Djemal Pasha Djemal Pasha ( , modern Turkish : " Cemal Paşa " ) , born Ahmed Djemal ( , ; 6 May 1872 – 21 July 1922 ) , was a Young Turk and member of the Three Pashas . Djemal was also Mayor of Istanbul . Biography . He was born in Mytilene , Lesbos , to Mehmet Nesip Bey , a military pharmacist . Between 1908 – 1918 , Djemal was one of the most important leaders of the Ottoman government . He graduated from Kuleli Military High School in 1890 , then from the Military Academy ( Mektebi Harbiyeyi Şahane ) in 1893 in Constantinople . Firstly , he served for the 1st Department of the Imperial General Staff ( Seraskerlik Erkânı Harbiye ) , and then he worked at the Kirkkilise Fortification Construction Department bound to Second Army . In 1896 , Djemal was assigned to the II Corps . Two years later , he became the staff commander of Novice Division , in Salonica . Meanwhile , he began to sympathise with the reforms of Committee of Union and Progress ( CUP ) on military issues . It was in 1905 , when Djemal became a major and designated as the Inspector of Roumelia Railways . In 1906 he joined the Ottoman Liberty Society . He became influential in the department of military issues of the " Committee of Union and Progress " . He became a member of Board of the III Corps , in 1907 . Here , he worked with Major Fethi ( Okyar ) and Mustafa Kemal ( Atatürk ) . His grandson , Hasan Cemal , is a well known columnist , journalist and writer in Turkey . Balkan Wars . In 1911 Djemal was appointed Governor of Baghdad . He resigned however from this duty to rejoin the army in the Balkan Wars . In October 1912 , he was promoted to colonel . At the end of the First Balkan War , he played an important role in the propaganda traced by the CUP , against the negotiations with the European countries . He tried to resolve the problems that occurred in Constantinople after the Bab - ı Ali Attack ( Coup of 1913 ) . Djemal had a significant role in the Second Balkan War , and with the revolution of CUP on 23 January 1913 , he became the commander of Constantinople and was appointed minister of public works . In 1914 he became the Minister of the Navy . World War I . When Europe was divided in two blocks before the First World War , he supported an alliance with France . He went to France to negotiate an alliance with the French but failed and sided with Enver and Talaat , that favoured the German side . Djemal , along with Enver and Talaat took control of the Ottoman government in 1913 . The Three Pashas effectively ruled the Ottoman Empire for the duration of World War I . Djemal was one of the designers of the government ' s internal and foreign policies , nearly all of which proved disastrous for the Empire . After the Ottoman Empire declared war on the Allies in World War I , Enver Pasha nominated Djemal Pasha to lead the Ottoman army against British forces in Egypt and Djemal accepted the position . Similar to Enver , he proved unsuccessful as a military leader . Syria and Lebanon . Djemal Pasha was appointed with full powers in military and civilian affairs in Syria in 1915 . A provisional law granted him emergency powers in May of that year . All cabinet decrees from Constantinople related to Syria became subject to his approval . His offensives on both his first First Suez Offensive and second attacks on the Suez Canal failed . Coupled with the wartime exigencies and natural disasters that afflicted the region during these years , this alienated the population from the Ottoman government , and led to the Arab Revolt . He was known among the local Arab inhabitants as " al - Saffah " , " the Blood Shedder " , being responsible for the hanging of many Lebanese , Syrian Shi ' a Muslims and Christians wrongly accused of treason on 6 May 1916 , in Damascus and Beirut . In his political memoirs , the leader of the " Beirut Reform Movement " Salim Ali Salam recalls the following : “ Jamal Pasha resumed his campaign of vengeance ; he began to imprison most Arab personalities , charging them with treason against the State . His real intent was to cut off the thoughtful heads , so that , as he put it , the Arabs would never again emerge as a force , and no one would be left to claim for them their rights … After returning to Beirut [ from Istanbul ] , I was summoned … to Damascus to greet Jamal Pasha … I took the train … , and upon reaching Aley we found that the whole train was reserved for the prisoners there to take them to Damascus … When I saw them , I realized that they were taking them to Damascus to put them to death . So … I said to myself : how shall I be able to meet with this butcher on the day on which he will be slaughtering the notables of the country ? And how will I be able to converse with him ? … Upon arriving in Damascus , I tried hard to see him that same evening , before anything happened , but was not successful . The next morning all was over , and the … notables who had been brought over from Aley were strung up on the gallows . ” At the end of 1915 , Djemal is said to have started secret negotiations with the Allies for ending the war ( he proposed himself to take over the Ottoman government ) . These secret negotiations came to nothing , in part because the Allies reportedly could not agree on the future territory of the Ottoman Empire . Recent scholarship , however , has cast doubt on Djemal having ever made any such overtures to the Allies . In the spring of 1915 , while the Arab Revolt was rising , Djemal instituted strict control over Syria against Arab opponents of the Ottomans . Djemal ' s forces also fought against the Arab nationalists from 1916 onwards . Ottoman authorities occupied the French consulates in Beirut and Damascus and confiscated French secret documents that revealed evidence about activities and names of the Arab insurgents . Djemal used this information from these documents as well as from others belonging to the Decentralization Party . Djemal believed that insurgency under French control was the main reason for his military failings . With the documents he gathered , Djemal moved against the insurgency forces which were led by Arab political and cultural leaders . This was followed by the military trials of the insurgents known as " Âliye Divan - ı Harb - i Örfisi " in which these leaders were punished . At the end of 1917 , Djemal ruled from his post in Damascus as a near independent ruler of his portion of the Empire . In 1917 , following the Ottoman Army ' s defeats by the British Army under General Allenby , he resigned from the 4th Army and returned to Constantinople . Parliament . In the last congress of Committee of Union and Progress held in 1917 , Djemal was elected to the Board of Central Administration . With the defeat of the empire in October 1918 and the resignation of Talat Pasha ’ s cabinet on 2 November 1918 , Djemal fled with seven other leaders of the CUP to Germany , and then Switzerland . Military trial . A military court in Turkey accused Djemal of persecuting Arab subjects of the Empire , and sentenced him to death " in absentia " . But these courts were considered " travesty of justice " by the Allied Powers . Later , Djemal went to Central Asia , where he worked on modernisation of the Afghan army . Due to the success of the Bolshevik Revolution , Djemal travelled to Tbilisi where he was assassinated , together with his secretary , on 21 July 1922 by Stepan Dzaghigian , Artashes Gevorgyan and Petros Ter Poghosyan , Armenians , as part of Operation Nemesis , in retribution for his role in the Armenian Genocide and the World War 1 . Ahmed Djemal ' s remains were brought to Erzurum and buried there .