KEMAL BEY

KEMAL BEY , NATIONAL MARTYR

Kemal Bey, who was a head district official in Boğazlıyan during First World War, was unjustly executed upon the pressure of occupying English-French authorities on grounds of the claim that he persecuted the Armenians after the Armistice, on 19 April 1919. Kemal Bey's high memory, who was sacrificed for Armenian fierceness and rebel movement, still aches our hearts despite all of the eighty years passed by. We have to remember the memory of Kemal Bey and our other martyrs who were grieved under Armenian persecution by arranging meetings in all of our country while the dirty hands which shed the blood of Talat Pasha and Cemal Pasha and their friends and then about 50 of our diplomats proclaim 24 April of each year as the day of revenge. Arif Bey, retired from Sirkeci Customs Directorate, was taking meal to his son arrested in Bekirağa squadron as everyday. It was afternoon. He suddenly saw a crowd gathered at the quarter. He went curious about what was happening. He drew near.Their faces and speaking styles revealed that most of these people were Armenians. He asked one of them:

What's this crowd, is there something?

One man was hanged, we are looking at him'

Arif Bey, hearing this reply, approached the gallows being terrified.

The hanging person was Kemal Bey, his son.

He fell down with a cry.

Central Commander, who had gone there to be present in the execution, ran there. When he saw miserable Arif Bey, he asked:

Who are you?

The old man moaned:

His father...

Osman Şakir Pasha turned red suddenly, and shivered:

Your order?

Give me my son!

"INDIVIDUALS DIE, NATION LIVE "

"My tombstone should be erected by my Turk and Muslim brothers and read: Fatiha for the spirit of Bogazliyan Head District Official Kemal!".

(Kemal Bey's will)

They ordered immediately. The body of Kemal Bey was brought down from the gallows. The hapless father embraced his son's body which was still warm. Arif Bey, one of the notables of Yenişehir of Tesalya, transferred his son's corpse to Kadıköy, to the house of his aunt Ismet Hanim.

Next day, Istanbul rose. Youth with high education in particular, filled the area in front of the house for funeral. They took with them a wreath which read "Great martyr of Turks, Kemal Bey". The funeral ceremony was very meaningful despite all terror and pressure. A team of soldiers in front of Kadiköy fire brigade Station, presented arms themselves while the corpse was passing. Women from the houses on the streets which the gradually growing funeral crowd passed, participated in the mourning with their sobs. The coffin was taken on the hands of youths with a magnificent crowd to Kuşdili Mahmud Baba Tomb. Kemal Bey's son Adnan was buried there. Now, father and son was to lay side by side. Those speaking beside the funeral were nationalist young students. The cry of a medical student youth was listened by his friends in tears: Kemal! You are a flower we bury now. Your branches to grow there will be so thorny that they will cut into parts those who deemed you deserving this fate. Your revenge will be definitely taken.

CLAIM

The disaster started in February 1919.

Bogazliyan head district officer and Yozgat deputy administrator Kemal Bey was going to be tried with the claim that he caused deaths in forced immigration of Armenians demanding execution.Kemal Bey was tried and acquitted by Yozgat Court of Appeal with the same allegation before. Now, the decision of this court not being taken into consideration, he had to appear before military court again. It was such difficult times that it was hard to find a lawyer to defend Kemal Bey. However, a bold attorney named Sadeddin Ferid Bey voluntarily undertook his defense. The president of the military court deciding retrial of Kemal Bey who claimed he was acquitted in Yozgat, was Hayret Pasha.

Military court prosecutor Sami Bey briefly stated his opinion: "The supreme court delegation could clear the stain on the clean forehead of the state and nation by only one way: Conducting the requirements of law against those who caused the disasters and persecution which everybody knew. The events caused by the non-Muslim people who lived in prosperity and happiness under Ottoman dominance for centuries, resulted from foreign influences rather than administrative faults. As per the information acquired from files and foreign press, Armenians carried out some important movements in the most important and dangerous regions in Ottoman provinces near the border. Therefore, War Government applied forced immigration in 1331 May, and spread this act to children and women with a mistaken idea. Because of this improvidence, some people caused the known disasters seeking their personal interests". For the prosecutor, Bogazliyan Head District Official Kemal Bey was one of these people and had to be sentenced to the most severe punishment possible.

WITNESSES

Then, several witnesses who suddenly appeared from an unknown source, began to list what Kemal Bey did one by one. Most of them were members of a secret society. Other members of secret society were taking little Armenian children they found ın Istanbul to the court and making heard as witnesses. The court delegation listened to them patiently and carefully. Kemal Bey was left alone in the middle of a furious slander hurricane, but did not need to advocate himself much. He said: All are lies, all are made-up. Reis Pasha, I neither went nor passed from to Keller (today Yenipazar) village as they said. I do not know the murders they say to have happened there. And cutting an arm to take a ring from a finger?... Please, who can do such a wildness? I cannot imagine a person doing such bad thing. Indeed, they cannot prove any of these. This is because all are slanders. I do not know if something happened beyond my knowledge.

However, no complaints was made to me on this issue until now. I am encountering these complaints for the first time here, in this courtroom. There was some point Kemal Bey was wrong. He did not think any person could be so vile to cut an arm to take a ring out of a finger. He did not know the following statement by Kıymet Başıbüyük from Zeve village of Van, to take part in the most bloody documents of history afterwards: "Armenian secret society members were getting the children out of the pregnant women with their bayonets and then playing with them using their bayonets. They had found a very easy method of taking the golden bracelets of women and girls. They were cutting the arm completely with the bayonet and then taking jewels such as the bracelets or rings".

It was such a bad fate that an innocent Turkish administrator was being tried for the same accusation instead of the Armenian secret society members who performed such brutality, and Armenian secret society members were sitting at the witness' place to make him executed with a decision by a Turkish court. And the prosecutor of the Military Court asked: That is, then the migrating convoys passing nearby incurred no assaults. No, there is no such thing... No, I am not informed in no way! One of the Armenian complainants was intervening: How can this be when hundreds of corpses were found in Keller village? This time the Reis asked: Look what he says? How can an administrator, a head district official be unaware of such great events? Can this happen?

No there is nothing my Pasha... Nothing can appear only because they say it exists. The crowd constituting mostly of Armenian secret society members was beginning to laugh then.

DEFENSE

At last, after the defense of attorney Sadeddin Ferid Bey, it was the turn of Kemal Bey to speak: You, who were a judge delegation until yesterday, are now a history court at this moment.

It is obvious that the mourning of my coreligionists killed by Armenians hurt Muslims and the black news coming everyday stimulate the people. However, Armenians did not refrain from causing disasters by sometimes leading Russian Armies and sometimes being left behind being confident because of our country's being deprived of military powers. It is possible as claimed that some Armenian immigrating convoys may have suffered some infringements by some deserters who witnessed tragedies deemed proper for Muslims by Armenians.

However, if it is deemed as the requirement of a policy to give sacrifices as the demand by the claimant in order to stop the delirium against us due to our being defeated in the war, I may not be this victim. You are a supreme delegation bearing the obligation to judge with justice and truth in accordance with your conscience, not selecting a victim. If you are looking for a victim definitely, then a low-ranking official like me cannot be found responsible for all these works as their arranger and administrator".

Chief of the Court said in reply to this defense: Kemal Bey, be sure that this court will give its decision without being effected by any external emotions on the basis of only its conscience. Nevertheless, the serious pressure by French and English occupying forces, Armenian secret society members and Armenian Patriarch Zaven was still going on. Therefore, Hayret Pasha, the chief of Military Court, resigned after an impetuous argument with Grand Vizier Ferid Pasha. He was replaced with Kurd Mustafa Pasha, known with his nickname "Nemrut".

JUDGEMENT

The court was not a court as it should be any more, turning into a delegation commissioned to fulfil a previously issued order. Kemal Bey told Nemrut Pasha: I was given an order, an official has to obey orders. I behaved in the most humanitarian way possible to those sent to exile from the town. As a matter of fact, I do not feel prick of conscience now. Nemrut Mustafa shouted at Kemal Bey, standing up from where he sat:

Weren't you afraid of God when you banished so many people in winter with their children to mountains and plateaus? Did not you think that one day you would account for that? And you ordered the gendermaries to bayonet them, is that true? No I will never accept that. I am not a person who issued an order for the death of anybody.

Is it better to make tens of thousands of poor people, women, children in winter over the mountains than to bayonet them? And you are an administrative chief, those people were commended to you. Then he asked shouting: Do you know what the penalty for encouraging one of the citizens of our country to send against each other in a way to cause infringement of life and property? Execution Pasha...

Kemal Bey, you made your judgement yourself, we had reached this decision for you. Gendarmerie Commander Major Tevfik Bey was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

EXECUTION

Indeed the judgement of execution was prepared before. The decision, which was ready immediately after the trial was over, was sent to the Palace to be ratified. But there were people suspecting the Sultan might hesitate. These were Minister of the Interior Mehmet Ali Bey, Justice Undersecretary and Chief of English Lovers Associaiton Said Molla. These two people sent Damad Ferid Pasha to the palace hastily.

Sultan Vadiheddin demanded a juridical decision from the Sheik of Islam for ratification of the decision. Sheik of Islam Mustafa Sabri Effendi said: "What they demand for Kemal Bey is not a juridical decision. It pertains to "adjudication", and I am not authorized for adjudication", and refrained from issuing a juridical decision. When the Sultan insisted, he set forth in a general manner that "In case a Muslim kills a non-Muslim, execution is permitted, however, for fulfillment of such judgement, the murdered person should be killed or wounded with a wounding instrument and his/her heirs should demand "retaliation". However, he also added a note for satisfaction of the Sultan. This note explained that if Kemal Bey's trial was executed in accordance with the right and justice by Military Court, his execution sentence was appropriate. This juridical decision contended the Palace. The decree was issued and signed. Necessary measures of execution were taken, necessary preparations were made. The gallows were erected.Kemal Bey was not aware of what had happened. He was sitting and talking to his prisoner friends at Bekir Aga division. They suddenly called him out and caught him to take to Beyazid Quarter.

Armenian secret society members were following step by step efforts for execution. Many Armenian vagabonds from various districts of Istanbul had gathered at the quarter.

The Muslim people of Istanbul was troubled secretly. The bitter news was heard by people engaged in this problem for days: Kemal Bey's execution was decided. They are going to hang him this evening in Beyazit. The people rushed in Beyazit in crowds. The members of Special Organization of those times were in Beyazit too.

Everybody asked to each other: Why did they leave it so late at dark? It better suits their interests, that's the reason!

There was a tremendous crowd both at the quarter and on roads and roofs facing the quarter. The gallows was erected in front of a small building to be used as the office of the rector for years later on, a gendarmerie and police line surrounding. The English and French military units were standing in front of the building too. The sun was slowly setting, and a pink color was painting Suleymaniye. Waving crowd got silent suddenly. Kemal Bey was coming in the middle of a detachment of bayoneted soldiers getting out of ornamented Ministry of War gate. His face went pale. He was about 35. He wore the white shirt peculiar to those condemned to death, and was walking slowly. He was tough. He seemed to have surrendered to his fate.

LAST WORD

His last words were asked. Then, Kemal Bey addressed to the people: My dear citizens! I am a Turkish official. I fulfilled the orders I was given. I am conscientiously sure that I did my duty. I swear that I am innocent, my last words are those, today and forever. They are hanging me to cozy up to the foreign countries. If this is justice, damn with! Damn with such justice!

My dear brothers, I commend my children to the noble Turkish nation. This hero nation will certainly take care of them. May Allah not eradicate our land and nation. Amen! The people were sobbing. The quarter was witnessing a scene of mourning. The order of Said Molla watching the scene from the window of a small pavilion overcame his words: Do not let that ignoble bloke speak! Hang that dog immediately! What are you waiting for? Kemal Bey, this persecuted Turkish boy, found the opportunity to say a few more words before he jumped from the gallows: I am indebted, I do not possess wealth! I am leaving my three sons orphans for the sake of this nation. Long live nation! Armenian secret society members who saw his body hanging down on the gallows like a white piece of paper began to cheer with cries of joy. Their wildness reached the top point.

However, when they saw bayoneted gendarmeries were walking toward them, they went silent and spread. They had nothing to do more. They had done what they intended to.

The dark curtain descending on Istanbul street corners of which were watched by French and English soldiers that night ended an embarrassing and disastrous day. The date was 10 April 1919. Years later, a quarter in Bogazliyan was named "Kaymakam Kemal Bey Quarter". A primary school bearing the name of Kemal Bey was opened in the same town in 1972. The picture of our national martyr is hanged on in the room of school principal.

His tomb was constructed by the Union of Civil Servants. It was named "Memorial Grave". The grave was opened with a simple ceremony on 15 December 1973.

Information on Kemal Bey was quoted from Orkun Magazine April 1999 edition.