Bahattin Şakir

Bahattin Şakir (also Behaeddin Shakir) (d. April 17, 1922) was a founding member of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). At the end of World War I, he was detained with other members of the CUP, first by the local court martial and then by the British government. He was then sent to Malta pending military trials for crimes against humanity, which never materialized, and was subsequently exchanged by the British for hostages held by Kemalist forces in Turkey.

Armenian-Azerbaijani war

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) blames Bahattin Şakir for involvement in the Armenian-Azerbaijani war (1918 - 1920), specifically in the communications between Musavat and the CUP. In the initial stages of this war the ARF (Armenian Militia) was engaged in armed confrontation with the Azerbaijani forces during which many Muslims were expelled from Baku or went underground. The tide turned when Enver Pasha of the Ottoman Empire begin to move forward with the newly established Army of Islam. Dunsterville ordered the evacuation of the city on September 14, after six weeks of occupation, and withdrew to Iran; most of the Armenian population escaped with the British forces. The Army of Islam and their Azeri allies, led by Nuri Pasha, entered Baku on September 15. However, after the armistice of Mudros between Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire on October 30, Turkish troops were substituted for those of the Triple Entente. Headed by British general W. Thomson, who had declared himself the military governor of Baku, 5,000 Commonwealth soldiers arrived in Baku on November 17, 1918. By General Thomson's order, martial law was implemented in Baku.

Armenian genocide

Bahattin Şakir was claimed to be the central figure of the Teşkilat-i Mahsusa; a death squad staffed by criminals. [cite news|work=Sydney Morning Herald| url= http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/long-history-of-the-doctors-of-doom/2007/07/06/1183351455116.html| title=Long history of the doctors of doom|author=Robert Kaplan|accessdate=2008-09-03] This is sometimes used as proof of a state organized genocide using the tehcir (deportations) process of the Tehcir law. Halil Berktay says that local administrators objected to Şakir's deportation orders and called for his arrest. [cite news|url=http://www.radikal.com.tr/2000/10/09/insan/erm.shtml
accessdate=2008-09-03
title=Ermenileri özel örgüt öldürdü
work=Radikal
first=Neşe
last=Düzel
date=2000-10-09
quote=Osmanlı ordusu ve bürokrasisinin de bunun korkunç bir olay olduğunu algıladığını, bunları valilerden ve garnizon komutanlarından bağımsız olarak fütursuzca yapmış olan özel timlerden iğrendiğini ve hatta Enver ve Talat'ın özel adamı olan Bahaittin Şakir hakkında 1915-16 yıllarında tevkif müzekkeresi çıkaran, onu tutuklamaya çalışan valiler ve garnizon komutanlarının olduğunu görüyoruz.
language=Turkish] (Dissidents were usually replaced by hardliners; sometimes twice if the replacement was not pliant.cite book
author = Mann, Michael
year = 2005
title = The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing
pages = 159
publisher = Cambridge University Press
url = http://www.cambridge.org/9780521831307] )

In the autumn of 1919, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), part of the Armenian national liberation movement, ruled to punish the executors of the Armenian Genocide. Bahattin Şakir was assassinated on April 17, 1922 under Operation Nemesis. His assassins were never detained.

References