Djemal Pasha
Ahmed Djemal (Ottoman Turkish: احمد جمال پاشا, romanized: Ahmed Cemâl Pasha; 6 May 1872 – 21 July 1922), also known as Djemal Pasha, was an Ottoman military leader and one of the Three Pashas that ruled the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
Not to be confused with Küçük Cemal Paşa.
Ahmed Djemal
أحمد جمال باشاPasha
أحمد جمال باشا
6 May 1872
Midilli, Vilayet of the Archipelago, Ottoman Empire
21 July 1922 (aged 50)
Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union
Hasan Cemal, (Grandson)
5
Ottoman Empire
Emirate of Afghanistan (1920–1922)
1893–1918
Cemal was born in Mytilene, Lesbos. 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) reformers. 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 Cemal developed a rivalry with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, served in Salonica on the frontlines of the Balkan Wars and was given the military 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. Djemal Pasha's 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 Armenians.
Assassination[edit]
Due to the success of the Bolshevik Revolution, Djemal traveled to Tiflis to act as a military liaison officer to negotiate over Afghanistan with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He also negotiated for the Soviets to send support to Mustafa Kemal Pasha in his Turkish War of Independence. Together with his secretary, Djemal was assassinated on 21 July 1922 by Armenian Revolutionary Federation members Stepan Dzaghigian, Artashes Gevorgyan, and Petros Ter Poghosyan, as part of Operation Nemesis, a global plan by Armenians to track down and assassinate the surviving chief perpetrators of the Armenian genocide.[30] Djemal's remains were brought to Erzurum and buried there.[31]
Personal life[edit]
Djemal Pasha married twice.[32] His first wife was a daughter of Bekir Pasha, and they married on 19 February 1897.[32] She died in childbirth.[32] He married Seniha Hanım in Serres on 2 June 1899, and later they settled in Thessaloniki.[33] They had five children, a daughter and four sons.[34] His grandson, Hasan Cemal, is a well-known columnist, journalist and writer in Turkey.[35]
Legacy[edit]
Djemal Pasha is known as Jamal Basha as-Saffah (Arabic: جمال باشا السفاح, lit. 'Djemal Pasha the Bloodthirsty') in Lebanon and Syria for his treatment of the local population during WWI. Djemal Pasha named a street in Damascus after himself, but the name was later changed to "al-Nasr Street".
In Syria and Lebanon, 6 May is Martyrs' Day, a national holiday that commemorates the execution of seven Syrians in Damascus and 14 in Beirut by Djemal Pasha for their collaboration with the British and French at the height of WWI. The French and British had promised arms and financing for some Syrians and Lebanese actors with the ultimate independence and statehood status, provided they revolt and sabotage the Ottoman war effort. The squares in which the executions occurred in Damascus and in Beirut were renamed "Martyrs' Square" (Arabic: ساحة الشهداء).