Djemal Pasha

Ahmed DjemalPasha (Ottoman Turkish: احمد جمال پاشا; Turkish: Ahmed Cemâl Paşa; 6 May 1872 – 21 July 1922) was an Ottoman general and statesman. Along with Talaat and Enver, he was one of the Three Pashas that ruled the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

As an officer of the II Corps, he was stationed in Salonica, where he developed political sympathies for the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), a secret reformist party. He was initially praised by Christian missionaries and provided support to the Armenian victims of the Adana massacres.

In the course of his army career Djemal developed a rivalry with Mustafa Kemal (later known as Atatürk), served in Salonica on the frontlines of the Balkan Wars and was given command of Constantinople after the Raid on the Sublime Porte. Djemal's authoritarian three-year rule in Syria alienated the local population who opposed Turkish nationalism. His role in the Armenian genocide has been controversial as his policies were not as deadly as other CUP leaders; Djemal favored the forced assimilation of the Armenians.

After the Armistice of Mudros and the fall of the CUP government in 1918, Djemal fled the Ottoman Empire and was sentenced to death in absentia by the Special Military Tribunal. He was assassinated four years later in Tbilisi by members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.