Cemal Azmi (1868 – April 17, 1922), also spelled Jemal Azmi, was an Ottoman politician and

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of the Trebizond (now Trabzon) Vilayet (province) during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and the final years of the Ottoman Empire. He was one of the perpetrators of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

and was mainly responsible for the liquidation of

Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, '' hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...

in Trebizond Vilayet. He was known as the "butcher of Trebizond".

Family

Cemal Azmi was born in

Arapgir Arapgir ( hy, Արաբկիր; ku, Erebgir) is a town and district of Malatya Province, Turkey. As of 2000 it had a population of 17,070 people. It is situated at the confluence of the eastern and western Euphrates, but some miles from the righ ...

, 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 The Special Organization ( ota, تشکیلات مخصوصه, ''Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa'', or ) was a paramilitary organization in the Ottoman Empire known for its key role in the commission of the Armenian genocide. Originally organized under the ...

(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

, 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 Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the B ...

). 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 The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, ...

. 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.
Profile at

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Hasan Maruf, a Turkish lieutenant and eyewitness to the scene said: "After committing the worst outrages the government officials involved had these young girls killed." While in Germany, Azmi disclosed to a local Armenian that he had young girls drowned at sea: "Among the most pretty Armenian girls, 10–13 years old, I selected a number of them and handed them over to my son as a gift; the others I had drowned in the sea." 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 Çürüksulu Mahmud Pasha ( tr, Çürüksulu Mahmut Paşa; 1864 – 31 July 1931), was an Ottoman army general and statesman of ethnic Georgian background. Early life and career Mahmud Pasha was born in 1864 in Kobuleti, then part of the ...

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 Giresun (), formerly Cerasus (Ancient Greek: Κερασοῦς, Greek: Κερασούντα), is the provincial capital of Giresun Province in the Black Sea Region of northeastern Turkey, about west of the city of Trabzon. Etymology Giresun was ...

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".

Assassination and legacy

As part of

Operation Nemesis Operation Nemesis () was a program to assassinate both Ottoman perpetrators of the Armenian genocide and officials of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic responsible for the massacre of Armenians during the September Days of 1918 in Baku. Master ...

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 Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

. On April 17, 1922, Shirakian and Yerganian encountered Azmi and Şakir who were walking with their families on . Shirakian managed to kill only Azmi and wound Şakir. Yerganian immediately ran after Şakir and killed him with a shot to his head. In 2003 an elementary school in Trabzon was named in honor of Cemal Azmi.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Azmi, Cemal People convicted by the Ottoman Special Military Tribunal Committee of Union and Progress politicians Ottoman people of World War I People from Arapgir Young Turks People sentenced to death in absentia Assassinated people from the Ottoman Empire People from the Ottoman Empire murdered abroad People murdered in Berlin Deaths by firearm in Germany 1868 births 1922 deaths Turkish mass murderers People assassinated by Operation Nemesis 1920s murders in Berlin 1922 murders in Germany