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The Curious Case of Ali Cenani Bey

Umit Kurt focuses on the CUP leadership in Aintap and its role in the confiscation of property and deportation of Armenians.  Approximately, 250 were involved in the process of deporting 32,000 Armenians, with approximately twelve thousand survivors.  At the end of the war, the British sent perpetrators to Egypt and eventually Malta for trials.  Yet, as Kurt explains, there were perpetrators who took money and resources from Armenians to provide forms of protection.  In the postwar years, these leaders had sufficient funds to become leaders in local business enterprises in the Turkish Republic.  The leader of the CUP in Aintap during the genocide was Cenani Ali.  After his time in Malta, he returned to Aintap and was elected to the new republican government.  He became a minister for the republic, but increasing debt and suspicions of his business  activities led to his removal from office and he died deeply in debt.  




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