Hafız Mehmet (1874 – 14 June 1926) was a Turkish politician and the Minister of Justice for the

Republic of Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula i ...

. While serving as a deputy in

Trabzon Trabzon (; Ancient Greek: Tραπεζοῦς (''Trapezous''), Ophitic Pontic Greek: Τραπεζούντα (''Trapezounta''); Georgian: ტრაპიზონი (''Trapizoni'')), historically known as Trebizond in English, is a city on the B ...

, he was a witness to 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 ...

. His testimony of the event is considered by genocide scholar Vahakn Dadrian as one of the "rarest corroborations of the fact of the complicity of governmental officials in the organization of the mass murder of Armenians". He was sentenced to death after the Izmir trials of 1926, charged with attempting to assassinate

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Rep ...

Early life

Hafız Mehmet was born 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) ...

in the village of

Sürmene Sürmene ( Greek: Σούρμενα, ''Sourmena''; ota, ﺳﻮرﻣﻨﻪ, romanized as ''Sürmena e') is a small town and district of Trabzon Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. In ancient times the town of Hyssus or Hyssos ( grc, Υσ� ...

located near

in 1874. He was the son of Hacı Yakubzâde Ahmed Ağa. He received his early education in local schools near Trabzon. Mehmet moved to

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

to study law, where he ultimately attained a degree in law. He served as a lawyer throughout the Ottoman Empire. In the 1912 and 1914 Young Turk elections, Hafız Mehmet was elected as a deputy who represented Trabzon. As a practicing lawyer, Mehmet was nicknamed "hukukcu" or lawyer.

Armenian Genocide witness

Hafız Mehmet served as a deputy in Trabzon, where an estimated 50,000 Armenians were killed during the

. Since Trabzon was a coastal city of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, ...

, the method employed to kill was mainly mass drowning. Hafız Mehmet witnessed such drownings of Armenians off the coast of

Ordu Ordu () or Altınordu is a port city on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, historically also known as Cotyora or Kotyora ( pnt, Κοτύωρα), and the capital of Ordu Province with a population of 229,214 in the city center. Name Kotyora, the ori ...

, near Trabzon, and provided testimony of his eyewitness accounts during a 21 December 1918 parliamentary session of the Chamber of Deputies: Ordu-osmanli-kotyora

Hafız Mehmet stated that he and other deputies knew beforehand that the Young Turk government had an underlying aim to exterminate the Armenian population. He also said that those tasked to carry out the responsibility were members of the Special Organization, a special task force under the auspices of the imperial Ottoman government, but that these individuals received orders directly from

Cemal Azmi Cemal Azmi (1868 – April 17, 1922), also spelled Jemal Azmi, was an Ottoman politician and governor of the Trebizond (now Trabzon) Vilayet (province) during World War I and the final years of the Ottoman Empire. He was one of the perpetra ...

, the governor of the Trabzon province. Mehmet testified that he attempted to stop the massacres by trying to speak with Interior Minister

Talat Pasha Mehmed Talaat (1 September 187415 March 1921), commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha,; tr, Talat Paşa, links=no was an Ottoman politician and convicted war criminal of the late Ottoman Empire who served as its leader from 1913 t ...

directly but that Talat never responded to his inquiries and never questioned the actions of the politicians in Trabzon. Hafız Mehmet's testimony is considered by genocide scholar Vahakn Dadrian as a representation of the "rarest corroborations of the fact of the complicity of governmental officials in the organization of the mass murder of the Armenians." Others have provided similar testimonies including Oscar S. Heizer, the American consul at Trabzon, who reported that "many of the children were loaded into boats and taken out to sea and thrown overboard." The Italian consul of Trabzon in 1915,

Giacomo Gorrini Giacomo Gorrini (1859 in Molino dei Torti – 31 October 1950, in Rome) was an Italian diplomat and historian. Biography In 1886, he became the first director of the Italian Foreign Minister Archives. In the years 1911-1915 he served as Italian ...

also wrote: "I saw thousands of innocent women and children placed on boats which were capsized in the Black Sea".

Later life and death

Hafız Mehmet was sentenced to death after the Izmir trials of 1926. The trials condemned thirty-six individuals for attempting to assassinate

References

;Notes ;References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hafiz Mehmet 1874 births 1926 deaths People executed by Turkey by hanging Witnesses of the Armenian genocide People from Sürmene Executed Turkish people People executed for treason against Turkey 20th-century executions for treason Turkish politicians Istanbul University Faculty of Law alumni

Early life

Armenian Genocide witness

Later life and death

See also

References

External links