132-633: The Istanbul trials of 1919–1920 (Turkish: Âliye Divan-ı Harb-i Örfi ) were courts-martial of the Ottoman Empire that occurred soon after the Armistice of Mudros , in the aftermath of World War I . The government of Tevfik Pasha decided, without waiting for an international court, to prosecute crimes of Ottoman officials, committed primarily against the Armenian population, in national courts. On 23 November 1918, Sultan Mehmed VI created
264-477: A State of Defense (Verteidigungsfall) or against soldiers abroad or at sea. The existence of military courts, naval courts and air courts is provided for in the Constitution of Greece, which in article 96 paragraph 4 states that: "Special laws define: a. Those related to military courts, naval courts and air courts, to the jurisdiction of which private individuals cannot be subject". The first chapter of
396-642: A "reverse exoticism" for the Greek Macedonia as Vietnamese soldiers serving in the tirailleurs indochinois celebrated their traditional Vietnamese holidays, which provided unusual spectacles in the Balkans. The troops of the 10th (Irish) Division of the British Army had very a "live and let live" attitude towards their Bulgarian enemies, and refrained from trench raids, only shelled each other's trenches at specific times to avoid too inconvenience to
528-604: A constitutional monarchy, Bulgaria depended on the consent of its people to keep fighting while stress and discontent with the war grew. An unintentional result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which ended the war with Russia and the Treaty of Bucharest which ended the war with Romania was to undermine morale in the Austrian Imperial and Royal Army. Besides for the peace treaties, Serbia had been defeated in 1915 and Italy had been almost defeated in 1917, meaning that most of
660-473: A court martial during WWI, which he receives at the end of the story for disobeying orders and cowardice in the face of the enemy. Several courts-martial occur in the British naval TV series Warship , including notably that of Lieutenant Palfrey, a Royal Marines officer accused of killing a foreign officer during a military exercise, and that of Fleet Air Arm pilot Edward Glenn, brother of Alan Glenn, one
792-625: A court martial. Courts martial are provided for in the Constitution of Ireland , which states in Article 38.4.1 that: "Military tribunals may be established for the trial of offences against military law alleged to have been committed by persons while subject to military law and also to deal with a state of war or armed rebellion." There are three classes of courts martial in the Irish Defence Forces: Outside of
924-488: A crisis in Greece. Though the royalist government ordered its troops in the area (the demobilized IV Corps ) not to resist and to retreat to the port of Kavala for evacuation, naval vessels did not turn up to permit the evacuation to take place. Despite occasional local resistance from a few officers and their nucleus units, most of the troops, including their commander, surrendered to a token German force and were interned for
1056-873: A direct threat to the Ottoman capital of Constantinople . Sultan Mehmed VI appointed Ahmed Izzet Pasha to the position of Grand Vizier and tasked him with the assignment of seeking an armistice with the Allied Powers and ending Ottoman involvement in the war. On 30 October 1918, an armistice was signed between the Ottomans, represented by the Minister of the Navy Rauf Orbay , and the Allies, represented by British Admiral Sir Somerset Gough-Calthorpe . The armistice essentially ended Ottoman participation in
1188-548: A full Serbian retreat, southwards and westwards through Montenegro and into Albania . The Serbs faced great difficulties: terrible weather, poor roads and the need for the army to help the tens of thousands of civilians who retreated with them. Only c. 125,000 Serbian soldiers reached the Adriatic coast and embarked on Italian transport ships that carried the army to Corfu and other Greek islands before it travelled on to Thessaloniki. Marshal Putnik had to be carried around during
1320-640: A government commission of inquiry, and Hasan Mazhar Bey was appointed chairman. The formation of a military tribunal investigating the crimes of the Young Turks was a continuation of the work of the Mazhar commission, and on 16 December 1918, the Sultan officially established such tribunals. Three military tribunals and ten provincial courts were created. The tribunals came to be known as "Nemrud's court", after Mustafa "Nemrud" Pasha Yamulki . The leadership of
1452-602: A huge fortified camp, earning themselves the mocking nickname "the Gardeners of Salonika". The Serbian army (now under the command of General Petar Bojović ), after rest and refit on Corfu, was transported by the French to the Macedonian front. In the meantime, the political situation in Greece was confusing. Officially, Greece was neutral, but King Constantine I was pro-German, while Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos
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#17327649537721584-550: A multi-colored crowd on the quayside! Caftans, turbans, western suites in the latest style, black robes and scarlet fezzes like poppies" and Thessaloniki was "both wretched and splendid, just like the Orient". Burnet's reaction to Thessaloniki was very typical of the Anglo-French responses to Thessaloniki, a city that did not match expectations of classical Greece and seemed to them to be more Ottoman than Greek. The treatment of
1716-736: A number of units from Algeria, and the Tirailleurs indochinois from Vietnam. Algeria was considered part of France at the time and a significant minority in Algeria were pied noirs as the European settlers were called, and the French did not necessarily consider Algerian units to be colonial units, and it is possible that at least third of the French Armée d' Orient were colonial units. The presence of so many colonial units from Algeria, French West Africa, Madagascar and Indochina led to
1848-543: A progressive loss of Arab lands. In Austria-Hungary, non-German and non-Hungarian parts of the multinational empire grew more openly restive. On the Western Front , intense German spring offensives had not defeated France, and American deployment was increasingly effective, with US forces operating under independent command from June 1918. Though Bulgaria was not at war with the United States, German victory over
1980-674: A series of events that led to the defeat of Germany in November 1918, and which led him to place the operations in the Balkans as one the decisive theaters of the war. The idea that the lands around the Mediterranean Sea were the weak point for the opposing side influenced Churchill's strategy in World War Two, where consistently showed a preference for operations in the Mediterranean area as the supposed weak point in
2112-751: A stable front was established, running from the Albanian Adriatic coast to the Struma River , pitting a multinational Allied force against the Bulgarian army , which was at various times bolstered with smaller units from the other Central Powers . The Macedonian front remained stable, despite local actions, until the Allied offensive in September 1918 resulted in Bulgaria capitulating and
2244-462: A standard court-martial which convenes whenever a ship is lost; this does not presume that the captain is suspected of wrongdoing, but merely that the circumstances surrounding the loss of the ship be made part of the official record. Most military forces maintain a judicial system that tries defendants for breaches of military discipline. Some countries like France have no courts-martial in times of peace and use civilian courts instead. Court-martial
2376-833: A treaty with Germany and on 21 September 1915 Bulgaria began mobilizing for war. After the victory of the Serbian army in the Battle of Kolubara in December 1914, the Serbian front saw a lull until the early autumn of 1915. Under the command of Field Marshal August von Mackensen , the Austro-Hungarian Balkan Army, the German 11th Army and river flotillas on the Danube and the Sava began an offensive on 6 October 1915,
2508-646: A way to put them in trial. However, the war criminals were eventually released without trial and returned to Constantinople in 1921, in exchange for 22 British prisoners of war held by the government in Ankara, including a relative of Lord Curzon. The government in Ankara was opposed to political power of the government in Constantinople. They are often mentioned as the Malta exiles in some sources. According to European Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello
2640-457: A year, from April 1919 through March 1920, although it became clear after just a few months that the tribunal was simply going through the motions. The judges had condemned the first set of defendants (Enver, et al.) when they were safely out of the country, but the Tribunal, despite making a great show of its efforts, had no intention of returning convictions. Admiral Gough-Calthorpe protested to
2772-469: Is hyphenated in US usage, whether used as a noun or verb. However, in British usage, a hyphen is used to distinguish between the noun, "court martial", and the verb, "to court-martial". Usually, a court-martial takes the form of a trial with a presiding judge, a prosecutor and a defense attorney (all trained lawyers as well as officers). The precise format varies from one country to another and may also depend on
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#17327649537722904-532: Is one of the Military Courts of the United Kingdom . The Armed Forces Act 2006 establishes the court martial as a permanent standing court. Previously courts-martial were convened on an ad hoc basis with several traditions, including usage of swords . The court martial may try any offence against service law . The court is made up of a judge advocate, and between three and seven (depending on
3036-723: Is the highest level military court (High Military Court, a special people's court executing the authority of the High People's Court) established by the People's Republic of China within the Chinese People's Liberation Army with jurisdiction over the nation's armed forces (including the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police ), organized as a unit under the dual leadership of the Supreme People's Court and
3168-660: The Armenian question . He proved instrumental in the arrest of a large number of the (later to be) Malta deportees . These fell broadly into three categories: Those still breaching the terms of the armistice, those who had allegedly ill-treated Allied prisoners-of-war and those responsible for excesses against Armenians, in Turkey itself and the Caucasus. Calthorpe asked for a personal interview with Reshid Pasha , Ottoman Minister of Foreign Affairs, to impress on him how Britain viewed
3300-466: The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and selected former officials were charged with several charges including subversion of the constitution , wartime profiteering, and the massacres of both Armenians and Greeks . The court reached a verdict which sentenced the organizers of the massacres – Talat , Enver , and Cemal – and others to death. All those sentenced to death were sent a fatwa from
3432-607: The Danube river and was poised to enter the heartland of Hungary . At the request of the French General, Count Károlyi , leading the Hungarian government, came to Belgrade and signed another armistice, the Armistice of Belgrade . Winston Churchill in his memoirs/history of the First World War, The World Crisis , assigned much importance to the defeat of Bulgaria in September 1918, which he saw as beginning
3564-634: The Eastern Provinces . He defied the government in Constantinople and refused to carry out the arrest. At that time Turkey had two competing governments in Istanbul and Ankara . The government in Istanbul supported the Turkish trials with more or less seriousness depending on the current government. While Ferid Pasha (4 March – 2 October 1919 and again 5 April – 21 October 1920) stood behind
3696-569: The Israeli settlements , the West Bank remains under direct Israeli military rule , and under the jurisdiction of martial law in the form of military courts . The international community maintains that Israel does not have sovereignty in the West Bank, and considers Israel's control of the area to be the longest military occupation in modern history. The military court system for
3828-618: The Netherlands , members of the military are tried by a special military section of the civilian court in Arnhem . This section consists of a military member and two civilian judges. The decision whether or not to prosecute is primarily made by the (civilian) attorney general . Service members of the New Zealand Defence Force are tried under a court martial for offences pertaining to the most serious offences against
3960-607: The Ottoman Empire on 24 May 1915 that: In view of these new crimes of Turkey against humanity and civilization, the Allied Governments announce publicly to the Sublime Porte that they will hold personally responsible for these crimes all members of the Ottoman Government, as well as those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres". In the months leading up to the end of World War I ,
4092-655: The Political and Legal Committee of the Central Military Commission . In Finland, the military has jurisdiction over two types of crimes: those that can be committed only by military personnel and those normal crimes by military persons where both the defendant and the victim are military persons or organizations and the crime has been defined in law as falling under military jurisdiction. The former category includes military offences such as various types of disobedience and absence without leave , while
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4224-871: The Queen's Regulations and Orders as well as the National Defence Act . For members of the United States Armed Forces offenses are covered under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). These offences, as well as their corresponding punishments and instructions on how to conduct a court-martial, are explained in detail based on each country and/or service. In Canada, there is a two-tier military trial system. Summary trials are presided over by superior officers, while more significant matters are heard by courts martial, which are presided over by independent military judges serving under
4356-680: The Salonica front (after Thessaloniki ), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia , in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germany , Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria . The expedition came too late and with insufficient force to prevent the fall of Serbia and was complicated by the internal political crisis in Greece (the National Schism ). Eventually,
4488-853: The Sheikh al-Islam in the name of Mehmed VI before their execution, as the law stipulated that a Muslim couldn't be executed without a fatwa from the Sultan- Caliph . These trials and fatwas also served as means for Mehmed VI to express his disapproval of the accused and legitimize his position, both in relation to his domestic situation with the Muslims in his empire, in the face of the Western powers that emerged victorious in World War I, and to anti–absolutist politicians. Since there were no international laws in place under which they could be tried,
4620-466: The Sublime Porte , took the trials out of Turkish hands, and moved the proceedings to Malta. There an attempt was made to seat an international tribunal, but the Turks bungled the investigations and mishandled the documentary evidence so that nothing of their work could be used by the international court. According to European Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello , 'quite likely the British found
4752-523: The Vardar river alone. This advance gave some limited help to the retreating Serbian army, as the Bulgarians had to concentrate larger forces on their southern flank to deal with the threat, which led to the Battle of Krivolak (October–November 1915). By the end of November, General Sarrail had to retreat in the face of massive Bulgarian assaults on his positions. During his retreat, the British at Kosturino were also forced to retreat. By 12 December, all Allied forces were back in Greece. The Germans ordered
4884-449: The mission civilisatrice ("civilizing mission"), which led for the French Army to embark upon a series of public works projects such as building bridges, improving roads, providing piped water to rural villages, trying to eradicate malaria, and so forth. Such projects were intended primarily to benefit the French Army, but many French officers genuinely believed that helping the local people "come to love France" as one French colonel put it
5016-422: The occupied territories , modeled partially on the British military court system set up in 1937, was established in 1967. Sociology professor Lisa Hajjar argues that Israeli military courts criminalize not only Palestinian violence, but also certain forms of expression deemed to threaten Israeli security. She states the incarceration rate of Palestinians is high compared to other states, and that Palestinians in
5148-399: The "revolutionary" Venizelist " Provisional Government of National Defence " at Thessaloniki. At the same time, the Italians had deployed more forces to Albania, which managed to push the Austrian corps back through very hilly country south of Lake Ostrovo . The Allies treated Salonika very much like a colony. Thessaloniki was more ethically and religiously mixed than today, was viewed by
5280-415: The Allied forces held a defensive line after two weeks. Having halted the Bulgarian offensive, the Allies staged a counter-attack starting on 12 September ( Battle of Kaymakchalan ). The terrain was rough, and the Bulgarians were on the defensive, but the Allied forces made steady gains. Slow advances by the Allies continued throughout October and into November, even as the weather turned cold and snow fell on
5412-426: The Allies could only offer Bulgaria small territorial concessions from Serbia and neutral Greece, the Central Powers' promises appeared far more enticing, offering to cede most of the land Bulgaria claimed . With the Allied defeats at the Battle of Gallipoli (April 1915 to January 1916) and the Russian defeat at Gorlice-Tarnów (May to September 1915) demonstrating the Central Powers' strength, King Ferdinand signed
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5544-423: The Allies established a naval blockade around southern Greece which was still loyal to King Constantine, causing extreme hardship to the people in those areas. Six months later, in June, the Venizelists presented a list of conditions, resulting in the exile of the Greek king (on 14 June, his son Alexander became king) and the reunification of the country under Venizelos. The new government immediately declared war on
5676-469: The Armed Forces Discipline Act 1971. Offences such as mutiny, murder, sexual offences, serious assaults, drug offences, or offences where the maximum punishment exceeds a 7-year prison term will be heard by court martial. Below this 7-year threshold the accused is dealt with by their commanding officer in what is known as a summary trial. During court martial the appointed judge is either a New Zealand High Court or District Court judge and they preside over
5808-410: The Armenian affair and the ill-treatment of POWs as "most important" deserving "the utmost attention". Two days later Calthorpe formally requested the arrest of seven leaders of the CUP. While between 160 and 200 people were arrested, another 60 suspected of participating in the massacre of Armenians remained at large. The courts-martial were established on 28 April 1919 while the Paris Peace Conference
5940-416: The Austrian war aims had already achieved, and from the Austrian point of view, there was no more point in continuing the war. However, the Austrian Empire was very much the junior partner in its alliance with Germany, and under strong German pressure Austria-Hungary had to continue the war, which caused serious morale problems in the Imperial and Royal Army by 1918. Within the Imperial and Royal Army, Germany
6072-482: The British and French soldiers as an exotic "Oriental" city with its winding, cramped streets, domes, churches, synagogues, mosques, and the very striking White Tower that overlooked the city. Thessaloniki had been part of the Ottoman Empire until 1912 when it was won by Greece in the First Balkan War, and in 1915 the city still had a very Ottoman feel to it. Etienne Burnet, a French bacteriologist sent out from Paris to take part in an anti-malaria campaign marveled: "What
6204-432: The Bulgarian army attacked from two directions, one from the north of Bulgaria towards Niš , the other from the south towards Skopje (see map). The Bulgarian army rapidly broke through the weaker Serbian forces that tried to block its advance. With the Bulgarian breakthrough, the Serbian position became hopeless; their main army in the north faced either encirclement and forced surrender or retreat. Marshal Putnik ordered
6336-408: The Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran . The Franco-Serbian army continued advancing vigorously, and the next day, some Bulgarian units started surrendering positions without a fight, and the Bulgarian command ordered a retreat. In the official British government history of the Macedonian campaign, Cyril Falls wrote a detailed analysis of the situation of the Bulgarian forces and the situation of
6468-438: The Bulgarians not to cross the Greek borders, reluctant to risk a Greek entry into the war in response to a Bulgarian invasion in Macedonia. The Allies took advantage of that, reinforcing and consolidating their positions behind the borders. Thus there resulted in a clear, albeit incomplete, victory for the Central Powers. They opened the railway line from Berlin to Constantinople , allowing Germany to prop up its weaker partner,
6600-513: The CUP and long-time rivals of his own Freedom and Accord Party , which would ensure that the Ottoman Empire received a more lenient treatment during the Paris Peace Conference. The trials helped the Freedom and Accord Party root out the CUP from the political arena. On 23 July 1919, during the Erzurum Congress , General Kâzım Karabekir was issued a direct order from the Sultanate to place Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) and Rauf (Orbay) under arrest and assume Kemal's position as Inspector-General of
6732-617: The Central Powers and created a new army. On 30 May 1918, the Allies launched an offensive on the heavily fortified Skra salient, commencing the battle of Skra-di-Legen . The battle marked the first significant Greek action for the Allied side. Utilizing the cover of heavy artillery, a Franco- Hellenic force made a rapid push into the enemy trenches, conquering Skra and the surrounding system of fortifications. Greek casualties amounted to 434–440 killed in action, 154–164 missing in action and 1,974–2,220 wounded, while France lost approximately 150 men killed or injured. A total of 1,782 soldiers of
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#17327649537726864-422: The Central Powers became prisoners of war, including a small number of German engineers and artillery specialists that served in Bulgarian units; considerable amounts of military equipment also fell into Allied hands. The plan for a Bulgarian counteroffensive against Skra remained unfulfilled as Bulgarian soldiers refused to participate in the operation. Both the Greek and the French press used the opportunity to laud
6996-468: The Commission worked in accordance with sections 47, 75 and 87 of the Ottoman Code of Criminal Procedure. It had extensive investigative powers, because it was not only limited to conduct legal proceedings and search for and seize documents, but also to arrest and imprison suspects with assistance from the Criminal Investigation Department, and other State services. In a course of three months, the committee managed to gather 130 documents and files pertaining to
7128-411: The Entente. The Bulgarians had also increased their army during 1917, leading both sides to have roughly equal military power (291 Allied battalions vs. 300 Bulgarian battalions and ten German battalions). However, as 1918 progressed, it was clear that the Entente had the momentum the Central Powers lacked. Russian defeat had yielded no meaningful benefit to the Central Powers. The Ottoman Empire faced
7260-487: The Foreign Office authority to obtain the arrest and handing over of all those responsible for the incessant breaches of the terms of the Armistice and the continued ill-treatment of Armenians. Calthorpe got together a staff of dedicated assistants, including a notable anti-Turkish Irishman, Andrew Ryan , later Sir, who in 1951 published his memoirs. In his new role as the chief Dragoman of the British High Commission and Second Political Officer, he found himself in charge of
7392-481: The General Court Martial (GCM), District Court Martial (DCM), Summary General Court Martial (SGCM) and Summary Court Martial (SCM). According to the Army Act, army courts can try personnel for all kinds of offenses, except for murder and rape of a civilian, which are primarily tried by a civilian court of law. The President of India can use the judicial power under Article 72 of the constitution to pardon, reprieve, respite or remission of punishment or sentence given by
7524-399: The Greek port of Thessaloniki (Salonica) too late to contribute to the operations to help Serbia. The main reason for the delay was the lack of available Allied forces due to the critical situation in the Western Front . The Entente used Greek neutrality as an excuse , although they could have used the Albanian coast to rapidly deploy reinforcements and equipment during the first 14 months of
7656-448: The NZDF, or being sent to military or civilian prison. In Poland, military courts are military garrison courts and military district courts. They are criminal courts with jurisdiction over offences committed by soldiers in active military service, as well as certain offences committed by civilian military personnel and soldiers of the armed forces of foreign countries (Article 647 of the Code of Criminal Procedure ). Garrison courts rule in
7788-400: The Ottoman Empire had undergone major restructuring. In July 1918, Sultan Mehmed V died and was succeeded by his half-brother Mehmed VI . The Ministers of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), including the Three Pashas who ran the Ottoman Government between 1913 and 1918, had resigned from office and fled the country soon afterwards. Successful Allied offensives in Salonika posed
7920-453: The Ottoman Empire. Despite the victory, the Allies managed to save a part of the Serbian army , while although battered, seriously reduced, and almost unarmed, escaped destruction and reorganized, resuming operations six months later. And most damagingly for the Central Powers, the Allies—using the moral excuse of saving the Serbian army—managed to replace the impossible Serbian front with a viable one established in Macedonia (albeit by violating
8052-433: The Ottoman government asked for an armistice (the Armistice of Mudros ) on 26 October; Enver Pasha and his partners had fled several days earlier to Berlin. The Serbo-French army recaptured Serbia and overran several weak German divisions that tried to block its advance near Niš . On 3 November, Austria-Hungary was forced to sign an armistice on the Italian front ending the war there. On 10 November, d'Espèrey's army crossed
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#17327649537728184-402: The Paris Peace Conference. On 11 July 1919, Ferid Pasha officially confessed to massacres against the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and was a key figure and initiator of the war crime trials held directly after World War I to condemn to death the chief perpetrators of the genocide . The Ottoman Government in Constantinople (represented by Ferid Pasha), foisted the blame on a few members of
8316-410: The Rules for Courts-Martial, Military Rules of Evidence, and other guidance. There are three types: Special, Summary, and General. In Herman Melville 's novella Billy Budd (first published 1924), the title character is convicted at a drumhead court-martial of striking and killing his superior officer on board HMS Indomitable , is sentenced to death, and is hanged. The novella has been adapted for
8448-411: The Serbian flank, and its intervention on either side of the belligerents would be decisive. Bulgaria and Serbia had fought each other twice in the previous thirty years: in the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885 and the Second Balkan War of 1913. Bulgaria had suffered defeat in 1913, and the Bulgarian government and people generally felt that Serbia had seized land which rightfully belonged to Bulgaria. While
8580-509: The Turkish courts-martial were transferred from Constantinople prisons to the Crown Colony of Malta on board of the SS Princess Ena and the SS HMS Benbow by the British forces, starting in 1919. Admiral Sir Somerset Gough-Calthorpe was in charge of the operation, together with Lord Curzon ; they did so owing to the lack of transparency of the Turkish courts-martial. They were held there for three years, while searches were made of archives in Constantinople, London, Paris and Washington to find
8712-408: The U.S. military for violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), which is the U.S. military's criminal code. However, they can also be convened for other purposes, including military tribunals and the enforcement of martial law in an occupied territory . Courts-martial are governed by the rules of procedure and evidence laid out in the Manual for Courts-Martial , which contains
8844-434: The United States appeared conceptually infeasible. Finally, and most importantly for Bulgaria, although almost all of its territorial war aims were already achieved, because World War I was not merely a third Balkan War , Bulgaria could not quit. Alongside its partners, Bulgaria continued to suffer high casualties and civilian privation, including food shortages, seemingly to achieve the unrealized objectives of its allies. As
8976-411: The West Bank are being treated as "foreign civilians". In Indonesia, any criminal offense conducted by military personnel will be held in trial by military court. There are four levels of military jurisdiction: The judges will receive temporary rank the same as the defendant if the rank of the defendant is higher than the judges. In Luxembourg, there are three levels of military jurisdiction: In
9108-437: The above-named crimes declares, unanimously, the culpability as principal factors of these crimes the fugitives Talaat Pasha , former Grand Vizir, Enver Efendi , former War Minister, struck off the register of the Imperial Army, Cemal Efendi , former Navy Minister, struck off too from the Imperial Army, and Dr. Nazim Efendi , former Minister of Education, members of the General Council of the Union & Progress , representing
9240-415: The adjudicatory supervision of the Supreme Court (which, by the way, follows from Article 183(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland ), and the Minister of Justice has superior organizational and administrative supervision. In 2005, ex-AFP Major General Carlos Garcia ( PMA Class of 1971, assigned comptroller of the AFP was court martialled for violating two articles of the Articles of War for
9372-460: The alleged Php 303 million Peso Money Laundering/Plunder and direct Bribery against him. Under the Singapore Armed Forces Act, any commissioned officer is allowed to represent servicemen when they are tried for military offences in the military courts. The cases are heard at the Court-Martial Centre at Kranji Camp II. Some of the courts martial in Singapore include that of Capt. G. R. Wadsworth in 1946 due to use of insubordinate language and, in
9504-523: The archives. Those who deny the Armenian genocide have questioned the translations into Western language (mostly English and German) of the verdicts and accounts published in newspapers. Gilles Veinstein, a professor of Ottoman and Turkish history at Collège de France estimates that the translation made by former Armenian historian Haigazn Kazarian is "highly tendentious, in several locations". Turkish historians Erman Şahin and Ferudun Ata accuse Taner Akçam of mistranslations and inaccurate summaries, including
9636-421: The case to the local district attorney who commences prosecution. The crimes with military jurisdiction are handled by the civilian district court which has a special composition. In military cases, the court consists of a civilian legally trained judge and two military members: an officer and a warrant officer, an NCO or a private soldier. The verdict and the sentence are decided by a majority of votes. However,
9768-686: The city on 13 November 1918. Early in December in 1918, Allied troops occupied sections of Constantinople and set up a military administration. The US Secretary of State Robert Lansing summoned the representatives of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Mehmed VI and Grand Vizier Damat Ferid Pasha (a founding member of the Freedom and Accord Party ). The Paris Peace Conference established "The Commission on Responsibilities and Sanctions" in January 1919. On 2 January 1919, Gough-Calthorpe requested from
9900-616: The coast of the Adriatic Sea into Italian-controlled Albania . By the end of the winter, the small Italian army in Albania had been forced out of nearly the whole country. With the war in the Balkans almost lost, the British General Staff wanted to withdraw all British troops from Greece, but the French government protested strongly, and the troops remained. The Allied armies entrenched around Thessaloniki, which became
10032-586: The condemned individuals and justify his position, both within the context of his domestic affairs concerning the Muslim population within his empire and in response to the Western powers that had emerged victorious in World War I. Abdullah Avni, the commander of the gendarmerie in Erzincan was sentenced to death during the Erzincan trials and hanged on 22 April 1920. Behramzade Nusret, the Kaymakam of Bayburt ,
10164-681: The continental inquisitorial system of penal procedure used in Turkey repugnant to its own paths to criminal justice and doubted the propriety of relying on it'. Or, possibly, the Turkish government never came round to hand over the incriminating documents used by the military courts. Whatever the reason, with the advent of power of Atatürk, all the documents on which the Turkish military courts had based their trials and convictions, were 'lost'. Admiral John de Robeck replaced Admiral Gough-Calthorpe on 5 August 1919 as "Commander in Chief, Mediterranean, and High Commissioner, at Constantinople". In August 1920,
10296-616: The court cannot give a more severe sentence than the learned member supports. The appeals can be made as in civilian trials. If a court of appeals handles a military matter, it will have an officer member with at least a major's rank. The Supreme Court of Finland has, in military cases, two general officers as members. Courts-martial proper are instituted only during a war, by decree of the government. Such courts-martial have jurisdiction over all crimes committed by military persons. In addition, they may handle criminal cases against civilians in areas where ordinary courts have ceased operation, if
10428-473: The defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment. In addition, courts-martial may be used to try prisoners of war for war crimes . The Geneva Conventions require that POWs who are on trial for war crimes be subject to the same procedures as would be the holding military 's own forces. Finally, courts-martial can be convened for other purposes, such as dealing with violations of martial law , and can involve civilian defendants. Most navies have
10560-424: The defendant's own unit. The civilian police has always the right to take the case from the military. If the case does not warrant a punishment greater than a fine or a disciplinary punishment, the punishment is given summarily by the company, battalion or brigade commander, depending on severity of the crime. If the brigade commander feels that the crime warrants a punishment more severe than he can give, he refers
10692-508: The efforts of the Greek army, favourably influencing the Greek mobilization. The fall of Skra prompted Bulgarian prime minister Vasil Radoslavov to resign on 21 June 1918. Aleksandar Malinov , who assumed office immediately afterwards, pursued secret negotiations with Britain, offering to withdraw Bulgaria from the war with the condition that Bulgaria fully retain eastern Macedonia. However, British prime minister David Lloyd George rejected
10824-533: The entire retreat; he died just over a year later in a French hospital. The French and British divisions marched north from Thessaloniki in October 1915 under the joint command of French General Maurice Sarrail and British General Bryan Mahon (Commander, British Salonika Force , 1915). However, the London War Office was reluctant to advance too deep into Serbia. So the French divisions advanced up
10956-529: The event, the lack of Allied support sealed the fate of the Serbian army. Against Serbia, the Central Powers marshalled the Bulgarian Army, a German army , and an Austro-Hungarian army , all under the command of Field Marshal Mackensen . The Germans and Austro-Hungarians began their attack on 7 October with a massive artillery barrage, followed by attacks across the rivers. Then, on 11 October,
11088-532: The first instance, appeals against their decisions and orders are heard by district courts, which also have first-instance jurisdiction in the most serious cases. The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court then acts as the second instance; in addition, cassation appeals against judgments rendered in the second instance are heard in the Criminal Chamber. The military courts are therefore subject to
11220-515: The front. Although a breakthrough was achieved at Dobro Pole and the Allied forces continued their advance, the Bulgarian army was not routed and managed an orderly retreat. By 29 September (a day before Bulgaria exited World War I), Skopje fell, but a Bulgarian and German force had been ordered to try and retake it the next day; the number of Bulgarian prisoners-of-war in allied hands around that day
11352-741: The hills. Though the Germans sent two more divisions to help bolster the Bulgarian army, by 19 November, the French and Serbian armies captured Kaymakchalan , the highest peak of Nidže mountain and compelled the Central powers to abandon Bitola to the Entente; c. 60,000 Bulgarians and Germans were killed, wounded or captured. The Allies suffered c. 50,000 battle casualties while another 80,000 men died or were evacuated due to sickness. The front moved about 25 miles (40 km). The unopposed Bulgarian advance into Greek-held eastern Macedonia precipitated
11484-608: The independent Office of the Chief Military Judge. Appeals are heard by the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada . Capital punishment in Canada was abolished generally in 1976, and for military offences in 1998. Harold Pringle was the last Canadian soldier executed pursuant to a court martial, in 1945, having been convicted of murder. The Military Court of the Chinese People's Liberation Army
11616-622: The largest offensive against Serbia. By September 1915, despite the extreme sacrifice of the Serbian army, the Austro-Hungarian Balkan Army, having crossed the rivers Sava and Drina , and the German 11th army after crossing the Danube, occupied Belgrade , Smederevo , Požarevac and Golubac , creating a vast bridgehead south of the Sava and Danube rivers, and forcing Serbian forces to withdraw to southern Serbia. On 15 October 1915, two Bulgarian armies attacked, over-running Serbian units and penetrating
11748-412: The latter category includes civilian crimes such as murder, assault, theft, fraud and forgery. However, war crimes and sexual crimes are not under military jurisdiction. In crimes where the military has jurisdiction, the military conducts the investigation. In non-trivial cases, this is done by the investigative section of Defence Command or by civilian police, but trivial cases are investigated by
11880-536: The liberation of Serbia. Following the assassination of the Crown Prince by a Bosnian Serb, Austria-Hungary had attacked Serbia in August 1914 but had failed to overcome Serbian resistance. After the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers (November 1914), the decisive factor in the Balkans became the attitude of Bulgaria. Bulgaria occupied a strategically important position on
12012-417: The local women by their menfolk created much disgust as the women were always cloistered away or treated as "beasts of burden". Many of the French soldiers were peasants who were much incensed by the backward state of agriculture in the farms outside of Thessaloniki, which led many French soldiers to complain about the primitive farming methods of Macedonia. The French in particular saw themselves as engaged in
12144-460: The massacres, and had them transferred to the courts-martial. Turkish courts-martial also had some cases of high-ranking Ottoman officials, who were assassinated by agents of the CUP in 1915, for disobeying criminal orders of the central government to deport and eliminate the Armenian civilian population of the Ottoman Empire. On 8 April 1919, Mehmed Kemal , former Kaymakam of Boğazlıyan , Yozgat ,
12276-568: The matter is urgent. Such courts-martial have a learned judge as a president and two military members: an officer and an NCO, warrant officer or a private soldier. The verdicts of a war-time court-martial can be appealed to a court of appeals. The Basic Law (Grundgesetz) (adopted after the Second World War in 1949) establishes in Art. 96 para. 2 that courts-martial can be established by federal law. Such courts-martial would take action in
12408-543: The men who orchestrated the massacres escaped prosecution and traveled relatively freely throughout Germany, Italy, and Central Asia. That led to the Armenian Revolutionary Federation 's launch of Operation Nemesis , a covert operation conducted by Armenians during which Ottoman political and military figures who fled prosecution were assassinated for their role in the Armenian genocide. The Turkish courts-martial were forced to shut down during
12540-657: The modern day, misbehaviour by conscripted servicemen. The governing law in Thailand's military courts is the Military Court Organisation Act 1955 ( Thai : พระราชบัญญัติธรรมนูญศาลทหาร พ.ศ. ๒๔๙๘ ). The act allows the Judge Advocate General of Thailand ( Thai : เจ้ากรมพระธรรมนูญ ) to establish court regulations. In wartime or during the imposition of martial law , military courts may adopt special procedures. The court martial
12672-578: The moral person of that party;... the Court Martial pronounces, in accordance with said stipulations of the Law the death penalty against Talaat, Enver, Cemal, and Dr. Nazim. The courts-martial officially disbanded the CUP and confiscated its assets and the assets of those found guilty. Two of the three Pashas who fled were later assassinated by Armenian vigilantes during Operation Nemesis . Ottoman military members and high-ranking politicians convicted by
12804-628: The next day. Under those chaotic circumstances, a Bulgarian delegation arrived in Thessaloniki to request an armistice. On 29 September, the Bulgarians were granted the Armistice of Salonica by General d'Espèrey, ending their war. The Macedonian front ended at noon on 30 September 1918 when the ceasefire came into effect. The Soldiers' Uprising was finally put down by 2 October. German Emperor Wilhelm II , in his telegram to Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I , stated: "Disgraceful! 62,000 Serbs decided
12936-488: The next episode, although the final execution did not happen despite them being found guilty Macedonian front Army Group Scholtz Allied Army of the Orient Serbian campaign (1914) Serbian campaign (1915) Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation Aegean Albania Greece ( National Schism ) Macedonian front The Macedonian front , also known as
13068-505: The other side and often avoided shooting at the enemy. The mostly Irish troops in their letters to their families back home often described Bulgarians as "Brother Bulgar", and reserved all their hatred for the Germans and the British General Staff, which was they accused of neglecting them. By spring 1917, General Sarrail's Allied Army of the Orient had been reinforced to 24 divisions, six French, six Serbian, seven British, one Italian, three Greek and two Russian brigades . An offensive
13200-650: The play on which it was based ) deals almost entirely with the court martial of two enlisted Marines. In the 2008 to 2014 sci-fiction animated TV show " Star Wars: The Clone Wars 's 2011 fourth season's episode "Plan of Dissent" clone troopers Fives and Jesse, both serving in the Grand Army of the Republic, act against orders from their acting superior in a war situation and in revenge are threatened with court-martial and consequent execution. They found themselves court-martialed and about to be executed by firing squad in
13332-568: The principal characters, charged with a range of offences relating to a dangerous flight manœuvre. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Battle" it was stated that, as the loss of a starship was a court martial offense, Picard was court-martialled for the loss of the Stargazer , zealously prosecuted by Phillipa Louvois. In the end, he was absolved of all charges. The 1992 movie A Few Good Men (and
13464-770: The procedural part of the Military Penal Code (MPC) regulates the matters related to the courts and judicial persons that make up the Military Justice. Specifically in article 167 of the MPC, it is defined that criminal justice in the Army is awarded by the military courts (military courts, air courts, naval courts, review court) and the Supreme Court . There are four kinds of courts-martial in India. These are
13596-457: The proceedings were halted, and Admiral John de Robeck informed London of the futility of continuing the tribunal with the remark: "Its findings cannot be held of any account at all." An investigative committee started by Hasan Mazhar was immediately tasked to gather evidence and testimonies, with a special effort to obtain inquiries on civil servants implicated in massacres committed against Armenians. According to genocide scholar Vahakn Dadrian ,
13728-626: The process of eliminating the evidence, ambassador Birgi stated in reference to the Armenians: "We really slaughtered them." Others, such as Tony Greenwood, the Director of the American Research Institute in Turkey, confirmed that a select group of retired military personnel were "going through" the archives. However, it was noted by a certain Turkish scholar that the examination was merely an effort to purge documents found in
13860-697: The proposal, assuring the Greek ambassador in London Ioannis Gennadius that Britain would not act against Greek interests. With the German spring offensive threatening France, Guillaumat was recalled to Paris and replaced by General Franchet d'Espèrey . Although d'Espèrey urged an attack on the Bulgarian army, the French government refused to allow an offensive unless all the countries agreed. General Guillaumat, no longer needed in France, travelled from London to Rome , trying to win approval for an attack. Finally, in September 1918, an agreement
13992-514: The prosecuting body, the government of Ali Riza Pasha (2 October 1919 – 2 March 1920) barely made a mention of the legal proceedings against the war criminals. The trials had also blurred the crime of participation in the Turkish National Movement with the crime of the Armenian genocide , and ultimately resulted in increasing support for the government in Ankara that would be led later on by Atatürk. The court sat for nearly
14124-497: The release of the Turkish detainees was accomplished in exchange for 22 British prisoners held by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. At the Armenian Revolutionary Federation 's 9th General Congress, which convened in Yerevan from 27 September, to the end of October 1919, the issue of retribution against those personally responsible for organizing the genocide was on the agenda. A task force, led by Shahan Natalie , working with Grigor Merjanov,
14256-503: The remainder of the war at Görlitz , Germany. The surrender of territory recently won with difficulty in the Second Balkan War of 1913 was the last straw for many Venizelist army officers. With Allied assistance, they launched a coup which secured Thessaloniki and most of Greek Macedonia for Venizelos. From that point, Greece had two governments: the "official" royal government at Athens, which maintained Greek neutrality, and
14388-564: The resurgence of the Turkish National Movement under Mustafa Kemal . Those who remained serving their sentences were ultimately pardoned under the newly-established Kemalist government on 31 March 1923. Following the reportage by US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau, Sr. of the Armenian resistance during the Armenian genocide at the city of Van , the Triple Entente formally warned
14520-417: The rewriting of important sentences and the addition of things not included in the original version. Courts-martial A court-martial (plural courts-martial or courts martial , as "martial" is a postpositive adjective ) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law , and, if
14652-422: The seriousness of the offence) officers and warrant officers. Rulings on matters of law are made by the judge advocate alone, whilst decisions on the facts are made by a majority of the members of the court, not including the judge advocate, and decisions on sentence by a majority of the court, this time including the judge advocate. Most commonly, courts-martial in the United States are convened to try members of
14784-616: The severity of the accusation. Courts-martial have the authority to try a wide range of military offences, many of which closely resemble civilian crimes like fraud, theft or perjury. Others, like cowardice, desertion, and insubordination, are purely military crimes. Military offences are defined in the Armed Forces Act 2006 for members of the British Military. Regulations for the Canadian Forces are found in
14916-431: The situation for Serbia became desperate. The developments finally forced the French and the British to decide upon sending a small expedition force of two divisions from Gallipoli ( 156th Infantry Division (France) and 10th (Irish) Division respectively). Though the first troops landed in the port of Salonika on 5 October to combine into an Army of the Orient under the French commander Maurice Sarrail , they arrived in
15048-561: The stage, film and television; notably in Benjamin Britten 's 1951 opera Billy Budd . In C.S. Forester 's 1938 novel Flying Colours , Captain Horatio Hornblower is court-martialled for the loss of HMS Sutherland . He is "most honourably acquitted". In Michael Morpurgo 's novel Private Peaceful , the main character of "Tommo" reflects on the childhoods of himself and his brother, Charlie as Charlie awaits
15180-465: The suspension of prosecutions, the repatriation and release of Turkish detainees was amongst others a result of the lack of an appropriate legal framework with supranational jurisdiction , because following World War I no international norms for regulating war crimes existed, due to a legal vacuum in international law; therefore contrary to Turkish sources, no trials were ever held in Malta. He mentions that
15312-527: The territory of an officially neutral country); this front would prove key to their final victory three years later. On 5 January 1916, the Austro-Hungarian Army attacked Serbian ally Montenegro . The small Montenegrin army offered strong resistance in the Battle of Mojkovac , which greatly helped the withdrawal of the Serbian army, but soon faced impossible odds and was compelled to surrender on 25 January. The Austro-Hungarians advanced down
15444-450: The trial. Defendants are assigned legal counsel, and for the prosecution, a lawyer is assigned who generally comes from a military background. The judge advocate is usually made up of senior NZDF officers and warrant officers who hear the defence and prosecution evidence during court martial. Punishment on guilty findings of a defendant will see them face being charged with a punishment such as serious reprimand, loss of rank, dismissal from
15576-538: The valley of the South Morava river near Vranje up to 22 October 1915. The Bulgarian forces occupied Kumanovo , Štip , and Skopje and prevented the withdrawal of the Serbian army to the Greek border and Thessaloniki (Salonika). The Allies (Britain and France) had repeatedly promised to send military forces to Serbia, but nothing had materialized for a year. However, with Bulgaria's mobilization to its south,
15708-548: The war and required the Empire's forces to stand down although there still remained approximately one million soldiers in the field and small scale fighting continued in the frontier provinces into November 1918. In November 1918, Britain appointed Admiral Sir Somerset Gough-Calthorpe as High Commissioner and Rear-Admiral Richard Webb as Assistant High Commissioner in Constantinople. A French brigade later entered Constantinople on 12 November 1918, and British troops first entered
15840-694: The war!" On 29 September 1918, the German Supreme Army Command informed Wilhelm II and the Imperial Chancellor Count Georg von Hertling , that the military situation facing Germany was hopeless. Ferdinand I abdicated and went into exile on 3 October. The British army headed east towards the European side of the Ottoman Empire as the French and Serbian forces continued north and liberated Serbia, Albania and Montenegro . The British army neared Constantinople, and with no Ottoman forces capable of stopping it,
15972-634: The war. (As the Serbian Marshal Putnik had suggested, the Montenegrin army gave adequate cover to the Albanian coast from the north—at a safe distance from any Bulgarian advance in the south in the event of a Bulgarian intervention.) The Entente was also delayed due to protracted through finally fruitless secret negotiations to bring Bulgaria into the Allied camp, which would have alleviated Serbia's need for Franco-British help. In
16104-489: Was a Bulgarian offensive, as the Austro-Hungarian army was in Albania, and only one German division was on the Greek border. The Bulgarians attacked on two fronts. In the east, they easily conquered all Greek territory east of the river Struma (see Struma Offensive ) since the Greek army was ordered not to resist by the pro-German King Constantine. The attack achieved early success in the west thanks to surprise, but
16236-518: Was an idealistic goal in and of itself that was worth pursuing. Of the 8 French Army divisions stationed on the Salonika front, three were colonial divisions while the 156th French Division had a significant number of colonial units attached to it. Of the 221, 000 French troops who served in Macedonia, at least 47,000 (21%) were colonial units, mostly the tirailleurs sénégalais from West Africa,
16368-550: Was cursed as the "secret enemy" that had bullied the Austrian empire into continuing the war in order to achieve German war aims. The preparatory artillery bombardment of Bulgarian and Central Powers positions for the Battle of Dobro Pole began on 14 September. The following day, the French and Serbians attacked and captured their objective. On 18 September, the Greeks and the British attacked but were stopped with heavy losses by
16500-466: Was established to assassinate Talaat Pasha , Javanshir Khan , Said Halim Pasha , Behaeddin Shakir Bey, Jemal Azmi , Cemal Pasha , Enver Pasha , as well as several Armenian collaborators, in a secret operation codenamed Operation Nemesis . According to a leaked diplomatic cable from 2004, ambassador Muharrem Nuri Birgi was effectively in charge of destroying evidence during the 1980s. During
16632-403: Was ongoing. An inquiry commission was established, called the "Mazhar Inquiry Commission", which was invested with extraordinary powers of subpoena, arrest, et cetera, through which the war criminals were summoned to trial. This organization secured Ottoman documents from many provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Mehmet VI and Damat Ferid Pasha, as representatives of the Ottoman Empire were summoned to
16764-563: Was only 15,000. Another major factor contributed to the Bulgarian request for an armistice. A mass of retreating Bulgarian mutineers had converged on the railway centre of Radomir in Bulgaria, 30 miles (48 km) from the capital city of Sofia. On 27 September, leaders of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union took control of these troops and proclaimed the overthrow of the monarchy and a Bulgarian republic. About 4,000–5,000 rebellious troops threatened Sofia
16896-470: Was planned for late April, but the initial attack failed with significant losses, and the offensive was called off on 21 May. To put more pressure on Athens, the Venizelists and the Entente occupied Thessaly and Isthmus of Corinth , dividing the country. After an attempt to occupy Athens by force, which caused the reaction of the local royalist forces and ended in a fiasco in December (see Noemvriana ),
17028-409: Was pro-Allied. Venizelos invited the Entente into Thessaloniki. With the knowledge that Romania was about to join the Allied side, General Sarrail began preparations for an attack on the Bulgarian armies facing his forces. The Germans made plans of their own for a "spoiling attack". The German offensive was launched on 17 August, just three days before the French offensive was scheduled to start. This
17160-638: Was reached, allowing d'Espèrey to launch his grand offensive. The Allied forces were now large, despite the Russian exit from the war due to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. Greece and its army (nine divisions) were fully committed to the Entente, while 6,000 Czech and Slovak former prisoners of war held on the Italian front were re-armed, reorganized, and transferred to the Macedonian front to fight for
17292-545: Was sentenced to death and hanged on 10 April 1919. Prior to their executions, every condemned individual received a fatwa issued by the Shaykh al-Islam in the name of Mehmed VI, in accordance with the legal requirement that no Muslim could be put to death without such a decree from the Sultan-Caliph. These legal proceedings and accompanying fatwas also functioned as vehicles for Mehmed VI to manifest his dissent towards
17424-472: Was sentenced to death on 20 July 1920 and hanged on 5 August 1920. On 5 July 1919, the court reached a verdict which sentenced the organizers of the massacres, Talat, Enver, Cemal and others to death. The military court found that it was the intent of the CUP to eliminate the Armenians physically, via its Special Organization . The pronouncement reads as follows: The Court Martial taking into consideration
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