During the Armenian Genocide , Nazif was instrumental in preventing massacres from occurring in the province of Baghdad . In one instance , Nazif had intercepted a convoy of deportees numbering 260 Armenian women and children who were being sent to their deaths . Nazif demanded that the convoy be transferred to a safer zone in Mosul but his proposal was ultimately refused . The convoy was eventually massacred . During his time as governor of Baghdad , Nazif visited Diyarbakir where he encountered a " pungent smell of decaying corpses " which " pervaded the atmosphere and that the bitter stench clogged his nose , making him gag . " Nazif was critical of Dr. Mehmed Reshid , the governor of Diyarbakir , who was known as the " Butcher of Diyarbakir " . Nazif , who stated that Reshid " destroyed through massacre thousands of humans " also wrote about a committee established by Reshid with the objective of providing a ' solution of the Armenian question ' . The committee had its own military unit and was called the ' Committee of Inquiry ' . Nazif also encouraged other governors not to proceed with the deportation order . In a letter written to his brother Faik Ali Bey , the governor of Kutahya , Nazif wrote , " Do n't participate in this event , watch out for our family 's honor . " On November 23 , 1918 , Nazif 's article titled '' Kara Bir Gün '' ( literally : '' A Black Day '' ) was published in the newspaper '' Hadisat '' to condemn the French occupying forces in Istanbul . The article led to the commander of the French forces sentencing Nazif to execution by firing squad . The order was rescinded , however . As a result of a speech he gave on January 23 , 1920 at a meeting to commemorate the French writer Pierre Loti , who had lived a while in Constantinople , Süleyman Nazif was forced into exile on Malta by the occupying British military . During his stay of around twenty months in Malta , he wrote the novel '' Çal Çoban Çal '' . After the Turkish War of Independence , he returned to Constantinople and continued to write
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Süleyman Nazif