Djemal Pasha was the commander of the 4th Turkish army operating in Syria during WWI (1914-18). He actively participated in the mass deportation and massacres of the Armenians of Historical Armenia, Cilicia, and drowned the self-defense forces of the Armenians of Urfa in blood. Djemal suppressed Arab national liberation movements in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine.
After Turkey’s defeat in the war (1918), he fled to Germany. In 1919, the military court of Constantinople sentenced Djemal to death in absentia.
In July 1922, on the way from Moscow to Ankara, former Minister of the Turkish Navy Djemal Pasha stopped in Tbilisi. By the will of fate, Artashes Gevorgyan, Petros Ter-Poghosyan, Stepan Tsaghikyan, and Zareh Melik-Shahnazaryants were in Tbilisi. They organized and carried out the assassination of Djemal.
July 21, 1922, was fatal for Djemal Pasha. On Pushkin Street in Tbilisi, Artashes and Petros approached Djemal and his two companions. The sacred hour of just revenge came…
“… And my sister, beautiful Anik, who was not even 16 years old and who was brutally raped near Urfa, stood before my eyes at that moment. Hands on her knees, bowing her head, my sister-martyr,” Artashes Gevorgyan recalls this moment.
“Pasha, pasha! Remember Urfa, Der Zor!” Artashes shouted, firing.
