Ahmed Djemal
Ottoman general and politician
Ahmed Djemal Pasha (Turkish: Ahmet Cemal Paşa) (May 6, 1872 – July 21, 1922), also known as Cemal Pasha or as Jamal Basha as-Saffah ("the Bloodthirsty") in the Arab world, was an Ottoman military leader and one of the Three Pashas that ruled the Ottoman Empire during World War I and carried out the Armenian genocide.
Quotess
- I shall not return to Constantinople until I have conquered Egypt!
- Quoted in "On Secret Service East of Constantinople" - Page 77 - by Peter Hopkirk - History - 2001.
- In the program of the Turkish government, nothing is said of a Turkification of the Arabs. I have never intended anything like that nor even thought of it. Our sole purpose is to strengthen the feeling of fraternity between the Ottoman-Turkish and the Ottoman-Arab elements and to make the latter understand that the national interests of the Arabs are identical to those of the Turks and that any harm to one of them necessarily means harm to the other. The Ottoman-Turkish and the Ottoman-Arab elements have to rally to the caliphate without afterthoughts if they want to survive.
- Quoted in "The Syrian Land: Processes of Integration and Fragmentation" – by Thomas Philipp, Birgit Schäbler – 1998 – Page 321.
- With us it is not a question of Bolshevism or democracy, but of life or death. A decision in favor of a Soviet could not be opposed by the Young Turks.
- Quoted in "Djemal Pasha In Moscow" - New York Times - June 17, 1920.
- Our sole aim was, by virtue of this war, to rid ourselves of the lot of them, however many international decisions there were. Each one represented a blow to our...independence...And, just as it was our dearly held goal to lift the Capitulations and the Mt. Lebanon concessions, we also desired to destroy the signed understanding concerning the reforms in Eastern Anatolia...
- Quoted in "A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility" - by Taner Akçam, Paul Bessemer - History - 2006 - Page 118.
- There is nothing in the world that could make me turn from the law. With a clear conscience, I am prepared to answer for each and every one of my political and administrative orders and actions, and to do so before the court of public opinion...
- Quoted in "A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility" - by Taner Akçam, Paul Bessemer - History - 2006 - Page 246.
