Cherkes Ahmet

Cherkes Ahmet (died September 6, 1915) was the leader of Ottoman Turkey's state-sponsored paramilitary marauders of supposedly Circassian origin during World War I. Cherkes Ahmet was from Serres, Macedonia.[1] He was notoriously responsible for the murder of the well-known Armenian writer, literary critic and politician Krikor Zohrab and politician Vartkes Serengülian during the Armenian Genocide.[1][2] Ahmet supported the Committee of Union and Progress (CHP) during the coup d' etat of January 1913 following which he became a leading member of the Special Organization in Van,[3] where he was given the responsibility of subduing the Armenian population by Cevdet Bey, the Governor of Van at the time.[4] Ahmet, along with fellow murderers Halil and Nazim, were tried and executed in Damascus by Djemal Pasha in September 1915. The assassinations became the subject of a 1916 investigation by the Ottoman Parliament led by Artin Boshgezenian, the deputy for Aleppo.[5]