Abdülhalik Renda

Mustafa Abdülhalik Renda (29 November 1881 – 1 October 1957) was a Turkish civil servant and politician of Tosk Albanian descent who was acting President of Turkey for one day after Atatürk's death in November 1938. He is infamously known for his role in the Armenian genocide.

Mustafa Abdülhalik Renda
Renda was a close co-worker of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
President of Turkey
Acting
In office
10 November 1938 – 11 November 1938
Prime MinisterCelâl Bayar
Preceded byMustafa Kemal Atatürk
Succeeded byİsmet İnönü
Speaker of the Grand National Assembly
In office
1 March 1935 – 5 August 1946
Preceded byKazım Özalp
Succeeded byKazım Karabekir
Minister of Finance of Turkey
In office
25 December 1930 – 3 February 1934
Preceded byŞükrü Saraçoğlu
Succeeded byFuat Ağralı
In office
3 July 1926 – 1 November 1927
Preceded byHasan Saka
Succeeded byŞükrü Saracoğlu
In office
22 November 1924 – 3 March 1925
Preceded byRecep Peker
Succeeded byHasan Saka
In office
2 January 1924 – 21 May 1924
Preceded byHasan Fehmi Ataç
Succeeded byRecep Peker
Minister of National Defense of Turkey
In office
1 November 1927 – 25 December 1930
Preceded byRecep Peker
Succeeded byZekai Apaydın
Personal details
Born(1881-11-29)29 November 1881
Yanya, Janina Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died1 October 1957(1957-10-01) (aged 75)
Erenköy, Istanbul, Turkey
Cause of deathHeart attack
Signature

Biography

Renda was born in Yanya, in the Janina Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. Renda was of Albanian origin.[1] From 1902 to 1918, he served in several towns and cities of the Ottoman Empire as district governor and province governor. In 1918, he was exiled for six months to Malta. Following his return, he was appointed undersecretary in the Ministry of Economy and then in the Ministry of Interior. He became Governor of Konya, before he was appointed the first Governor of İzmir after the Turkish forces re-captured the city from withdrawing Greek troops. During Renda's tenure as İzmir governor, politician Rıza Nur accused him on grounds of compatriot solidarity of encouraging Albanians (refugees and immigrants) to resettle from other Anatolian regions to İzmir, claims that Renda denied.[2]

From 1923 on, he was Deputy of Sivas for five consecutive terms. Mustafa Abdülhalik served as Minister of Finance and Minister of Defence in several cabinets from 1923 to 1935, and later from 1946 to 1948. After the Surname Law of 1934, which required all Turkish citizens to adopt a surname, he took on the surname "Renda". He was elected Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on 1 March 1935, and served until 5 August 1946. During the early one-party period he emphasized on the need to Turkify the Kurds in the eastern provinces of Turkey.[3]

Abdülhalik Renda died of a heart attack on 1 October 1957 in Erenköy, Istanbul. He was laid to rest at the Cebeci Asri Cemetery in Ankara.[4]

Armenian genocide

During the Armenian genocide Abdülhalik Renda was responsible for the deportations and murder of the Armenians of Bitlis Vilayet.[5][6][7][8][9] He also organized the defense in the western mountain range against the Russian offensive in 1914, but to no avail, the Russians captured Saray as well as Başkale.[10] In 1916, Renda became governor of Aleppo where he was instrumental in the deportations of Armenians to their deaths in Der Zor.[6][8] Rossler, the German consul on Aleppo, was quoted as saying that Renda was "working with great energy for the destruction of Armenians".[8][11][12] General Vehip Pasha, commander of the Third Army, mentioned that Renda in his testimony to the Mazhar Commission, claimed that he burned thousands of people alive in the province of Mush.[12][13]

References
  1. Gingeras 2009, pp. 171. "(Renda). Bureaucrat of Albanian descent."
  2. Gingeras, Ryan (2009). Sorrowful Shores: Violence, Ethnicity, and the End of the Ottoman Empire 1912-1923. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 160. ISBN 9780199561520.
  3. Üngör, Ugur Ümit (1 March 2012). The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950. OUP Oxford. p. 185. ISBN 978-0-19-164076-6.
  4. "TBMM Eski Başkanlarından Renda'nın Mezarı Yeniden Düzenlendi" (in Turkish). Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi-Meclis Haber. 28 February 2006. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
  5. Ungor, Ugur (2011). Confiscation and Destruction: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Property. Continuum International Publishing. p. 7. ISBN 978-1441130556. Whereas some moderate governors, such as Celal Bey in Konya, Hasan Mazhar Bey in Ankara and Rahmi Bey in İzmir/Smyrna, delayed and obstructed the destruction, others – including Mustafa Abdülhalik Renda in Bitlis, Cemal Azmi Bey in Trabzon, and Dr Mehmed Reshid in Diyarbekir – accelerated and intensified it.
  6. Acemoglu, Murat (27 January 2001). "Prof. Mete Tuncay's Honest Assessment of the Armenian Genocide Exposes Prof. Halil Berktay's Weaknesses and Shortcomings". Armenian Reporter. p. 3. At various times, Ministry of Finance and President of National Assembly of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Abdulhalik Renda, Talat's brother-in-law was Governor of Bitlis when he committed hormones crimes against the Armenians, such as burning thousands of them alive, especially the Armenians of Mush and the Mush valley. He repeated these crimes again as governor in Aleppo in 1916.
  7. "Chronology of the Armenian Genocide -- 1915 (April-June)". Armenian National Institute.
  8. Akcam, Taner (2005). From empire to republic : Turkish nationalism and the Armenian genocide (2. impr. ed.). London: Zed Books. pp. 239–40. ISBN 1842775278.
  9. Gerwarth, Robert; Horne, John, eds. (2013). War in peace: paramilitary violence in Europe after the Great War. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0199686056.
  10. Kaiser, Hilmar (2019). Kieser, Hans-Lukas Dieser; Anderson, Margaret Lavinia; Bayraktar, Seyhan; Schmutz, Thomas (eds.). The End of the Ottomans: The Genocide of 1915 and the Politics of Turkish Nationalism. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-1-78831-241-7.
  11. A.A. Turkei 183, vol. 41, A4215, 9 February 1916
  12. Akcam, Taner (2007). A shameful act: the Armenian genocide and the question of Turkish responsibility (1st Holt pbk. ed.). New York, NY: Metropolitan Books/Holt. p. 363. ISBN 9780805086652.
  13. A.A. Turkei 158, vol. 48, A34435 October 1917
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