Mehmed Kemal Bey

Mehmed Kemal Bey (March 1, 1884 – April 10, 1919) was an Ottoman administrator and educator from the Committee of Union and Progress involved in the Armenian genocide. He served as the sub-prefect of Boğazlıyan, governor of Yozgat, and inspector of deportations in Konya. He is known for organizing the deportation of 40,000 Armenians from Boğazlıyan, establishing "killing sites" in the Yozgat region that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Armenians during the genocide, and overseeing deportations in Konya. Kemal Bey was the first person executed in the Istanbul trials.

Early life and education Kemâl was born on March 1, 1884, in Beirut to a family originating in Larissa (Thessaly). He was educated in Antalya and İzmir where he studied at the modern-day Ankara University.

Career In 1909, Kemâl Bey completed his studies and became a kaymakam (sub-prefect of a district). In 1915, he became the governor of the Boğazlıyan province. Afterward, he served as the governor of Yozgat (vali) and later as the inspector of deportations in Konya. Hasan Mazhar had wished to start with him, as he had committed his acts in a region he knew well, and where he had been able to gather a substantial amount of evidence on the genocidal mechanisms at work. Other Young Turk administrators and officers took the opportunity of his trial to testify against him and his actions.

The trials indicted Mehmed Kemal alongside some of his accomplices in the Yozgat deportations and massacres, Mehmed Tevfik and Abdül Fayaz. The charges included: but contradicted his written testimony where he had stated that the Young Turk government had ordered the destruction of the most incriminating evidence.

During another session, Mehmed Kemal was forced to admit that some extermination orders were signed by his own hand, although he believed they had been destroyed.

During his trial, Turkish deputy Shakir Bey from Yozgat intervened and testified that Mehmed Kemal personally participated in the massacres and acted "with the manners of butchers." He revealed the intentions of the Ottoman government by recalling that Mehmed Kemal boasted about being promoted to the position of governor of Yozgat as a reward for his Armenian massacres. After Shakir Bey's testimony, Djemal Bey, the former governor of Yozgat, stated that there had never been intense rebel activity by Armenians in that region, which was the last argument used by the defense to save Mehmed Kemal. On April 8, 1919, Mehmed Kemal was unanimously found guilty of premeditated mass murder in conjunction with robbery. He was sentenced to death in accordance with Articles 45 and 170 of the Ottoman Penal Code and Article 171 of the Ottoman Military Penal Code. Premeditation was considered an aggravating factor. The court concluded that:

Aftermath On October 10, 1922, Kemal was declared a "national martyr" by the Grand National Assembly under Kemalist control. In 1926, the Turkish state offered his family two properties confiscated during the seizure of Armenian assets. In 1973, his tomb was renovated. His tomb has since been declared a national memorial.

In 2023, the Turkish governor of Boğazlıyan laid a wreath of flowers in his honor during a ceremony.