Cemal joined the secret Committee of Union and Progress while a staff officer, becoming a member of the military administration after the Revolution of 1908. A forceful provincial governor, he was made head of security forces in Constantinople and then minister of public works. When World War I broke out, Cemal was, with Talat Paşa and Enver Paşa, one of the government's most influential men. After attempting unsuccessfully to invade Egypt, he was made governor of Syria, and he persecuted the Armenian (Armenian massacres) minority there. After the war he served the new Turkish republic until his assassination by an Armenian nationalist.