Details on the Turkish origin of new UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson have caused great interest. In light of this, Armenian News-NEWS.am presents below some important chapters from the biography of Johnson’s grandfather, Ali Kemal (1867-1922), in terms of the Armenian issue.

Ali Kemal was a well-known Turkish journalist and politician, the last Minister of the Interior of the Ottoman Empire, and he was known for his abhorrence against the Young Turks.

In 1882, Ali Kemal—whose real name was Ali Rıza—was enrolled in the School of Diplomats and Political Scientists, and in 1887, he left for France to study.

Ali Kemal has issued the decision to arrest the organizers of the Armenian Genocide.

In 1903, he married an Englishwoman in London.

After the Young Turks’ revolution, he returned to Istanbul and stood out for his articles criticizing them.

At the end of World War I, the Young Turks left Turkey and Ali Kemal became the Minister of the Interior. It was during his tenure in this capacity that the Turkish officials who were involved in organizing the Armenian Genocide were arrested.

In a 1919 issue of the Sabah newspaper, Ali Kemal wrote as follows in connection with the Armenian Genocide: “Four or five years ago a historically singular crime has been perpetrated, a crime before which the world shudders. Given its dimensions and standards, its authors do not number in the fives, or tens, but in the hundreds of thousands. In fact, it has already been demonstrated that this tragedy was planned on the basis of a decision reached by the Central Committee of Ittihad.”

After the triumph of Atatürk’s movement, Ali Kemal was arrested in Istanbul, and he was lynched on the street by the soldiers of Nureddin Pasha and the mobs of the street.

Ali Kemal was called a “traitor” by the Turks for his hostile attitude towards Atatürk and the Young Turks and for his initiative to punish the organizers of the Armenian Genocide, and he was called by an Armenian name: Artin Kemal.