Bahaeddin Şakir
Bahaeddin Şakir | |
---|---|
Born | 1874 |
Died | 17 April 1922 (aged 47/48) |
Cause of death | Assassination by gunshot |
Resting place | Şehitlik Mosque |
Nationality | Ottoman |
Known for | Founding member of the CUP and perpetrator of the Armenian genocide |
Bahaeddin Shakir or Bahaddin Şakir (1874 – 17 April 1922) was a physician, Turkish nationalist politician,[1] and one of the architects of the Armenian genocide.[2] Though he was not a minister or deputy in the government, he held powerful sway in the Central Committee of the Committee of Union and Progress and was the director of the Şûrâ-yı Ümmet, a magazine that supported the party.[3] He was one of the three important names of the "Doctors Group" in the CUP (the other two being Doctor Nâzım and Doctor Rüsuhi Dikmen); He was a part of the pan-Turkist/Turanist wing of Union and Progress.
During
Early life
Bahaddin Şakir was born in Sliven, Ottoman Empire (now part of Bulgaria).
Medical education and exile
After graduating from the School of Military Medicine as a medical captain in 1894, Şakir studied medical jurisprudence in France. In 1900, he became a judicial medical assistant at the same school. With Mustafa Hayrullah Diker , they became pioneers of this field of research. Şakir was also Şehzade Yusuf İzzeddin's private doctor in addition to his post in the hospital. He established relations with Ahmed Rıza and the members of the Committee of Union and Progress. For this he was exiled to Erzincan. Şakir was arrested there when authorities discovered that he sent aid to the committee and exiled him further to Trabzon. In 1905 he fled to Egypt and from there to Paris. In Paris he met Doctor Nazım and reconnected with Ahmet Rıza. In exile he wrote articles in the Şura-yı Ümmet.
Bahaddin Şakir was instrumental in reviving the CUP inside the Ottoman Empire (by the turn of the 20th century it was an organization of exiled intellectuals). He secretly traveled to Constantinople set the infrastructure for a new internal center for the organization.[4] In 1906, the Ottoman Freedom Society would be founded, which merged with the CUP in 1907 and become its internal center for revolutionary activity.
Second Constitutional Era
After the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Monarchy in 1908, Şakir returned to Constantinople and to his former duty at the School of Military Medicine. He wrote Turkey's first copyrighted textbook on forensic medicine. He became a professor on the subject at Haydarpaşa Faculty of Medicine, which was established in 1909 with the merging of military and civilian medical schools. The following year, Şakir was elected president of the medical school. He continued writing for the Şura-yı Ümmet. Meanwhile, he continued his journalism by harshly criticizing his opponents in his unsigned books titled Ali Kemal Davası (The Case of Ali Kemal) and "Kanuni Esasimizi İhlal Edenler" (Opponents of our Constitution).
Bahaddin Şakir worked as the chief physician in Adrianople's (Edirne) hospital during its siege by the Bulgarians in the First Balkan War. He was captured and then released after the city's surrender.
He was then appointed head of the political department of the secret organization called Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa (Special Organization), which was established in 1913. In the same year, he was appointed to the Directorate of Forensic Medicine, which was established under the General Directorate of Health.
Armenian genocide
Bahaddin Şakir brought up deportations as a solution to the "
the Committee [of Union and Progress], as the bearer of the nation's honor, has decided to free the homeland from the inordinate ambitions of this accursed nation and to assume the responsibility for the blemish that will stain Ottoman history in this regard. The Committee, which cannot forget [the country's] bitter and unhappy history and whose cup runneth over with the unrelenting desire for revenge, has decided to annihilate all of Armenians living within Turkey, not to allow a single one to remain, and has given the government broad authority in this regard. On the question of how this killing and massacring will be carried out, the [central] government will give the necessary instructions to the provincial governors and army commanders. All of the Unionist regional representatives would concern themselves with following up on the matter in all of the places where they were found, and would ensure that not a single Armenian would receive protection or assistance.[11][12]
Based on this letter, Turkish historian Taner Akçam concluded that the Armenian genocide must have been ordered prior to that date.[11]
In 1916, Şakir and Provincial Governor Ahmed Muammer Bey issued orders to execute a labor battalion of 2,000 Turkish Armenian soldier. General Vehip Pasha was outraged by the massacre and ordered the court-martials of Kör Nuri, the gendarmerie commander in charge of the labor battalions, and Çerkez Kadir, the brigand chief who carried out the killings. Both men were hanged. Vehip attempted to have Şakir and Muammer court-martialed. However, Şakir escaped arrest and Muammer was transferred out of Vehip's jurisdiction.[13][14]
Journey to Moscow
With the Ottoman Empire's
The journey there was troubled. Their first flight took off from the German border and crashed in the outskirts of
Şakir participated in the Congress of the Peoples of the East, which was held in Baku in September 1920. He was the Baku representative of the Union of Islamic Revolutionary Societies (İslam İhtilal Cemiyetleri İttihadı). After attending the congress of the organization held in Moscow in the spring of 1921, he returned to Germany.
Assassination of Bahaeddin Şakir
In the autumn of 1919, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) decided to punish the executors of the Armenian Genocide. Under Operation Nemesis, Aram Yerganian and Arshavir Shirakian were given the task to assassinate Cemal Azmi and Şakir who were both in Berlin. On 17 April 1922, Shirakian and Yerganian encountered Azmi and Şakir walking with their families on Uhlandstraße.[16] Shirakian managed to kill Azmi and wound Şakir. Yerganian immediately ran after Şakir and killed him with a shot to his head.[17][18] The assassins were never detained.
Legacy
Şakir and Azmi were buried in the cemetery of Şehitlik Mosque in Berlin.
In 1926, the Republic of Turkey granted the families of those killed in Operation Nemesis a pension fund. Bahaddin Şakir was also included in the list accepted by the assembly, along with Talat, Azmi, Said Halim Pasha, Cemal Pasha, and his aides Süreyya and Nusret.
His life was published as a book by Hikmet Çiçek in 2004 called Dr. Bahattin Şakir: İttihat ve Terakki’den Teşkilatı Mahsusa’ya Bir Türk Jakobeni (Dr. Bahattin Şakir: a Turkish Jacobin from Union and Progress to Teşkilatı Mahsusa ).
In 2005, Kurdish-German politician Giyasettin Sayan brought up their "graves of honour" and Armenian genocide denial in a session of parliament.[19]
References
- ISSN 2519-9609.
- ^ Granovsky, Súlim. "Armenian Genocide: The Silenced Extermination" (PDF). Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.
- ^ McCullagh, Francis (1910). The Fall of Abd-ul-Hamid. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. p. 19.
- ^ Hanioğlu 2008, p. 159.
- Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 3 September 2008.
- ^ Rogan, Eugene. “The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East” (Basic Books, 2015) p. 174
- ^ Mihai Andrei, "Historian unearths more solid evidence of the Armenian Genocide" [1]
- ^ Düzel, Neşe (9 October 2000). "Ermenileri özel örgüt öldürdü". Radikal (in Turkish). Retrieved 3 September 2008.
Osmanlı ordusu ve bürokrasisinin de bunun korkunç bir olay olduğunu algıladığını, bunları valilerden ve garnizon komutanlarından bağımsız olarak fütursuzca yapmış olan özel timlerden iğrendiğini ve hatta Enver ve Talat'ın özel adamı olan Behaeddin Shakir hakkında 1915-16 yıllarında tevkif müzekkeresi çıkaran, onu tutuklamaya çalışan valiler ve garnizon komutanlarının olduğunu görüyoruz.
- ^ Mann, Michael (2005). The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing. Cambridge University Press. p. 159.
- ISBN 978-1-78831-241-7.
- ^ S2CID 199042672.
- ^ In Turkish: "Cemiyet, vatanı bu lanetlenmiş kavmin [Ermenilerin] ihtirasından kurtarmaya ve bu konuda Osmanlı tarihine sürülecek lekenin sorumluluğunu milli onura sahip omuzlarına almaya karar vermiştir. Birbiri ardı sıra gelen intikam duygusu ile ağzına kadar dolu, uğursuz ve acı geçmişi unutamayan cemiyet, gelecekten ümitli olarak Türkiye’de yaşayan bütün Ermenileri, bir tanesi kalmayıncaya kadar mahvetmeye karar, bu hususta da hükümete geniş yetki vermiştir. Hükümet Katledip yok etmenin nasıl gerçekleşeceği konusunda, vali ve ordu kumandanlarına gerekli izahatı verecektir. İttihat ve Terakki’nin bütün delegeleri bulundukları yerlerde bu konunun takibiyle ilgilenecek, hiçbir Ermeni’nin korunmasına ve yardım görmesine meydan vermeyeceklerdir.", Bahaettin Şakir’in Ermenilerin imhasına dair mektupları, Taner Akçam, 21.04.2019, Agos
- ISBN 978-0-674-91645-6.
- JSTOR 45331941.
- ^ "147 ) UÇTU UÇTU, ENVER PAŞA UÇTU !." Tarihten Anektotlar. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016.
- ^ "Two 'Young Turks' Murdered in Berlin Assassins of Azmy Bey and Chakir Escape, but 15 Armenians Are Arrested. Financed from America German Police Say These Acts of Vengeance Have Their Inspiration Here" (PDF). The New York Times. 18 April 1922. Retrieved 25 May 2013. - NYT preview page
- ^ Berberyan, Nazaret (13 April 2010). ՏԱՐԵԴԱՐՁՆԵՐ- Արշաւիր Շիրակեան Հայ ժողովուրդի Արդարահատոյց Բազուկը. Asbarez (in Armenian). Retrieved 25 May 2013.
- ISBN 9781412833165.
- ^ a b Hofmann 2020, p. 88.
Sources
- ISSN 1829-4405.
- Hanioğlu, M. Şükrü (2008). A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire. Princeton.
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