Prime Minister Celal Bayar Preceded by Mehmet Cemil Uybadın Preceded by İsmet İnönü Succeeded by Refik Saydam | Prime Minister İsmet İnönü Prime Minister Ali Fethi Okyar Prime Minister Ismet Inönü | |
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Died 10 January 1959, Istanbul, Turkey Education Galatasaray High School, University of Paris Similar Tevfik Rüştü Aras, Recep Peker, Hasan Saka, Şükrü Saracoğlu | ||
Şükrü Kaya (1883 – January 10, 1959) 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 also considered to be one of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide.
Biography
Born on İstanköy (Kos), part of the Dodecanese in the then Ottoman Empire, 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.
At the start of World War I, Şükrü was appointed the Director of the Settlement of Tribes and Migrants. The Director of the Settlement of Tribes and Migrants was 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.
As 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 İzmir (also known as Smyrna).
He worked as a teacher in Buca Sultanisi (high school). After the Armistice of Mudros, he worked for the Turkish national movement. Following the occupation of Istanbul by The Entente powers, he was arrested by the British administration and was exiled to Malta. He escaped to the continent from Malta and subsequently went to Anatolia and joined the Turkish War of Independence.
Şükrü Kaya served as Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Interior Minister in several cabinets between 1924 and 1938.
He died on January 10, 1959, in İstanbul.