Ohannes Kouyoumdjian

Ohannes Kouyoumdjian
Ohannes Pasha Kouyoumdjian
Born	1852 Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Died	1933 (aged 80–81) Rome, Italy

Ohannes Pasha Kouyoumdjian (1852, Istanbul – 1933, Beirut), known as Ohannes Pasha, Ohannes, Ohannes Kuyumcuyan (Arabic: أوهانس باشا) was a high ranking Ottoman Armenian official, and the last mutasarrif of the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate from 1912 until his resignation in 1915.

Early life

Ohanness was born in Istanbul to Bedros Kouyoumdjian, an Armenian Catholic bureaucrat and a protégé of the Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha, the Grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire. The family name suggests that his forebears were jewelers by occupation. Bedros served as director of Forests and Mines, and was later elected as a member of the state council. He married a Lebanese Maronite, the niece of the manager of the Maronite Church legation in Istanbul, and was a candidate for the governorship of the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate himself.

Career

Ohannes' career started in the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, he was posted in the Ottoman Embassy in Rome where he served as counselor. He worked as a counselor in the Foreign Ministry in Istanbul until appointment as governor (mutasarrif) of Mount Lebanon. Ohannes was chosen to fill the post from among a number of candidates including a senior inspector from the Ministry of Postage and Telegraph, and a senior counselor from the Revenue Department.

He was raised to the rank of vizier and dispatched to the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate for a five-year term, according to the protocol of December 23, 1912, and the imperial decree of December 23, 1912. His appointment Firman included amendments to the Organic Statute, the most important of which were not limiting the election of members of the administrative council to elders, the participation of the people in this election through delegates, and the approval of plans for the construction of three new ports in Lebanon (in Jounieh, Nabi Younis, and Chekka).

Resignation

Kouyoumdjian and his family

Ohannes was the eighth and the last Christian mutasarrif of Mount Lebanon. He abdicated in June 1915, because he refused to work under Djemal Pasha, the Turkish military leader and then Prime Minister, who harbored anti-Armenian sentiments.

In his memoirs, Ohannes wrote that Djemal made his tenure as mutasarrif untenable. Djemal however refused his resignation, and ordered Ohannes to renew the administrative council of the mutasarrifate, and to ensure that members sympathizing or supporting the Allied Powers be replaced with appointees who would be "elected" with his approval. This meant the de facto abrogation of autonomous of Mount Lebanon. Ohannes attempted to resist by tendering his resignation, which was initially ignored and then accepted. On 11 July 1915, the Ottoman government formally annulled the mutasarrifate governorship protocols. Thereafter, the Interior Ministry appointed Turkish, non-Christian governors of Mount Lebanon.

Character

Ohanness was described as a fair governor and reformer.

References

• Akarli, Engin Deniz (1993). "The Long Peace: Ottoman Lebanon, 1861–1920". publishing.cdlib.org. Berkeley: University of California Press. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
• Jeha, Shafik; Othman, Bahij; El-Baalbaki, Munir (2020). "المتصرفون وأعمالهم: يوسف فرانكو باشا وأوهانس قيومجيان باشا" [The mutasarrifs and their work: Yusuf Franco Pasha and Ohannes Kouyoumdjian Pasha]. المصور في التاريخ - لبنان والعالم في القرنين الثامن عشر والتاسع عشر [History in pictures - Lebanon and the world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries] (in Arabic). Vol. 7. Beirut: Dar el-Ilm Lil Malayin. ISBN 9789953636092.
• Kouyoumdjian, Ohannes Pacha (2003), Le Liban à la veille et au début de la Guerre : Mémoires d'un Gouverneur 1913-1915 [Lebanon on the Eve and Beginning of the War: Memoirs of a Governor 1913-1915] (in French), Paris{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)