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Tragic fate fell upon Western Armenians in the years of World War 1. In those difficult years Western Armenians faced ruthless extermination due to the barbarous genocide policy of the Young Turk government.
Mercilless mass deportations and massacres of Armenians front towns and villages in Western Armenia, as well as from localities with Armenian populations in Asia Minor had entirety nothing to do with the measures being taken for military reasons. The plans for annihilating the Armenian population had been worked out beforehand by the Central Committee of the "Ittihad ve Terakki" (Union and Progress) Party. To solve the Armenian problem they had chosen the total extermination of Western Armenians. The war presented just a suitable occasion for them to annihilate Armenians once and for all, as well as to settle accounts with other national minorities so that the Empire became purely Turkish.
Soon the news of mass deportations and atrocious massacres of Western Armenians spread all over the world, stirring up a violent wrath and protests everywhere. Representatives of progressive mankind and organizations condemned the policy of the barbarous genocide carried out by the Young Turks and demanded putting an immediate end to it, to return the deported Armenians to their homes. On May 24, 1915, the governments of Great Britain, France and Russia jointly warned the Sublime Forte that they regarded persecutions and massacres of Armenians in Turkey as an appalling action against humanity and civilization, and its perpetrators will hold the responsibility for these actions. Unfortunately, these initiatives did not have any result: The Young Turk's government continued widely and mercilessly to carry out its adopted policy, the victim of which became more than one and a half million Armenians.
When World War I came to an end, the broad masses of the people all over the world demanded the Turkish criminals to bear the responsibility of their organizing Western Armenians slaughter. Outstanding political figures, famous scientists, and cultural workers of different nations raised their voices of protest in articles and publications condemning the massacres.
Yielding to this strong wave of protest and aspiring to detach from the discredited Young Turk government, the new cabinet formed just after the Moudros Armistice of 1918, with the leadership of Ahmed Izzet Pasha, adopted a resolution to institute legal proceedings against the Young Turk's government leaders, as well as the members of the Central Committee of the Union and Progress Party for drawing the Ottoman Empire into the war and organizing the deportation and massacre of Armenians. Subsequently, upon the decree of December 16, 1918, inquiry courts were formed (whose chairman was Mazhar Bey, the former vali of Ankara), which began to collect accusatory evidences concerning massacres of Western Armenians coded telegrams, official documents, instructions and orders, also eye-witness' accounts.
Provinces in the Ottoman Empire were divided into ten investigatory districts with prosecutors, examining judges and secretaries appointed for each of them. At the same time, the press promoted extensive work to reveal the criminals and bring them to trial.
A number of Young Turk ministers and party leaders, district Executive secretaries, commissioners, governors, servicemen and Ottier officials were arrested. However, immediate initiators and organizers of Armenian massacres had time to flee, taking refuge in Germany.
The First, Second end Third extraordinary court martials were formed in Istambul on January 8. 1919. Though the law contained orders to try criminals at places where the crime had been committed, however, on February 5, 1919, the extraordinary court martial of Istambul, at its first session of the process on the Vozghat deportation, adopted a special resolution to try the accused criminals of the massacre in Istambul.
On March 8, 1919, by a special edict of Sultan Mehmed 4 Vahideddin (1918-1922), the Young Turk party leaders and ministers were submitted to investigation at the extraordinary court martial of Istambul.
The trial of the Young Turk government leaders and members of the Central Comittee of the Union and Progress Party began in Istambul, on April 27, 1919 and went on intermittently till June 26. During the six sessions that took place in May, those subjected to examination were basically the members of the Central Committee of the Union and Progress Party: Grand Vezir Said Halim Pasha and several ministers. Under inexplicable circumstances, on May 28, seventy-seven persons were exiled by the English headquarters from prison to Malta, and the trial ceased. The trial commenced in June with new accusatory testimonies. At the seventh session of the process in June, state officials Huseyin Has him Bey, the Minister for Communications, Rifat Bey, the Senate President, also (Sheikhul Islams), Esad, Hayri and Musa Kiazim effendis, the ecclesiastic leaders of the country came up for trial. The sentence was passed on July 5, 1919. During these trials, eleven party figures and political leaders of high standing were accused in absence, and twenty of the accused were present on the trials.
According to the trial procedure, Major-General Mustafa Nazira Pasha, Chairman of the Committee, first certified the identity of the accused, also the presence of their advocates. At the same time, he declared that at extraordinary court martial, the law did not make provisions for the presence of advocates during the trial for the defence of those accused. Then Shefik Bey, the judicial secretary, read the bill of indictment. At the same time, based on the item 372 of the criminal code, the chief prosecutor Mustafa Nazmi Pasha expressed approval to try those absent by default. In view of the advocates' objections both at the beginning and during the course of the trial, those judicial questions connected with the ministers and other high-ranking state officials are subject to discussions at the Supreme Court, not at an extraordinary court martial. Mustafa Nazmi Pasha pointed out in his speech that crimes specified in the bill of indictment had occurred not by virtue of office, but by their becoming participant in the crimes carried out by the Central Committee of the Party and its plenums.
Documents-coded telegrams and letters brought in the first and successive accusatory acts testify that deportations and massacres of Western Armenians had not been military or disciplinary measures of limited and local character: they were aforethought and implemented absolutely on the initiative of the Party Central Committee, on the instructions and secret orders of a spectial centre. In the bills of indictment and during investigatory sessions, the main stress was put upon the massacre of Western Armenians.
Lieutenant-General Vehib Pasha, the former commander of the Third Army at the Caucasian front, stated in his testimony at the trial that the question of exterminating Armenians and plundering their property was resolved by the Central Committee of the Union and Progress Party, and that Pehaeddin Shakir Bey was the organizer and leader of blood-thirsty bands.
,,Teshkilati Mahsuse" (Special organization) that executed the massacre of Western Armenians was an organization put into life on special resolution of the Central Committee of the Union and Progress. Party members were submitted to examination at the second, fifth and sixth sessions of the trial. The trial revealed that Midhat Shukri Bey, the Chief President of the Central Committee of the Party and its members: Dr. Pehaeddin Shakir, Dr. N'azim, Riza Bey, Atif Bey, the deputy for Ankara, Shukri Bey, Minister of Education, Halil, (President of the Chamber of Deputies, Aziz Bey, the Security Supervisor, and Djevad, the commandant of Istambul, participated in the criminal activity of ,,Teshkilati Mahsuse" with Talaat, Minister of the Inferior, being the head of these criminals.
Two secret organizations worked under the name of "Teshkilatt Mahsuse", one a military, set up on the order of the War Ministry, with Suleiman Askeri Bey as leader. With the purpose of a breeding conflict against Russia among the Caucasian Moslems, this 'organization had the task of recruiting people familiar with the territory of the Caucasus and speaking languages of the native populations, and sending them secretly in groups over the border.
The Ministry of the Interior had in its immediate disposal the Second ,,Teshkilati Mahsuse", which implemented the deportation: and massacre of Western Armenians, with Behaeddln Shakir as the head.
Investigation materials ascertain that important documents concerning the Central Committee of the Union and Progress Party and ,,Teshkilati Mahsuse" were for the most part destroyed. Mainly, Dr. Nazim was guilty of this. He carried off the party archives to hide the dealings and the perpetrated crimes of the Committee. However, with all cautions (instructions were often given orally) a fair amount of telegrams, letters and written material fell into the hands of the extraordinary court martial. This material indisputably confirmed the collaboration among the Central Committee of the Union and Progress Party, the Ministry of the Interior and ,,Teshkilati Mahsuse" during the deportation and massacre of Armenians and showed the intense activity of the district executive secretaries in recruiting criminals for ,,TeshkiIati Mahsuse".
The court found the officials guilty of being well informed about massacres and other violences, and not taking any practical step to avert them. On the contrary, their abstention promoted to the continuation of the tragedy. For instance, Sheikh-ul Islam Musa Kiazim effendi, who could have had a great influence in hampering ferocities as an ecclesiastic leader, did not take any essential step.
In the sentence passed on July 5, 1919, stress was put upon the details of massacres of Western Armenians and plunder of their property. Facts were pointed out about violations of the constitution by Party Central Committee and government leaders. One of the important evidences was the question of participation in the World War I without the Medjlis resolution, as well as abuses and speculation in trade and especially in provisional matters. According to the first point under item 45 of the civil criminal code the court pronounced a death sentence for Talaat, Enver Djemal and Nazim, and by the second point under item 45 and the last point under item 55, Djavid, Mustafa Sheref and Musi Kiazim were condemned to exile for a period of 15 years. Trial sessions of the Union and Progress Party district executive secretaries and other officials took place on June 21, 23 and 28, 1919. The committee of the First extraordinary court martial in Istambul pronounced the sentence very late, on January 8, 1920. According to the data of the bills of indictment and the sentence, thirty-six persons were prosecuted.
In the bill of indictment of June 19, 1919, it was pointed out that district executive secretaries, in the course of their activity upon the oral and written secret orders received from the Party Central Committee and the government, had illegally intervened in government matters and participated in the crimes committed by Talaat Pasha and his associates.
During the examination of the executive secretaries, the main stress was put upon the question of deportation and massacres of Western Armenians, plunder of their property. To alleviate their guilt, the executive secretary of Edirne and other defendants tried to find out ways of justifying themselves. They claimed that the deportation was carried out according to the law and governmental orders. Mustafa Nazim Pasha, the committee chairman, refuting their false testimony, revealed that deportation was a mere pretext to perform the extermination of Armenians
In the sentence passed on January 8, 1920 it is noted that some of the executive secretaries and commissioners mentioned that through the initiative of the Central Committee, groups of murderers and other criminals were recruited in their branches to execute the massacre of Armenians.
During the above-mentioned trials, the extraordinary court martial in Istambul also made a thorough investigation of the immediate executors of deportation and massacres in the provinces. The court also condemned to death a number of executive secretaries and others to imprisonment for ten and more years for perpetrated grave crimes.
The records and resolutions of the proceedings were issued in a small circulation supplements of the Turkish official news paper ,,Takvimi Vekayi" (in Arabic script). All the titlepages had the following heading: The record of the trial at the extraordinary court martial formed upon His Majesty Padishah's imperial order on March 8, 1335 (1919)".
Materials of the trial of the Central Committee of the Union and Progress Party members, the Young Turk government leaders, party district executive secretaries and officials connected with the deportation and massacres of Western Armenians are fully published in this book, translated from the original into Armenian. The translation does not include materials concerning the Party conferences, disciplinary questions, as well as abuses in provisional and trade matters.
Of course, the trial materials are not complete, as not all the examination records had been published in the supplements of the ,,Takvimi Vekayi". Documentary materials (telegrams, instructions, preliminary examination records of the accused, eye-witness accounts) refferring to the deportation and massacre of Western Armenians had been concentrated in 293 paper-files of the extraordinary court martial. Naturally, its complete publication would have revealed more thoroughly the brutalities of the Young Turks.
The trial materials give a difinite view of the organization and execution of the deportation and massacres of Western Armenians. However, the process did not, in fact, solve and couldn't solve the retribution for one and a half million martyred Armenian blood and the compensation of material losses of the property abandoned, which reached milliards. The Armenian people became deprived of its homeland, the Western Armenia.
Judges, of course, not in all cases demonstrated the necessary consistency. ,,Many of them, being connected with the Young-Turks, were often inclined not to delve deeply into the accomplished facts and not to adopt strict resolutions. Derelictions were made in the course of the trial. For instance, the process on the ,,district executive secretaries took place in June 1919, while the sentence was procrastinated until January 1920. If there does not arise any doubt in condemning to death the defendants brought to trial in default, unwarranted forbearance was shown in inflicting punishment upon those present.
Facts show that fitihadists had set up insidious traps to pervert the natural course of the trial. They especially endeavoured to influence the members of the court martial, to alleviate the guilt of the accused. It must be noted that the policy of persecuting and annihilating the population of Western Armenia, continued during the period of nationalistic movement of Kemalists. In 1919—1922 Turkish armies organized new massacres in Western and Eastern Armenia, as well as in some parts of Turkey during which 250.000 Armenians were martyred.
In our days the Turkish ruling circles and historians continue to persistently reject the genocide of Western Armenians, and on the whole, they aim at falsifying the history of the Armenian people with various means and anti-scientific publications In their opinion, Armenian Turkish collisions were evoked by the crafty designs of big states. They consider the trial on Young Turk leaders that took place in Istambul in 1919 as a result of an inter-party hostility between Ittih-adists and Itilafists.
Despite the ill-intentioned attempts of Turkish falsifications, the world public opinion condemned and condemns the crime committed against the Armenian people. Naturally, after the end of the war, the trial of the Young Turk leaders was a great event from the point of view of revealing the persecutions and genocide of Western Armenians for progressively thinking humanity.
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