| Mehmed Reshid | |
|---|---|
| Governor of Diyarbekir | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 25 March 1915 |
|
| Preceded by | Hamid Bey |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 8 February 1873 Russian Empire |
| Died | 6 February 1919 (aged 45) |
| Political party | Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) |
| Alma mater | Constantinople Military School of Medicine |
| Profession | Doctor |
Dr. Mehmed Reshid (Turkish: Mehmed Reşit Şahingiray; b. 8 February 1873 - 6 February 1919)[1] was the governor (vali) 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]
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Reshid was born to a Circassian family in Russian Caucasia and migrated to Constantinople 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 (CUP). Over the years he was increasingly radicalized and by 1914 he was convinced that Christians were to blame for the empire’s economic woes.[1]
He orchestrated the murders of Armenians and Assyrians in Diyarbekir Vilayet after his accession to the governorship on March 25, 1915. Reshid was convinced that the native Armenian population of Diyarbekir was conspiring against the Ottoman state and drew up plans for the "solution of the Armenian question."[3] Over the next two months wholesale massacres were launched against the Armenians and Syrians of the province. According to the Venezuelan officer and mercenary Rafael de Nogales, who visited the region in June 1915, Reshid had recently received a three-worded telegram from Ottoman Interior Minister Talat Pasha to "Burn-Destroy-Kill," an order which has been cited as official government approval of his persecution of the Christian population.[4] He is said to have burned 800 Syriac Christian children alive by himself after enclosing them in a building.[5]
When asked by the CUP leader Mithat Şukru Bleda how he, as a doctor, had had the heart to kill so many people he replied:
Being a doctor could not cause me to forget my nationality! Reshid is a doctor. But he was born as a Turk....Either the Armenians were to eliminate the Turks, or the Turks were to eliminate the Armenians. I did not hesitate when I was confronted with this dilemma. My Turkishness prevailed over my profession. I figured, instead of wiping us out, we will wipe them out....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?[6]
After the end of the war, Reshid was arrested and imprisoned in Constantinople. He managed to escape, but when government authorities cornered him he took his own life.[7]