During the Armenian genocide, Mustafa Abdülhalik Renda was responsible for the deportations and murder of the Armenians of Bitlis Vilayet.
He also organized the defense in the western mountain range against the Russian offensive in 1914, but to no avail, the Russians captured Saray as well as Başkale.
In 1916, Renda became governor of Aleppo where he was instrumental in the deportations of Armenians to their deaths in Der Zor.
Rossler, the German consul on Aleppo, was quoted as saying that Renda was “working with great energy for the destruction of Armenians”.
General Vehip Pasha, commander of the Third Army, mentioned that Renda in his testimony to the Mazhar Commission claimed that he burned thousands of people alive in the province of Mush.
He was a brother-in-law of Talaat Bey. Following his arrest as a principal war criminal, British authorities deported him to Malta in 1919.
Upon his return to Turkey in 1921, he served in ministerial positions for the Kemalist regime.
Taken from Mano Chil
