Ali Cenani

He was born into the Ottoman bureaucratic family of the Cenanizade, of which Grand Vizier Kadri Pasha was also part of.[1] After having graduated from high school, he studied finance and economy.[1]

He settled into Antep (today Gaziantep) in 1891 and was elected into the Ottoman Parliament in 1908, representing Aleppo.[2] The same year he was elected the head of the Antep branch of the Committee for Union and Progress (CUP), the teacher Taşçızâde Abdullah Effendi became the Vice-President.[3] He was re-elected for a second term.[2] As the leader of the CUP in Antep, he was involved in the deportations of the Armenian population during World War I.[4] Even though Cenani played a leading role in the deportations of Armenians, he was tolerant to requests of exemptions of deportation of some wealthy Armenians, which caused a complaint by Ahmet Faik Erner, the Kaymakam of Antep at the time.[5] In 1915, he focused on the deportations of the elite of the protestant Armenians, of whom he eventually took over many of heir possessions.[6] He was an MP of the Ottoman Parliament until on the 16 March 1916, Constantinople was occupied by the British army.[2] During the Turkish War of Independence, he organized the resistance in the region around Antep in 1918.[7] He reportedly received weapons for this means on the orders of Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk).[8] The British managed to get hold of Cenani in Constantinople on the 24 May 1920 and sent to Malta in November 1920.[9] He and Ahmet Faik Erner, were accused of having been involved in the deportation of about 25'000 Armenians from Antep.[9] Upon his return from Malta, he joined the Kemalist faction and became a member of the Grand National Assembly for Antep.[10] He later became a Minister of Commerce between 22 November 1924 and the 17 May 1926,[11] and served in both, the Governments of Fethi Okyar and also Ismet Inönü.[10] In 1928 he was investigated for misspending 500'000 TL and sentenced to one year in prison and to pay a fine of 170'000 TL.[12] He died in 1934.