Cemal Azmi
| Cemal Azmi | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 1868 Arapkir, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | April 17, 1922 Berlin, Germany |
| Cause of death | Assassination |
| Resting place | Neukölln cemetery |
| Nationality | Ottoman |
| Known for | Governor of Trabzon province Perpetrator of Armenian Genocide |
| Parent(s) | Osman Nuri Bey and Gülsüm Azmi |
Cemal Azmi (1868 – April 17, 1922), also spelled Jemal Azmi, was an Ottoman politician and governor of the Trabzon Vilayet during World War I and the final years of the Ottoman Empire. He was one of the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide and was mainly responsible for the liquidation of Armenians in the Trabzon province. He was known as the "butcher of Trabzon".
Cemal Azmi was born in Arapkir, Ottoman Empire, in 1868. His father, Osman Nuri Bey, was a title agent and his mother's name was Gülsüm. In 1891 he studied at the Mulkiye Mektep.
Azmi was one of the founders of the Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa (Special Organization). Many members of this organization eventually participated in the Turkish national movement and played special roles in the Armenian Genocide. Just prior to World War I, Azmi became the governor of Trabzon on July 7, 1914. During the Armenian Genocide in 1915, Azmi continued serving his duties as governor of the Trabzon province. Azmi favored conducting massacres outside of the city of Trabzon. He was especially known for his persecution and violence towards Armenian children. Azmi, along with the collaboration of Nail Bey, ordered the drowning of thousands of women and children in the Black Sea.
Oscar S. Heizer, the American consul at Trabzon, reports: "This plan did not suit Nail Bey...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, writes: "I saw thousands of innocent women and children placed on boats which were capsized in the Black Sea". The Trabzon trials also reported Armenians having been drowned in the Black Sea.
On April 12, 1919, during the 10th sitting of the Trabzon trials, it was testified by an eyewitness that Cemal Azmi turned a local hospital into a "pleasure dome" where he frequently had "sex orgies" with young Armenian girls. Hasan Maruf, a Turkish lieutenant and eyewitness to the scene said: "After committing the worst outrages the government officials involved had these young girls killed." While in Germany, Azmi disclosed to a local Armenian that he had young girls drowned at sea: "Among the most pretty Armenian girls, 10–13 years old, I selected a number of them and handed them over to my son as a gift; the others I had drowned in the sea." Azmi was also known for collecting girls up to the age of fifteen and boys up to the age of ten from orphanages and giving them to Muslim households.
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