Young Turks
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The Young Turks (
Included in the opposition movement was a mosaic of ideologies, represented by democrats, liberals, decentralists,
In 1906, the Paris-based CUP fused with the Macedonia-based
The term Young Turk is now used to characterize an insurgent trying to take control of a situation or of an organization by force or political maneuver,[7] and various groups in different countries have been designated "Young Turks" because of their rebellious or revolutionary nature.
Etymology
The term "Young Turks" comes from the French Jeunes Turcs, which international observers tagged various Ottoman reformers of the 19th century. Historian Roderic Davison states that there was not a consistent ideological application of the term; statesmen which wished to resurrect the Janissary corp and derebeys, conservative reformers of Mahmud II, and pro-Western reformers of Abdul Mejid, are all referred to as the party of Jeunes Turcs by different observers. Davison concludes that a Young Turk party was identified in situations where an amorphous "Old Turk" faction was being confronted.[8]
The
History
Origins

Inspired by the
Despite working with the Young Ottomans to promulgate a constitution, Abdul Hamid II dissolved the parliament by 1878 and returned to an absolutist regime, marked by extensive use of secret police to silence dissent, and massacres against minorities. Constitutionalist opponents of his regime, came to be known as Young Turks.[11] The Young Turks were a heterodox group of secular liberal intellectuals and revolutionaries, united by their opposition to the absolutist regime of Abdul Hamid and desire to reinstate the constitution.[12] Despite the name Young Turks, members were diverse in their religious and ethnic origins,[13][14][15] with many Albanians, Arabs, Armenians, Circassians, Greeks, Kurds, and Jews being members.[b][1][2][3][4]
Opposition
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To organize the opposition, forward-thinking medical students
In 1894,
Due to the danger in speaking out against absolutism, Young Turk activity shifted abroad. Turkish colonies were established in Paris, London, Geneva, Bucharest, and Cairo.
The CUP supported
Under pressure from Yıldız Palace, French authorities banned Meşveret, though not the French supplemental, and deported Rıza and his Unionists in 1896. After settling in Brussels, the Belgian government was also pressured to deport the group a couple years later. The Belgian parliament denounced the decision and held a demonstration supporting the Young Turks against Hamidian tyranny. A congress in December 1896 saw Murat elected as chairman over Rıza and the headquarters moved to Geneva, sparking a schism between Rıza's supporters in Paris and Murat's supporters in Geneva.[23] After the Ottoman Empire's triumph over Greece in 1897 Sultan Abdul Hamid used the prestige he gained from the victory to coax the exiled Young Turks network back into his fold. After expelling Rıza from the CUP, Murat defected to the government, including Cevdet and Sükuti. A wave of extraditions, more amnesties, and buy-outs, weakened an opposition organization already operating in exile. With trials organized in 1897 and 1899 against enemies of Abdul Hamid II, the Ottoman Empire was under his secure control. Though moral was low, Ahmet Rıza, who returned to Paris, was the sole leader of the exiled Young Turks network.[19][24]
In 1899, members of the Ottoman dynasty
Schism over foreign intervention

The
The Ottoman Freedom Lover's Committee, named after the eponymous 1902 congress, was founded by Prince Sabahaddin and Ismail Kemal in the name of the majority mandate. However the organization was contentious and a coup plot in 1903 went nowhere. They later founded the Private Enterprise and Decentralization League [tr], which called for a more decentralized and federalized Ottoman state in opposition to Rıza's centralist vision. After the congress, Rıza formed a coalition with the Activists and founded the Committee of Progress and Union (CPU). This unsuccessful attempt to bridge the divide amongst the Young Turks instead deepened the rivalry between Sabahaddin's group and Rıza's CPU. The 20th century began with Abdul Hamid II's rule secure and his opposition scattered and divided.[citation needed]
Beyond this ideological rift, the Young Turk movement had three main ideological currents on what the state ideology of the Ottoman Empire should be: old-school multicultural Ottomanism, incumbent pan-Islamism, and vogue pan-Turkism. After the revolution, non-Turkish and non-Muslim Young Turks ascribed themselves to their respective nationalist movements. For the Unionists that stayed with the CUP, the question of embracing (Anatolian) Turkism and then Westernization were on the docket.[25]
Unionist homecoming in Macedonia
The Young Turks became a truly organized movement with the CUP as an organizational umbrella. They recruited individuals hoping for the establishment of a
The
In September 1907, OFS announced they would be working with other organizations under the umbrella of the CUP. In reality, the leadership of the OFS would exert significant control over the CUP.[citation needed] Finally, in 1908 in the Young Turk Revolution, pro-CUP officers marched on Istanbul, forcing Abdulhamid to restore the constitution. An attempted countercoup resulted in his deposition.
Young Turk Revolution

In 1908, the
However, eventually, signs were showing that this policy game was coming to an end. On 13 May 1908, the leadership of the CUP, with the newly gained power of its organization, was able to communicate to Sultan Abdul Hamid II the unveiled threat that "the [Ottoman]
Aftermath
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After the revolution, the Young Turks formalized their differences in ideology by forming political clubs. Two main parties formed: more liberal and pro-decentralization Young Turks formed the Liberty Party and later the Freedom and Accord Party.[29] The Turkish nationalist and pro-centralization wing among the Young Turks remained in the CUP. The groups' power struggle continued until 1913, after the CUP took over following Mahmud Shevket Pasha's assassination. They brought the Ottoman Empire into World War I on the side of the Central Powers during the war.
During the parliamentary recess of this era, the Young Turks held their first open congress at Salonica, on September–October 1911. There, they proclaimed a series of policies involving the disarming of Christians and preventing them from buying property, Muslim settlements in Christian territories, and the complete Ottomanization of all Turkish subjects, either by persuasion or by the force of arms.[30] By 1913, the CUP banned all other political parties, creating a one party state. The Ottoman Parliament became a rubber stamp and real policy debate was held within the CUP's Central Committee.
World War I
On 2 November 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers. The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I became the scene of action. The combatants were the Ottoman Empire, with some assistance from the other Central Powers, against primarily the British and the Russians among the Allies. Rebuffed elsewhere by the major European powers, the CUP, through highly secret diplomatic negotiations, led the Ottoman Empire to ally itself with Germany.
Armenian genocide

The conflicts at the
The Armenians were perceived to be subversive elements (a
Early on, the Dashnaks had perceived the CUP as allies;[
Assyrian genocide
The genocide of Assyrian civilians began during the Ottoman occupation of Azerbaijan from January to May 1915, during which massacres were committed by Ottoman forces and pro-Ottoman Kurds.[33] Previously, many Assyrians were killed in the 1895 massacres of Diyarbekir.[34] However the violence worsened after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, despite Assyrian hopes that the new government would stop promoting anti-Christian Islamism.[35][36]
The Sayfo occurred concurrently with and was closely related to the Armenian genocide.
Turkish War of Independence
At the end of the War, with the collapse of Bulgaria and
Ideology
Materialism and positivism

A guiding principle for the Young Turks was the transformation of their society into one in which religion played no consequential role, a stark contrast from the theocracy that had ruled the Ottoman Empire since its inception. However, the Young Turks soon recognized the difficulty of spreading this idea among the deeply religious Ottoman peasantry and even much of the elite. The Young Turks thus began suggesting that Islam itself was materialistic. As compared with later efforts by Muslim intellectuals, such as the attempt to reconcile Islam and socialism, this was an extremely difficult endeavor. Although some former members of the CUP continued to make efforts in this field after the revolution of 1908, they were severely denounced by the
Positivism, with its claim of being a religion of science, deeply impressed the Young Turks, who believed it could be more easily reconciled with Islam than could popular materialistic theories. The name of the society, Committee of Union and Progress, was inspired by leading positivist Auguste Comte's motto Order and Progress. Positivism also served as a base for the desired strong government.[41]
Centralized government
After the CUP took power in the 1913 coup and Mahmud Şevket Pasha's assassination, it embarked on a series of reforms in order to increase centralization in the Empire, an effort that had been ongoing since the last century's Tanzimat reforms under sultan Mahmud II.[42] Many of the original Young Turks rejected this idea, especially those that had formed the Freedom and Accord Party against the CUP.[43] Other opposition parties against the CUP like Prince Sabahaddin's Private Enterprise and Decentralization League and the Arab Ottoman Party for Administrative Decentralization, both of which made opposition to the CUP's centralization their main agenda.
The Young Turks wished to modernize the Empire's communications and transportation networks without putting themselves in the hands of European bankers. Europeans already owned much of the country's railroad system,[citation needed] and since 1881, the administration of the defaulted Ottoman foreign debt had been in European hands. During the World War I, the empire under the CUP was "virtually an economic colony on the verge of total collapse."[9]
Nationalism
Regarding nationalism, the Young Turks underwent a gradual transformation. Beginning with the Tanzimat with ethnically non-Turkish members participating at the outset, the Young Turks embraced the official state ideology: Ottomanism. However, Ottoman patriotism failed to strike root during the First Constitutional Era and the following years. Many ethnically non-Turkish Ottoman intellectuals rejected the idea because of its exclusive use of Turkish symbols. Turkish nationalists gradually gained the upper hand in politics, and following the 1902 Congress, a stronger focus on nationalism developed. It was at this time that Ahmed Rıza chose to replace the term "Ottoman" with "Turk," shifting the focus from Ottoman nationalism to Turkish nationalism.[citation needed]
Prominent Young Turks
Among the prominent leaders and ideologists were:
- Pamphleteers and activists
- Tunalı Hilmi
- Yusuf Akçura, a Tatar journalist with a secular national ideology, who was against Ottomanism and supported separation of church and state
- Ayetullah Bey[citation needed]
- Osman Hamdi Bey, an Ottoman-Greek painter and owner of the first specialized art school in Istanbul (founded 1883)
- Sephardic Jewish Carasso family
- .
- Abdullah Cevdet, a Kurdish intellectual who is a supporter of biological materialism and secularism
- Marcel Samuel Raphael Cohen (aka Tekin Alp), born to a Jewish family in Salonica under Ottoman control (now Thessaloniki, Greece), became one of the founding fathers of Turkish nationalism and an ideologue of Pan-Turkism.
- Agah Efendi, founded the first Turkish newspaper and, as postmaster, brought the postage stamp to the Ottoman Empire (although he died in 1885, he was honored for founding the first Turkish newspaper).
- sociologist, influenced by modern Western European culture
- Talaat Pasha, whose role before the revolution is not clear
- Ahmed Riza, worked to improve the condition of the Ottoman peasantry; he served as an education independent.
- Military officers
- Ahmed Niyazi Bey, initiator and a leader of the Young Turk Revolution
- Enver Pasha, a leader of the Young Turk Revolution and later prominent Young Turk politician
- Eyüp Sabri, a leader of the Young Turk Revolution
- Bekir Fikri, a prominent participant in the Young Turk Revolution
- Atıf Kamçıl, a prominent participant in the Young Turk Revolution
- Subhi Bey Abaza (lived in Sidon)
- Reşat Bey
Aftermath and legacy
In the aftermath of
These left-overs from the former [Committee of Union and Progress] Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse from their homes and massacred, have been restive under the Republican rule. […] They have hitherto lived on plunder, robbery and bribery and become inimical to any idea, or suggestion to enlist in useful labor and earn their living by the honest sweat of their brow… Under the cloak of the [Progressive Republican Party] opposition party, this element, who forced our country into the Great War against the will of the people, who caused the shedding of rivers of blood of the Turkish youth to satisfy the criminal ambition of Enver Pasha, has, in a cowardly fashion, intrigued against my life, as well as the lives of the members of my cabinet.
Historian Uğur Ümit Üngör, in his book The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, has claimed that the "Republican People's Party, which was founded by Mustafa Kemal, was the successor of CUP and continued ethnic cleansing policies of its predecessor in Eastern Anatolia until the year 1950. Thus, Turkey was transformed into an ethnically homogenous state."[46]: vii
As to the fate of the Three Pashas, two of them, Talaat Pasha and Cemal Pasha, were assassinated by Armenian nationals shortly after the end of World War I while in exile in Europe during Operation Nemesis, a revenge operation against perpetrators of the Armenian genocide. Soghomon Tehlirian, whose family was killed in the Armenian genocide, assassinated the exiled Talaat Pasha in Berlin and was subsequently acquitted on all charges by a German jury.[47] Cemal Pasha was similarly killed by Stepan Dzaghikian, Bedros Der Boghosian, and Ardashes Kevorkian for "crimes against humanity"[48] in Tbilisi, Georgia.[49] Enver Pasha, was killed in fighting against the Red Army unit under the command of Hakob Melkumian near Baldzhuan in Tajikistan (then Turkistan).[50]
List of Young Turk organizations
The following is a list of opposition groups founded until the Young Turk Revolution.
- Le Parti Constitutionnel en Turquie
- Comité Turco-Syrien
- Ottoman Union Society [İttihad-ı Osmanî Cemiyeti]
- Committee of Union and Progress [İttihad ve Terraki Cemiyeti]
- Society of the Ulema [Cemiyet-i İlmiye]
- Vatanperverân-ı İslâmiye Cemiyeti
- Comité d'Action Ottoman
- Comité du Parti Constitutionnel Ottoman à Constantinople
- Committee of Avenging Young Ottomans [İntikamcı Yeni Osmanlılar Cemiyeti]
- Lâ İlâhe İllallah
- Ottoman Revolutionary Party [Osmanlı İhtilâl Fırkası]
- Parti de la Jeune Turquie
- Party of the Ottoman Liberals [Serbest Osmanlılar Fırkası]
- Patriotic Muslim's Association [Vatanperverân-ı İslâmiye Cemiyeti]
- Progress of Islamic Education Society [Terakki-i Maarif-i İslâmiye Cemiyeti]
- Restitution Committee [İstirdat Cemiyeti]
- Reşadiye Committee
- Society for Education [Tahsil Cemiyeti]
- Ottoman Freedom Lovers' Committee [Comité Libéral Ottoman, Osmanlı Hürriyetperverân Cemiyeti]
- Dawn of Ottoman Union Committee [Şafak Osmanlı İttihad Cemiyeti]
- Society of People Loyal to the Nation [Fedakârân-ı Millet Cemiyeti]
- Party Constitutionnel Ottoman
- Islamic Benevolence Society [Cemiyet-i Hayriye-i İslâmiye)
- Lights of the East [Envâr-ı Şarkiye]
- Neutral Young Ottomans [Bîtiraf Yeni Osmanlılar]
- New Association for Ottomans [Cemiyet-i Cedide-i Osmaniye]
- Ottoman Committee for the Future of the Fatherland and Nation [İstikbâl-i Vatan ve Millet Cemiyet-i Osmaniyesi]
- Ottoman Union and Action Branch [Osmanlı İttihad ve İcraat Şubesi]
- Private Initiative and Decentralization League[Teşebbüs-i Şahsi ve Adem-i Merkeziyet Cemiyeti]
- Motherland and Liberty Committee [Vatan ve Hürriyet Cemiyeti]
- Ottoman Freedom Society [Osmanlı Hürriyet Cemiyeti]
References
Notes
- ^ See List of Young Turks for more information.
- ^ See List of Young Turks for more information.
Citations
- ^ a b Zürcher, Erik J. (2010). The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building: From the Ottoman Empire to Atatürk's Turkey. London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 110–111.
- ^ ISBN 9781349122356.
- ^ doi:10.25673/103715.
- ^ ISBN 9781588268891.
- ^ a b c Hanioğlu 1995, p. 12.
- ^ Akçam 2006, p. 48.
- ^ "young turk". Dictionary.com (10th ed.). HarperCollins Publishers. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
[...] an insurgent in a political party, especially one belonging to a group or faction that supports liberal or progressive policies [...] any person aggressively or impatiently advocating reform within an organization.
- ^ Davison, Roderic (1965). Reform in the Ottoman Empire: 1856–1876. pp. 173–174.
- ^ a b Demonian 1996, p. 11.
- ^ Balakian 2003, p. 136.
- ISBN 978-0-19-933420-9.
- ISBN 9789186884130.
- S2CID 156657393.
- S2CID 155079075.
- ^ Ergil, Doğu [in Turkish] (30 October 2007). "A Reassessment: The Young Turks, Their Politics and Anti-Colonial Struggle". Balkan Studies. 16 (2). Thessaloniki: University of Macedonia: 26.
- ^ "Eminalp Malkoç, Doğu-Batı Ekseninde Bir Osmanlı Aydını: Ahmet Rıza Yaşamı ve Düşünce Dünyası, Yakın Dönem Türkiye Araştırmaları Dergisi, Sayı 11, 2007". Archived from the original on 6 December 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ "Taner Aslan, İttihâd-ı Osmanî'den Osmanlı İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti'ne" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 November 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ Arslan, Özan (2005). "The Rebirth of the Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress in Macedonia through the Italian Freemasonry". Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino. 85 (1): 108 – via Academia.
- ^ a b Shaw & Shaw 1977, p. 257.
- ^ Akçam 2007, p. 62.
- ^ Hanioğlu 1995, p. 76.
- ^ "Abdullah A Cehan, Osmanlı Devleti'nin Sürgün Politikası ve Sürgün Yerleri, Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, Cilt 1, Sayı 5, 2008" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 January 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
- ^ Ebüzziya, Ziyad. "Ahmed Rıza" (PDF). Türk Diyanet Vakfı İslam Ansiklopedisi 1989 Cilt 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 December 2015. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
- S2CID 144491725.
- ^ Zürcher 1993, p. 132–133.
- ^ GÖKBAYIR, Satılmış (25 March 2020). "Gizli Bir Cemiyetten İktidara: Osmanlı İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti'nin 1908 Seçimleri Siyasi Programı" [From a Secret Society to Power: Political Program of the Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress for the 1908 Elections]. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
- ^ Kieser 2018, p. 50.
- ^ Shaw & Shaw1977, p. 265.
- ^ Alkan, Mehmet Öznur (May 1999). "Osmanlı'dan Günümüze Türkiye'de Seçimlerin Kısa Tarihi" (PDF). Setav. p. 50. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 May 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
- ^ Balkan Peninsula Correspondent (3 October 1911). "Times". The Salonika congress – Young Turks and their programme. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
- ^ Schaller & Zimmerer 2008, p. 8.
- ^ International Association of Genocide Scholars 2005.
- ^ a b Gaunt 2017.
- ^ Verheij 2012.
- ^ a b Gaunt 2011.
- ^ a b Gaunt 2013.
- ^ Suny 2015.
- ^ Gaunt 2020.
- ^ a b Gaunt 2015.
- ^ Karsh, Efraim (2001), Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, Harvard University Press, p. 327.
- ^ a b Hanioğlu.
- ISBN 90-04-07070-2.
- ISBN 978-0-521-39987-6.
- Lord Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries [page needed]
- ^ Atatürk, Mustafa Kemal (1 August 1926). "Kemal Promises More Hangings of Political Antagonists in Turkey". Los Angeles Examiner.
- ^ Üngör, Uğur Ümit (2011). The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Balakian 2003, p. 143.
- ^ Demonian 1996, p. 69.
- ^ Demonian 1996, p. 101.
- ^ Akçam 2006, p. 353.
Bibliography
- A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility.
- Akçam, Taner (2007), A Shameful Act, London: Macmillan.
- Balakian, Peter (2003), The Burning Tigris: the Armenian Genocide and America's response.
- Demonian, Hripsimé (1996), The Sick Men of Europe, Gyumri State Pedagogical Institute.
- Fisk, R (13 February 2007), The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, Vintage, ISBN 978-1-4000-7517-1.
- Gaunt, David; Atto, Naures; Barthoma, Soner O. (2017). "Introduction: Contextualizing the Sayfo in the First World War". Let Them Not Return: Sayfo – The Genocide Against the Assyrian, Syriac, and Chaldean Christians in the Ottoman Empire. ISBN 978-1-78533-499-3.
- Gaunt, David (2011). "The Ottoman Treatment of the Assyrians". ISBN 978-0-19-978104-1.
- Gaunt, David (2013). "Failed Identity and the Assyrian Genocide". Shatterzone of Empires: Coexistence and Violence in the German, Habsburg, Russian, and Ottoman Borderlands (illustrated ed.). ISBN 978-0-253-00631-8.
- Gaunt, David (2015). "The Complexity of the Assyrian Genocide". Genocide Studies International. 9 (1): 83–103. ISSN 2291-1847.
- Gaunt, David (2017). "Sayfo Genocide: The Culmination of an Anatolian Culture of Violence". Let Them Not Return: Sayfo – The Genocide Against the Assyrian, Syriac, and Chaldean Christians in the Ottoman Empire. ISBN 978-1-78533-499-3.
- Gaunt, David (2020). "The Long Assyrian Genocide". Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State. ISBN 978-1-78920-451-3.
- Hanioğlu, M. Şükrü, The Political Ideas of the Young Turks.
- ——— (1995), The Young Turks in Opposition, ISBN 0-19-509115-9.
- ——— (2001), Preparation for a Revolution: The Young Turks 1902–1908, Oxford University Press
- International Association of Genocide Scholars (13 June 2005). "Letter to Prime Minister Erdogan". Genocide Watch. Archived from the original on 4 June 2007. Retrieved 30 June 2007.
- Kieser, Hans-Lukas (26 June 2018), Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide, Princeton University Press (published 2018), ISBN 978-0-691-15762-7
- Schaller, Dominik J; Zimmerer, Jürgen (March 2008), "Late Ottoman genocides: the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and Young Turkish population and extermination policies—introduction", S2CID 71515470.
- Shaw, Stanford; Shaw, Ezel (1977), History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, vol. II, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-29166-6
- ISBN 978-1-4008-6558-1.
- Verheij, Jelle (2012), "Diyarbekir and the Armenian Crisis of 1895", in Jongerden, Joost; Verheij, Jelle (eds.), Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, Brill, ISBN 978-9004225183.
- ISBN 1-86064-222-5.
Further reading
- Necati Alkan, "The Eternal Enemy of Islam: Abdullah Cevdet and the Baha'i Religion", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Volume 68/1, pp. 1–20; online at Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
- ——— (2008), Dissent and Heterodoxy in the Late Ottoman Empire: Reformers, Babis and Baha'is, Istanbul: ISIS Press.
- David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace
- ISBN 0-19-513463-X
- ——— (29 September 2005), "The Anniversary of a Century-Old Ideology", Zaman, archived from the original on 2 March 2012, retrieved 17 October 2005
- Hasan Kayali. Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1918. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997
- ISBN 0-374-52866-7
- ISBN 2-86645-601-7(in French)
- Bilici, Faruk (October–December 1991). "La Révolution Française dans l'Historiographie Turque (1789–1927)". JSTOR 41914720. - Discusses how the ideals of the French Revolutionaffected the Young Turks
External links
- Committee of Union and Progress Turkey in the First World War (website)
- Young Turks and the Armenian Genocide (website)