- Mehmed Reshid
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Dr. Mehmed Reshid (born 8 February 1873 - 1919)[1] was the governor of the Diyarbakır vilayet of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. He is known for his role in the Armenian Genocide and the Assyrian Genocide.[2]
He was born to a Circassian family in Russian Caucasia and migrated to Istanbul with his family in 1874, where he enrolled in the Military School of Medicine and was one of the founders of the Committee of Union and Progress. Over the years he was increasingly radicalised and by 1914 he was convinced that Christians were to blame for the empire’s depressed economy.[1]
He orchestrated the murders of Armenians and Assyrians in Diyarbekir Vilayet after his ascend to governorship. He have reportedly burned 800 Syric Christian children alive by himself after enclosing them in a building.[3]
When asked by the CUP leader Mithat Sukru Bleda how he as a doctor had had the heart to kill so many people he replied:[4]
“ On the question how I, as a doctor, could have murdered, I can answer as follows: the Armenians had become hazardous microbes in the body of this country. Well, isn’t it a doctor’s duty to kill microbes? ” —Salâhattin Güngör, “Bir Canlı Tarih Konuşuyor,” (part 3) in: Resimli Tarih Mecmuası, vol.4, no.43 (July 1953), pp.2444-5.
See also
References
- ^ a b Üngör 2005, p. 39
- ^ Taner Akçam. A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turki Responsibility, p. 166-67. ISBN 0805079327
- ^ Üngör 2005, p. 74
- ^ Üngör 2005, p. 97
Biblioghraphy
- Üngör, Uğur (2005), CUP Rule in Diyarbekir Province, 1913-1923, http://www.ermenisoykirimi.net/thesis.pdf.
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