Sukru Kaya

Şükrü Kaya was a Turkish civil servant and politician, who served as government minister, Minister of Interior and Minister of Foreign affairs in several governments. He is one of the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide. He was born in Kos, part of the Dodecanese in the then Ottoman Empire, on 9 March 1883. He finished Galatasaray High School before he graduated from Law School in 1908. He did his graduate work in Paris, France. He worked as inspector of treasury for the Empire. ¹ At the start of World War I, Şükrü was appointed the Director of Settlement of Tribes and Migrants, and mainly tasked with managing the Armenian deportations during the Armenian genocide. In September 1915, he was transferred to Aleppo, an important location along the deportation route into the Syrian desert. While the Armenian Genocide was underway, Şükrü was tasked to administrate the concentration camps of Armenian deportees located in Syria. In order to manage the large influx of Armenians into the area, Şükrü started a policy that enforced a certain ratio of Armenians to be left untouched. However, once the Armenians exceeded this ratio, they were evacuated from their camps and subsequently massacred. On 19 December 1915, Şükrü is noted to have said to German engineer Bastendorff the following: "The final solution is the termination of the Armenian race. Clashes that have continued between Armenians and Muslims all along have now reached their final stage. The weaker side will be destroyed." He was then assigned to Iraq but he resigned and moved to Izmir. He worked as a teacher in Buca Sultanisi (high school). After the Armistice of Mudros, he worked for the Turkish national movement. ¹ He was elected as a member of parliament from Izmir in the first term of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. He served as the Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Interior in various cabinets. He was also the mayor and governor of Izmir. He was one of the signatories of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. He was a close associate of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey. ¹ He died of a heart attack in Istanbul on 10 January 1959. He was buried in Zincirlikuyu Cemetery. ¹