Aziz Feyzi Pirinççizâde (born 1878,

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

– 17 February 1933) was a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

politician in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

and a member of the influential Pirinççizâde family from

. He was accused of having been involved in the

Armenian Genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

and in the Sheikh Said rebellion but not sentenced for either. Later he served as a Member of the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( tr, ), usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament ( tr, or ''Parlamento''), is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Consti ...

and a Minister of Public Works in the

Turkish Government The Government of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Hükûmeti) is the national government of Turkey. It is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative democracy and a constitutional republic within a pluriform multi-party ...

. He was also awarded the Turkish Medal of Independence.

Biography

As a member of the

Ottoman Parliament The General Assembly ( tr, Meclis-i Umumî (French romanization: "Medjliss Oumoumi" ) or ''Genel Parlamento''; french: Assemblée Générale) was the first attempt at representative democracy by the imperial government of the Ottoman Empire. Als ...

for Diyarbakir, he was one of the main precursor of the persecution of the Armenians. After the peasantry population diminished due to the persecution of the Armenians in certain provinces of the

, he advocated for the settlement of Kurdish tribesmen in the affected areas, in order to prevent German aspirations to have a say in these regions. He also instigated against the Governor of Diyarbakir Hamid Bey, who was known to be rather tolerant towards the Armenian population. Hamid Bey was replaced by

Mehmed Reshid Mehmed Reshid ( tr, Mehmet Reşit Şahingiray; 8 February 1873 – 6 February 1919) was an Ottoman physician, official of the Committee of Union and Progress, and governor of the Diyarbekir Vilayet (province) of the Ottoman Empire during World ...

on the 25 March 1915 who were to become known as for his role in the extermination of the Christian population. Onwards he was an assistant to Mehmed Reshid, and a major force behind the chasing of the Armenian Christian community. He organized the arson of the market of Diyarbakır in August 1914 together with other adherents to the Young Turks. One of them was the local commander of the police, Memduh Bey, whose release from custody he successfully demanded, after he was charged with it. During the fire, a Muslim mob destroyed many Christian shops. He was also a member of parliament where he reportedly held disputes with the Armenian deputy

Vartkes Serengülian Vartkes Serengülian ( hy, Վարդգէս Սէրէնկիւլեան; also known as Hovhannes hy, Յովհաննէս or Gisak) (1871, Erzurum – 1915, Urfa), was an Ottoman Armenian political and social activist, and a member of Ottoman Parli ...

. He and his cousin

Bekir Sidki Pirinççizâde Bekir is a Turkish given name for males which comes from Abu Bakr the first Caliph of Islam. Given name * Bekir Fikri (1882–1914), Ottoman officer and revolutionary * Bekir Sıtkı Bircan (1886–1967), Turkish footballer * Bekir Bozdağ (bor ...

assumed a leading role in the massacres of the Armenian population of Diyarbakir. Both were involved in the Committee of Inquiry set up by Mehmed Reshid in order to find a solution to the Armenian question. Aziz Feyzi as a member of the committee, and his cousin as a captain of the militia unit, which carried out the orders of the committee. In May 1915, Mehmed Reshid sent Aziz Feyzi to

Mardin Mardin ( ku, Mêrdîn; ar, ماردين; syr, ܡܪܕܝܢ, Merdīn; hy, Մարդին) is a city in southeastern Turkey. The capital of Mardin Province, it is known for the Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on ...

in order to organize the persecution of the Christians. In Mardin, Hilmi Bey has so far successfully prevented the persecution of the local Christian community. Furthermore, local Turkish and Kurdish leaders had refused to take part in the

Hamidian massacres The Hamidian massacres also called the Armenian massacres, were massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the mid-1890s. Estimated casualties ranged from 100,000 to 300,000, Akçam, Taner (2006) '' A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide an ...

. According to the detailed Arabic diary of

Syriac Catholic The Syriac Catholic Church ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ ܩܬܘܠܝܩܝܬܐ, ʿĪṯo Suryayṯo Qaṯolīqayṯo, ar, الكنيسة السريانية الكاثوليكية) is an Eastern Catholic Christian jurisdiction originating in t ...

priest Fr. Ishaq Armalé, Feyzi declared upon his arrival, "Let no Christian remain! He who does not do this duty is no longer a Muslim." Feyzi added, "The time has come to save Turkey from its national enemies, that is, the Christians. It is clear that the states of Europe will not punish us, because Germany is on our side and helps us." According to Fr.

Jacques Rhétoré Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...

, a French Dominican priest interned in Mardin, a large meeting was held in Mardin on May 15, 1915. During the meeting, Feyzi mocked those who objected to murdering Christians, "You surprise me. What is holding you back? Is it the fear of one day having to pay for this? But what happened to those who killed Armenians in

Abdul Hamid ʻAbd al-Ḥamīd (ALA-LC romanization of ar, عبد الحميد) is a Muslim male given name, and in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words '' ʻabd'' and ''al-Ḥamīd'', one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which gave rise t ...

’s time? Today Germany is with us and our enemies are its enemies. This will surely give us victory in this war, and we won’t have to answer to anyone. Let us get rid of the Christians so we can be masters in our own house. This is what the government wants."The View from the Roofs of Mardin: What Everyone Saw in the ‘Year of the Sword’
by

David Gaunt David Gaunt (born 1944 in London) is a historian and professor at Södertörn University's Centre for Baltic and East European Studies and Member of Academia Europaea. Gaunt's book about the Assyrian genocide The Sayfo or the Seyfo (; see be ...

. ''

The Armenian Weekly ''Armenian Weekly'' (originally ''Hairenik Weekly'') is an English Armenian publication published by Hairenik Association, Inc. in Watertown, Massachusetts in the United States. It is the sister publication to the Armenian language weekly ''Hai ...

'', January 7, 1915. Everyone present at the meeting was required to sign a petition that Mardin's Christians were traitors and needed to be eliminated. Following, he was deployed to Cizre, to continue with the persecution of the Christian population. After the surrender of the

in 1918, he supported the Revolutionary Government based in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

Prosecution and release

He was arrested on 15 January 1919 and charged with involvement in the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

. The British deported him to

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

in May 1919, where he was in custody for two years in the citadel in Group A, which was reserved for the ones, who were directly involved in the massacres. In 1921, he managed to escape the island with 15 fellow inmates and returned to the Anatolian mainland to join the

Kemalists Kemalism ( tr, Kemalizm, also archaically ''Kamâlizm''), also known as Atatürkism ( tr, Atatürkçülük, Atatürkçü düşünce), or The Six Arrows ( tr, Altı Ok), is the founding official ideology of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey.Eric J. ...

. During the Sheikh Said Rebellion, he initially was accused for supporting the rebellion, and had to appear before the

Independence Tribunal An Independence Tribunal ( tr, İstiklâl Mahkemesi, plural ''İstiklâl Mahkemeleri'') was a court invested with superior authority and the first were established in 1920 during the Turkish War of Independence in order to prosecute those who we ...

, but was acquitted.

Later life

Following he was a facilitator of massacres and resettlements of the Kurdish population. He was the Minister of Public Works during Revolutionary Government under

Fevzi Çakmak Mustafa Fevzi Çakmak (12 January 1876 – 10 April 1950) was a Turkish field marshal ('' Mareşal'') and politician. He served as the Chief of General Staff from 1918 and 1919 and later the Minister of War of the Ottoman Empire in 1920. He lat ...

, again in the Government of Ali Fethi from November 1924 to March 1925. In May 1927, he was awarded the Independence Medal by Abdulhalik Renda, at the time the speaker of the

Family

Aziz Feyzi was the son of Arif Pirinççizâde, the father of the politician Vefik Pirinççioğlu and the uncle of

Ziya Gökalp Mehmet Ziya Gökalp (23 March 1876 – 25 October 1924) was a Turkish sociologist, writer, poet, and politician. After the 1908 Young Turk Revolution that reinstated constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire, he adopted the pen name Gökalp ("cel ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aziz Feyzi Pirinççizâde Armenian genocide perpetrators Turkish Kurdish politicians Members of the 3rd government of Turkey Year of death missing Malta exiles Sayfo perpetrators 1878 births Politicians from the Ottoman Empire