90 YEARS PASSED SINCE TRIAL OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ORGANIZERS
PanARMENIAN.Net
03.11.2009 15:31 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ This year marks the 90th anniversary of trial over
leaders of Young Turks "Unity and Progress" party, who organized
Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire. After the Armistice of Mudros
(1918), new Turkish Government, under the leadership of Ahmet Izzet
Pasha (Pasa) made decision to hold Young Turks’ leaders accountable for
committing max extermination of Armenians and involving Ottoman Empire
in World War I. Ministers and leaders the party, district secretaries,
military servants and authorized individuals were arrested, Yerevan
Genocide Museum Institute says in a release, On January 8, 1919,
ad hoc military courts were established in Istanbul. Court session
focused on crimes committed by Young Turks.
Trial against them began on April 27, 1919 and lasted till June 26
with intervals. 31 senior officials and 1 party representative were
found guilty. On May 28, the British command unexpectedly exiled the
77 accused to Malta.
Verdict was returned on July 5, 1919. Turkey’s Interior Minister
and Chair of party’s central committee Talaat Pasha (Talaat Pasa),
Defense minister Enver Pasha (Enver Pasa), minister of military
and navy forces and Commander of 4th Turkish Army in Syria during
World War I Jamal Pasha (Cemal Pasa), and general education minister
Dr. Nazim Bay were sentenced to death in absentia. All the other 27
accused were sentenced to imprisonment. Still there were accused who
were acquitted for the lack of evidence.
ARF-Dashnaktutyun representative Sahan Natali elaborated and realized
Nemesis operation aimed at annihilating Turkish criminals, organizers
and perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.
On May 15, 1921, Soghomon Tehleryan (Tehlirian) shot dead the former
Interior Minister Talaat in Berlin. In June 1921, Berlin Court
discharged Tehleryan.
On December 6, Arshavir Shirakyan killed former Premier of Young
Turks government Sayid Khalim Pasha.
On April 17, 1922 Arshavir Shirakyan and Aram Yerkanyan eliminated in
Berlin the former governor of Trebizond Jemal Azmi and the creator of
the criminal organization "Teshkilati Mahsusa" Behaetdin Shakir Pasha;
one of the guards of Shakir was also killed. A few months later Kemal
Pasha, Fourth Army commander, was shot dead in Tiflis.
On July 25, 1922 Petros Ter-Poghosyan and Artashes Gevorgyan carried
out the sentence against the former minister of the military and
naval forces of the Ottoman Empire Jamal. Zare Melik-Shahnazaryan
and Stepan Tsaghikyan took part in organizing the attempt.
In 1922, Enver Pasha was killed in Turkestan by a Red Army commander
Hakob Melkumov.