Turkish Courts - Martial of 1919 – 20 Turkish Courts - Martial of 1919 – 20 were courts - martial of the Ottoman Empire after the armistice of Mudros during the aftermath of World War I , at which the leadership of the Committee of Union and Progress and selected former officials were court - martialled with / including the charges of subversion of the constitution , wartime profiteering , and the massacres of both Armenians and Greeks . The court reached a verdict which sentenced the organizers of the massacres , Talat , Enver , Cemal and others to death . Most of the Turkish courts - martial were dismissed and the serious ones were relocated to the " International Court - Martial in Malta " rather than being held in a Turkish court whose " findings cannot be held of any account at all . " ( John de Robeck ) The courts - martial were labelled " Turkish " because of their selective accusation of only the Turkish subjects of the Ottoman Empire . They became a stage for political battles . The trials helped the Liberal Union party root out the Committee of Union and Progress from the political arena . During the second stage the international trials , Ottoman politicians , generals , and intellectuals were relocated from Constantinople jails to the British colony of Malta , called the Malta exiles , where they were held for some three years while searches were made in the archives of Constantinople , London , Paris and Washington to find proof of their guilt . The trials formed a key argument in the Treaty of Sèvres , which resulted in the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire . Background . World War I . Beginning of World War I , regarding the news coming from Anatolia and the Siege of Van on 24 May 1915 the Triple Entente warned the Ottoman Empire : Occupation of Constantinople , November 1918 . The Allies did not wait for a peace treaty after the Armistice of Mudros for claiming the Ottoman territory . Just 13 days after the Armistice of Mudros , a French brigade entered Constantinople on November 12 , 1918 . The first British Troops entered the city on November 13 , 1918 . Early in December 1918 , Allied troops occupied sections of Constantinople and set up an Allied military administration . High Commissioner Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough - Calthorpe was assigned as the military adviser to Constantinople . His first task was to arrest between 160 and 200 persons from the Government of Tevfik Pasha on January 1919 . Among this group , he send thirty to Malta ( Malta exiles ) . Calthorpe included only Turkish members of the Government of Tevfik Pasha and the military / political personalities . He wanted to send a message that a military occupation was in effect and failure to comply would end with harsh punishment . His position was not shared with other partners . French Government ' s response on these presumed guilty people was " distinction to disadvantage of Muslim - Turks while Bulgarian , Austrian and German offenders were as yet not arrested . On February 1919 , the allies were informed that the Ottoman Empire was in compliance with its full apparatus to the occupation forces . Any source of conflict ( including Armenian questions ) would be investigated by a commission which neutral Governments can attach two legal superintendents . Calthorpe ' s correspondence to the British Foreign Office was " The action undertaken for the arrests was very satisfactory , and has , I think , intimidated the Committee of Union and Progress of Constantinople " . Court martial . Establishment , April 28 , 1919 . The message of Calthorpe on Military administration fully noted by the Sultan . There was an eastern tradition of presenting gifts to the authority during the serious conflicts ; sometimes " falling of heads " . There was no higher goal than preserving the integrity of the Ottoman Institution . If the anger of Calthorpe could be calmed down by the foisting the blame on a few members of the Committee of Union and Progress , which Ottoman Empire could thereby receive more lenient treatment at the Paris peace conference ; that could be achieved . The local court - martial were establishing while the Paris Peace Conference , 1919 with " The Commission on Responsibilities and Sanctions " added several articles to the treaty demanding the acting government of the Ottoman Empire , Sultan Mehmed VI and Damat Ferid Pasha , should be summoned to trial . Structure . After the people summoned to trial in an inquiry commission , invested with extraordinary powers of subpoena , arrest , et cetera , which the Ottoman ' s called the " Mazhar Inquiry Commission " was established . This organization secured Ottoman documents from many provinces of Ottoman Empire . Legal Issues . The tribunals were held under occupation , thus the judges were under the scrutiny of the occupying forces . Due process did not exist , and there were gross absences of legal rights ; defenders and lawyers feared for their life . The Ottoman penal code did not acknowledge the right of cross - examination . Some Western authors claimed that these were matters of local jurisprudence and the verdicts had to be trusted . However , the validity of the evidence presented in these testimonials has been questioned owing to a lack of defendant rights . Historians familiar with Ottoman jurisprudence do not hold the process of these trials in a positive light . The decision was taken by evidence submitted during the preparatory phase , the trial , and how the defender present his defense . During the trials , none of the presented evidence was verified . The validity of the evidences presented , such as letters and orders have been in study . Some of them had proven to be forgeries . In some cases hearsay was an issue as direct evidence has never been presented ( one direct evidence regarding Talat Pasha was claimed to be a forgery ( the signature , the code / number of the document , and the missing stamp ) . During the trials , testimonies were not subjected to cross - examination , or some of the materials were presented as " anonymous court material " ( i . e . , not sponsored by a witness , who has sworn or solemnly affirmed to tell the truth ) . When the international trials were staged , the High Commissioner at Constantinople , Calthorpe , was replaced by John de Robeck , the Commander - in - Chief , Mediterranean , who said " that its findings cannot be held of any account at all . " Aftermath . The article which were proposed to be added at the Paris Peace Conference , 1919 under " The Commission on Responsibilities and Sanctions " demanding the acting government of the Ottoman Empire , Sultan Mehmed VI and Damat Ferid Pasha , should be summoned to trial , was not included in the Treaty of Sèvres . Interestingly , Damat Ferid Pasha was one of the four signatories . Malta Tribunals are the much publicized otherwise planned but not executed " international " trials of the Malta exiles . Under the pretext of " international trials " administrators and intellectuals of the Ottoman Empire were sent into exile on Malta after the armistice of Mudros during the Occupation of İstanbul by the Allied forces . All the Turkish officials held in a prison in Malta were acquitted by a British court and released . The Ottoman military tribunal and subsequent international trials , which the British dismissed , exonerated those the Armenian Revolutionary Federation perceived as the masterminds behind the Great Calamity . At the Armenian Revolutionary Federation ' s 9th General Congress , which convened in Yerevan from September 27 to the end of October 1919 , the issue of retribution against those responsible was on the agenda . A task force , led by Shahan Natalie , working with Grigor Merjanov , was established to assassinate Talaat Pasha , Pipit Jivanshir Khan , Said Halim Pasha , Behaeddin Shakir Bey , Jemal Azmi , Cemal Pasha , Enver Pasha , as well as several Armenians , called " traitors " , in an operation with the code name " Operation Nemesis " . There is a controversy about the translations into Western language ( mostly English and German ) of the verdicts and accounts published in newspapers . Gilles Veinstein , professor of Ottoman and Turkish history at Collège de France estimates that the translation made by former Armenian documentalist Haigazn Kazarian is " highly tendentious , in several locations " . Turkish historians Erman Sahin and Ferudun Ata accuse Taner Akçam of mistranslations and inaccurate summarizes , including the rewriting of important sentences and the addition of things not included in the original version . Taner Akçam did not respond .