The Young Turk Revolution - July
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE YOUNG TURK REVOLUTION - JULY 1908 TO APRIL 19098 ITS IMMEDIATE EFFECTS by Tachat Ramavarma Ravindranathan 0. S., Utah State University, 1965 A THESIS SUBMITTLD IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of History @ TACH AT RAMAVARMA RAV INDRANATHAN 1970 n SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY July, 1970 EXAMINING COMMITTEE APPROVAL - \ Allan Cunningham , I Senior Supervisor William Cleveland Examining Committee Hanna Kassis Examining Committee Name: Tachat Ramavarma Ravindranathan Degree: Master of Arts Title of Thesis: The Young Turk Revolution - July 1908 to April 1909: Its Immediate Effects ABSTRACT It is almost half a century since the Ottoman Empire was turned into a republic as a consequence of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, That the Young Turks should seek to modernize an archaic state was understandable and highly commended, but their dismissal of the Caliph himself was the most revolutionary act. However, the difficulties of dis- mantling a theocracy have only come to light since 1908, and the following study offers relatively little on the deposition of Abdulhamid I1 as no one at the time forsaw this possibility much before it actually happened, and even less did anyone think of its concequonces. The great motive force in the revolution was the Committee of Union and Proaress, a political organization dominated by the army officers and the progenitor of modern Turkish Republic. If the C.U.P. retained much of its shadowy character in this thesis that is because there is still very great confusion as to the early membership and activities of the Party and the Committee. Consequently, it is a good deal easier to say what happened than to say who was responsible for the revolution. As the thesis title indicates, the emphasis of this study is upon the reactions, at home and abroad, to a series of half-understood events which neverthe- less transformed an ancient Empire, Recause this upheaval took place in 1908-1909 it produced anxious reactions at the courts - iv- of the great powers and the Balkan capitals. Succeeding chapters deal with one or the other of these questions, and the thesis culminates in the deposition of Sultan Abdulhamid, an evont which by no means was conclusive in the summnr of 1908. Students of the origins of the First World War may well decide that the revolution of 1908, which took the new Turkey on to the German side, was the very evont which released all the accumulated tensions of the Balkan Peninsula. If the thesis reveals to the reader some of this significance, and if it further reveals the degree of research still remain to be done, it will have served a useful purpose. PREFACE This study is an effort to interpret a crucial phase of modern Turkish history, namely, the chaotic but hopeful period between July 1908 and April 1939, During these nine months, the ill-fated constitution of 1876 was revived and the period ended in the deposition cf Sultan Abdulhamid. The period signified the end of one epoch and the beginning of another, when foreign and domestic observers awaited anxiously to find out whether Turkey was finally ready to enter the modern world as a constitutional state, Little work has been done on this critical period so far by other historians and, hence, the reason for selecting the present topic for study. In the wake of the Young Turk Revolution, a number of books and articles were published, mainly by journalists and travellers, A large proportion of these books were of a colour- ful nature, paying more attention to the aura and mystique of the East, with little analysis or interprstation of the revolu- tion. Certainly, a number of books, such as McCullough's The Fall of Abdulhamid, and Ramsay's Revolution in Constanti- nople and Turkey, published before World War I, are of great significance and these are attempts to understand the events of 1908-1909, despite the fact that they are more in the nature of personal observations and not definitive history. Also by piecing together all the scattered articles that were published immediately aftor the revolution, a diligent historian may be able to draw a realistic picture of the Young Turk Revolution. In the Enqlish speaking world, Ernest Ramsaur's The Younn Turks: Prelude to the Revolution of 1908 established a new landmark in the study of the Young Turk movement. The book published in 1957, stopped with the granting of the Constitution in July,1908 and this was followed, in 1962, by Serif Mardin's Genesis of Younq Ottoman Thouqht, a highly illuminating work on the intellectual origins of the Young Turk movement. Feroz Ahmad, in his study, The Younq Turks: The Committee of Union and Proqress in Turkish Politics 1908-1914, has made a valiant effort to fill the gap by taking up the story from where Rarnsaur had left off. In the present study, I have attempted to analyse and interpret the basic issues and problems that confronted the new regime after Abdulhamid restored the Constitution on July 24, 1908, As a result, it was felt necessary to include a chapter each on the Bulgarian declaration of independence and the Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, both of which were of great importance to Turkey in 1908-9 as they threatened the very exis- tence of the Ottoman Empire. The former incident is discussed scantily in most historical studies and the latter always in its wider European perspective. Hence, it was found essential to focus the two issues in their Turkish context, thus filling the gap left by Ahmad and others, no doubt due to the very nature of their studios. I have not dealt with the quostion of Crete as it would have posed innumerable problems and distorted the structube of the thesis. In the same fateful week of October 1908, when Bulgaria declared independence and Austria seized Bosnia- Herzegovina, the Cretans voted for union with the mainland Greeks and set up a provisional government to assume authority in the name of King George. But no formal recognition was given by the powers or Turkey and the question was not resolved before 1912. Consequently, it is difficult to fit the question into the July 1908-April 1909 framework and still expect a satisfactory interpretation of the dispute, whereas the Bul- garian and Bosnian questions were resolved in early 1909. moreover, no realistic explanation of the Cretan dispute is possible without an adequate discussion of the Creek war of independence of 1829 and all the subsequent problems in Turko- Greek relations. This is beyond the scope of the present study. As the outcome of the Young Turk Revolution was first decided in the towns of Macedonia and then the capital, Salonica and Constantinople initially played a far greater role than the rest of the Empire put together. Hence, this study, unavoidably, is biased in favour of developments in the Balkans and the capital. This in no way implies that the revolution did not have its wider repercussions in Anatolia and the Asiatic provinces of the Ottoman Empire. In Chapter "1, an effort has been made to describe in some detail the effects of the revolution in thoso areas, Nonetheless, con- siderable difficulties were encountered in dealing with the impact of the revolution in Anatolia and the Arab lands, primarily because of the paucity of material and a general lack of adequate information. Consequently, the demarcation of power in the Asiatic provinces between the C.U.P. and the Porte is never clear and the diplomatic despatches, more often than not, throw little light on the subject. The issue is further confounded by the absence of secondary sources dealing with the impact of the revolution in those areas, In completing Chapter VI, my own ignorance of Turkish and Arabic contributed to the difficulties as I was largely dependent on the British Foreign Office documents for informa- tion, CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I ORIGINS OF THE YOUNG TURK REVOLUTION . , . 1 II OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLT . , . , , . , , . , 52 111 ImMEDIATE REACTION - DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN - TO THE REVOLUTION . , . , . 84 IV CRISIS IN DIPLONACY: TURKEY AND THE ANNEXATION OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA , . 131 V CRISIS IN DIPLOmACY: TURKEY AND THE BULGARIAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE , . , 169 V I THE SEARCH FOR A NEW ORDER . , . , , . 220 V II THE APRIL mUTINY AND THE DEPOSITION OF ABDULHAMID w w , w w , w w 266 GLOSSARY w.wwww***..*~w,~e,,,,,.303 BIBLIOGRAPHY . w w w w w 306 -xi- MAPS PAGE mAP "THE DECLINE OF THE OTTOmAN ENPIRE 1663-1924" . a . V MAP "BALKAN PENINSULA 1800-1914 . , . 51 CHAPTER I ORIGINS OF THE YOUNG TURK REVOLUTION One historian has suggested that the Young Turk movement primarily took place in three wavesl' The first wave of Young Turks, or Young Ottomans as they are known today, was set in motion in the 1860's when a number of prominent Ottomen intel- lectuals flocked into European capitals to escape from the clutches of a reactionary bureaucracy. Individuals such as * ** **+ Ibrahim Shinasi, Ziya Bey, Namik Kemal, among others, had fallen out of favour with the bureaucracy they once served 1. Cunningham, Allan. The Wrong Horse? - A Study of Anglo-Turkish Relations before the First World War. St. Antony's Papers, 1965, November 17, Middle Eastern Affairs, Number 4, Passim. Ibrahim Shinasi (1824-1871), along with Ziya Bey end Namik Kemal, is one of the pioneers of the new literary movement of 19th century Turkey. Shinasi was sent to France during the period of reform in the Ottoman Empire in 1840's and, while a student in Paris, he participated in the revolution of 1848.