The real Turkish heroes of 1915
by Raffi Bedrosyan
Published: Sunday September 22, 2013
Celal Bey, governor of Aleppo and later Konya who refused to implement
the deportation orders against Armenians.
Germany has decided to name several neighborhoods, streets, buildings,
and public schools in Berlin and other German cities after Adolf
Hitler and other Nazi “heroes.”
If the above statement were to be true, how would you react? How do
you think Germans would react? How do you think Jews still living in
Germany would react? My guess is that you, the Germans, and the Jews
would all find it inconceivable, offensive, and unacceptable.
And yet, it is true in Turkey, where it is acceptable to name several
neighborhoods, streets, and schools after Talat Pasha and other
Ittihat ve Terakki (Committee of Union and Progress) “heroes” who not
only planned and carried out the Armenian Genocide, but were
responsible for the loss of the Ottoman Empire itself.
At last count, there were officially 8 “Talat Pasha” neighborhoods or
districts, 38 “Talat Pasha” streets or boulevards, 7 “Talat Pasha”
public schools, 6 “Talat Pasha” buildings, and 2 “Talat Pasha” mosques
scattered around Istanbul, Ankara, and other cities. After his
assassination in 1922, Talat was originally interred in Berlin,
Germany, but his remains were transferred to Istanbul in 1943 by the
Nazis in an attempt to appease the Turks. He was re-buried with full
military honors at the Infinite Freedom Hill Cemetery in Istanbul. The
remains of the other notorious Ittihat ve Terakki leader, Enver Pasha,
were also transferred in 1996 from Tajikistan and re-buried beside
Talat, with full military honors; the ceremony was attended by Turkish
President Suleyman Demirel and other dignitaries.
Is this hero worship misguided or deliberate? Is the denial of 1915
only state policy, or is it wholeheartedly accepted by the Turkish
public, brainwashed by the state version of history?
Undoubtedly, there was mass participation in the genocide committed by
the Ittihat ve Terakki leaders, resulting in the removal of Armenians
from their homeland of 3,000 years, as well as the immediate transfer
of their wealth, property, and possessions to the Turkish and Kurdish
public, and to thousands of government officials. Yet, despite this
mass participation and the hero worship, there were also a significant
number of ordinary Turks and Kurds, as well as government officials,
who refused to participate in the massacres and plunders. There is
complete silence and ignorance in Turkey about these righteous
officials who refused to follow government orders and instead tried to
save and protect the Armenians. They paid dearly for their actions,
often with the loss of their positions or even their lives as a
consequence. This article will cite some examples of these real and
unsung heroes.
Celal Bey was the governor of Konya, a vast central Anatolian province
and a hub for the Armenian deportation routes from north and west
Anatolia to the Syrian desert. He knew exactly what the Armenians’
fate would be along these routes, or if they survived the deportations
and reached Der Zor; he was previously the governor of Aleppo and had
witnessed the atrocities there. Celal Bey had attempted to reason with
the Ittihat ve Terakki leaders, saying that there was absolutely no
Armenian revolt in Anatolia, nor in Aleppo, and that there was no
justification for the mass deportations. However, one of his
subordinates in Marash inflamed the situation by arresting and
executing several Marash Armenians, triggering a resistance by the
Armenians.
As a result, Celal Bey was removed from his governor’s post in Aleppo
and transferred to Konya. Once there, he refused to arrange for the
deportation of the Konya Armenians, despite repeated orders from
Istanbul. He even managed to protect some of the Armenians who were
deported from other districts and arrived in Konya. By the time he was
removed from his post, in October 1915, he had saved thousands of
Armenian lives. In his memoirs about the Konya governorship, he
likened himself to “a person sitting beside a river, with absolutely
no means of rescuing anyone from it. Blood was flowing down the river,
with thousands of innocent children, irreproachable old men, and
helpless women streaming down the river towards oblivion. Anyone I
could save with my bare hands, I saved, and the rest went down the
river, never to return.”
Hasan Mazhar Bey was the governor of Ankara. He protected the
Ankara-Armenian community by refusing to follow the deportation
orders, stating, “I am a vali [governor], not a bandit. I cannot do
this. Let someone else come and sit in my chair to carry out these
orders.” He was removed from his post in August 1915.
Faik Ali (Ozansoy) Bey was the governor of Kutahya, another central
Anatolian province. When the deportation order was issued from
Istanbul, he refused to implement it; on the contrary, he gave orders
to keep the deported Armenians arriving in Kutahya from elsewhere, and
treat them well. He was soon summoned to Istanbul to explain his
subordination, and the police chief of Kutahya, Kemal Bey, took the
opportunity to threaten the local Armenians-either convert to Islam or
face deportation, he said. The Armenians decided to convert. When Faik
Ali Bey returned, he was enraged. He removed the police chief from his
post, and asked the Armenians if they still wished to convert to
Islam. They all decided to remain Christian, except one. Faik Ali’s
brother, Suleyman Nazif Bey, was an influential and well-known poet
who urged his brother not to participate in this barbarianism and
stain the family name. Faik Ali Bey was not removed from his post
despite his offers of resignation. He ended up protecting the entire
Armenian population of Kutahya, except for the one who converted to
Islam and was deported.
Mustafa Bey (Azizoglu) was the district governor of Malatya, a transit
point on the deportation route. Although he was unable to prevent the
deportations, he managed to hide several Armenians in his own home. He
was murdered by his own son, a zealous member of the Ittihat ve
Terakki Party, for “looking after infidels [gavours, in Turkish].”
Other government officials who defied the deportation orders included
Reshit Pasha, the governor of Kastamonu; Tahsin Bey, the governor of
Erzurum; Ferit Bey, the governor of Basra; Mehmet Cemal Bey, the
district governor of Yozgat; and Sabit Bey, the district governor of
Batman. These officials were eventually removed from their posts and
replaced by more obedient civil servants, who carried out the task of
wiping out the Armenians from these locations.
One of the most tragic stories of unsung heroes involves Huseyin
Nesimi Bey, the mayor of Lice, a town near Diyarbakir. While the
governor of Diyarbakir, Reshit Bey, organized the most ruthless
removal of the Armenians in the Diyarbakir region-with a quick
massacre, rather than lengthy deportation, immediately outside of the
city limits-Huseyin Nesimi dared to keep and protect the Lice
Armenians, a total of 5,980 souls. Reshit summoned Huseyin Nesimi to
Diyarbakir for a meeting, but arranged to have his Circassian militant
guard Haroun intercept him en route. On June 15, 1915, Haroun murdered
Huseyin Nesimi and threw him into a ditch beside the road. Since then,
the murder location, halfway between Lice and Diyarbakir, has become
known as Turbe-i Kaymakam, or the Mayor’s Grave. The Turkish records
document this murder as “Mayor killed by Armenian militants.” In an
ironic twist of history repeating itself, in October 1993 the Turkish
state army attacked Lice, supposedly to go after the Kurdish rebel
militants there; instead, they ended up burning down the entire town
and killing the civilian population. This became the first case the
Kurds took to the European Human Rights Court, resulting in a 2.5
million pound compensation against the Turkish state. At the same
time, several wealthy Kurdish businessmen were targeted for
assassination and murdered by then-Turkish Prime Minister Tansu
Ciller. One of the victims was a man named Behcet Canturk, whose
mother was an Armenian orphan who had managed to survive the Lice
massacres of 1915.
Governor Reshit was also responsible for firing and murdering several
other government officials in the Diyarbakir region who had defied the
deportation orders: Chermik Mayor Mehmet Hamdi Bey, Savur Mayor Mehmet
Ali Bey, Silvan Mayor Ibrahim Hakki Bey, Mardin Mayor Hilmi Bey,
followed by Shefik Bey, were all fired in mid- to late-1915. Another
official, Nuri Bey, the mayor of first Midyat and then Derik, an
all-Armenian town near Mardin, was also fired by Reshit Bey, and
subsequently murdered by his henchmen. His murder was blamed on
Armenian rebels. As a result, all of the Armenian males in Derik were
rounded up and executed, and the women and children deported.
The names of these brave men are not in the history books. If
mentioned at all, they are labeled as “traitors” from the perspective
of the official Turkish version of history. While the state and the
masses committed a huge crime, and while that crime became a part of
their daily life, these men rejected the genocidal campaign, based on
individual conscience, and despite the temptation of enriching
themselves. These few virtuous men, as well as a significant number of
ordinary Turks and Kurds, defied the orders and protected the
Armenians. They are the real heroes, and represent the Turkish version
of similar characters in “Schindler’s List” or “Hotel Rwanda.”
Citizens of Turkey today have two choices when remembering their
forefathers as heroes: to either go with the mass murderers and
plunderers who committed “crimes against humanity,” or the virtuous
human beings with a clear conscience who tried to prevent the “crimes
against humanity.” Getting to know these real heroes will help Turks
break loose from the chains of denialist history over four
generations, and start to confront the realities of 1915.
Sources
Tuncay Opcin, “Ermenilere Kol Kanat Gerdiler (They protected the
Armenians),” Yeni Aktuel, 2007, issue 142.
Ayse Hur, “1915 Ermeni soykiriminda kotuler ve iyiler (The good and
the bad in the 1915 Armenian Genocide),” Radikal newspaper, April 29,
2013.
Seyhmus Diken, “Kaymakam Ermeniydi, Oldurduler… (The mayor was
Armenian, they killed him…),” Bianet, April 23, 2011.
Orhan Cengiz, “1915: Heroes and Murderers,” Cihan News Agency, Nov. 2, 2012.
Tuncay Opcin, “Ermenilere Kol Kanat Gerdiler (They protected the
Armenians),” Yeni Aktuel, 2007, issue 142.
Ayse Hur, “1915 Ermeni soykiriminda kotuler ve iyiler (The good and
the bad in the 1915 Armenian Genocide),” Radikal newspaper, April 29,
2013.
Seyhmus Diken, “Kaymakam Ermeniydi, Oldurduler… (The mayor was
Armenian, they killed him…),” Bianet, April 23, 2011.
Orhan Cengiz, “1915: Heroes and Murderers,” Cihan News Agency, Nov. 2, 2012.
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