Behaeddin Shakir was a central figure of the Teşkilat-i Mahsusa (Special Organization) and has been described as "one of the architects of the Armenian Genocide". This is sometimes used as proof of a state organized genocide using the tehcir (deportations) process of the Tehcir law. Halil Berktay says that local administrators objected to Behaeddin Shakir's deportation orders and called for his arrest. Dissidents were usually replaced by hardliners; sometimes twice if the replacement was not pliant. He was involved in the subduing and deportation of the Armenian population in Ardanuç, where he was the head of the Special Organization, and Ardahan in 1914.