftermath of the Armenian genocide, the Azmi family acquired significant wealth through the confiscation of former Armenian-owned property and assets. Arusiag Kilijian, an 18-year-old orphan, who was a captive of Azmi's family, reported that Azmi's house was filled with "stolen goods, rugs, and so on".

It was also noted during the cross-examination of Nuri Bey during the 9th session of the trials at Trabzon on April 10, 1919, that Agent Mustafa, the commander of the seaport of Trabzon, "had taken a box belonging to Vartivar Muradian" and had received "five hundred pounds gold and jewels" from Cemal Azmi in exchange.

1919–1920 Military courts martial and Trabzon trials

During the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919–1920, Ottoman politician Çürüksulu Mahmud Pasha gave a speech in the Ottoman senate on December 2, 1919, where he openly blamed Cemal Azmi for the massacres in Trebizond and the subsequent drowning of thousands of women and children.

On December 11, 1918, Trebizond deputy governor Hafiz Mehmet testified in the Chamber of Deputies:

During the 14th session of the Trebizond trials on 26 April 1919, the governor of Giresun Arif Bey, asserted that Azmi gave him orders "to deport the Armenians toward Mosul by way of the Black Sea", which implied drowning them.

On May 22, 1919, as a result of the Trebizond trials, Cemal Azmi was sentenced to death under the charges of "murder and forced relocation".

Cemal Azmi's assassination

As part of Operation Nemesis for his role in the Armenian Genocide, Aram Yerganian and Arshavir Shirakian were later given the task to assassinate both Azmi and Bahattin Şakir who were in Berlin. On April 17, 1922, Shirakian and Yerganian encountered Azmi and Şakir who were walking with their families on Uhlandstraße.

In 2003 an elementary school in Trabzon was named in honor of Cemal Azmi.

References

References

  1. (2001). "In God's Name: Genocide and religion in the twentieth century". Berghahn Books.
  2. Kévorkian, Raymond H.. (2010). "The Armenian Genocide: A complete history". I. B. Tauris.
  3. von Voss, Huberta. (2007). "Portraits of Hope: Armenians in the contemporary world". Berghahn Books.
  4. Derogy, Jacques. (1990). "Resistance and Revenge: The Armenian assassination of Turkish leaders responsible for the 1915 massacres and deportations". Transaction Publishers.
  5. (1990). "Jemal Azmi known as "the Butcher of Trabzon," was assassinated on 14 April 1922.". The Armenian Review.
  6. "Suçluya Saygi: Mehmet Cemal Azmi Bey". Soykirima Karsi Uluslarasi Analyis Dernegi.
  7. Chaliand, Gérard. (2010). "The History of Terrorism from Antiquity to al Qaeda". University of California Press.
  8. (2015). ""They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide". Princeton University Press.
  9. "Suçluya saygi: Mehmet Cemal Azmi Bey". Soykirima Karsi Uluslarasi Analyis Dernegi.
  10. "Cemal Azmi Bey Kimdir?". Cemal Azmi Bey İlköğretim Okulu.
  11. "Genocide Museum". [[Tsitsernakaberd.
  12. Akçam, Taner. (1992). "Türk Ulusal Kimliği ve Ermeni Sorunu". İletişim Yayınları.
  13. April 11, 1919 report. U.S. National Archives. R.G. 59. 867. 4016/411.
  14. (26 August 1915). "Turks Slay 14,000 In One Massacre".
  15. ''[[Takvim-i Vekayi]]'', No. 3616, August 6, 1919, p. 2.
  16. Akçam, Taner. (2012). "The Young Turks' Crime Against Humanity the Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire". [[Princeton University Press]].
  17. (2003). "Children as victims in genocide: the Armenian case". Journal of Genocide Research.
  18. "Suçluya saygi: Mehmet Cemal Azmi Bey". STCG.
  19. Gerlach, Christian. (2010). "Extremely Violent Societies: Mass Violence in the Twentieth-Century World". Cambridge University Press.
  20. Basbakanlık Cumhuriyet Arsivi (Republican Archives, Ankara), 30.18.1.1/25.38.4, file 137-78, number 5331, decree dated 15 June 1927.
  21. Report by Arusiag Kilijian at the third session of the trial of Trebizond, 1 April 1919: APC/APJ, PCI Bureau, doc. no. 34, 769–70.
  22. Examination of Nuri Bey, at the ninth session of the trial of Trebizond, 10 April 1919: Nor Giank, no. 166, 11 April 1919; La Renaissance, no. 112, 11 April 1919.
  23. Meclisi Âyan Zabit Ceridesi (Transcripts of the Senate Proceedings) 3rd election period, 5th session, 13th sitting, vol. I, p. 148, 2 December 18 issue.
  24. Meclisi Mebusan Zabit Ceridesi (Transcripts of the Proceedings of the Chamber of Deputies) 3rd election period, 5th session, 24th sitting, p. 299, 1 December 1918 issue.
  25. Report by Arif Bey at the 14th session of the trial of Trebizond, 26 April 1919: La Renaissance, no. 125, 27 April 1919; Nor Giank, no. 179, 27 April 1919.
  26. Verdict of the trial of Trebizond, 8 July 1919: ''[[Takvim-i Vekayi]]'', no. 3616, of 6 August 1919, pp. 50–2.
  27. (April 19, 1922). "Two 'Young Turks' Murdered in Berlin". The New York Times.
  28. Berberyan. Nazaret. link. (April 13, 2010)
  29. "OKULUMUZUN TARİHÇESİ". Kuzguncuk Cemal Azmi Bey İlköğretim Okulu.

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