Ahmet Cemal Pasha was
born in Midilli, on 6 May 1872. He finished the Military College, in 1890 and The Academy
of War, in 1893. He joined the army with staff captain rank.
Cemal Pasha was assigned to the Second Army Corps,
in 1896. Two years later, he became the staff commander of Novice Division, in Salonica.
There he joined to the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). He organised the military
wing of the committee.
It was in 1905, when Cemal became a major and
designated as the Inspector of Roumelia Railways. During this duty, he highly dealt with
the committee’s propaganda. He designed the units of CUP, called as “company.” He
became a member of Board of the Third Army Corps, in 1907. Here, he worked with Major
Fethi (Okyar) and Mustafa Kemal.
With the Revolution of CUP (23 January 1913), Cemal
Pasha became the Commander of Istanbul. When the Europe was divided in two blocks before
the First World War, he supported an alliance with France. He went to France to regulate
an alliance with the French but he failed and sided with Enver and Talat Pashas favouring
the German side.
When the Ottoman Empire entered the First World War,
Cemal Pasha was the Minister of the Marine. Between 1908-1918, Cemal Pasha was one of the
most important administrators of the government. He played a very significant role during
the period of “Government of Three Pashas” (1913-1918). He was one of the designers of
the government’s internal and foreign policies.
With the other leaders of CUP, Cemal Pasha left
Turkey, after the cabinet of Talat Pasha has resigned, in 1-2 November 1918. He first went
to Berlin, then to Munich and Switzerland. Later he went to Russia and to modernise its
army, Afghanistan commissioned him. After the Bolshevik Revolution, he went to Tiflis,
where he and his secretary were assassinated, on 21 July 1922. His body was brought to
Erzurum (eastern Anatolia) and buried there.
