'Go and tell the Armenians there that until the end of the war they are free to live as Muslims' Cemal Pasha (1872–1922) held the most significant position following Talat and Enver in the history of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) government. Following the re-declaration of constitutionalism on 23 July 1908, Cemal was elected member of the head office (Merkezi Umum-i), thus being thrust into the forefront of the CUP. He joined the Action Army, which the CUP mobilized against the counter-revolutionary uprising that broke out in April 1909. He served in Istanbul as district governor of Üsküdar in 1909 and was then dispatched to Adana as governor. In 1911 he was appointed to the governorship of Baghdad. He took part in the CUP putsch in January 1913 against the Freedom and Accord Party government. The new grand vizier Mahmud ?evket Pasha assigned Cemal the military governorship of Istanbul. He was promoted to general, in December 1913 and in February 1914 he became the minister of navy. Soon after the Ottoman Empire entered the war in November 1914, Cemal Pasha also accepted the posts of military commander and governor in Greater Syria. Known for his rigid policies towards Arab nationalists and Zionists during his posting in Greater Syria, Cemal Pasha and his role in the Armenian genocide has always remained an issue of contention. There are important accounts of Cemal’s activity, particularly during WWI, which have found him to have had no active role in the deportation and extermination of Armenians – here differing from the other two pillars of the CUP, Enver and Talat. On the contrary, such accounts argue that he extended a helping hand to Armenians in so far as his authority and power would allow, and that he even faced off against members of the central government in Istanbul and the CUP head office to do so. This paper will question that argument, examining the politics of Cemal Pasha during the war based on the memoirs of survived Armenians.