Young Turks

Young Turks
The Young Turks (Turkish: Jn Trkler (plural), from French: Les Jeunes Turcs) were a coalition of various
groups favouring reformation of the administration of the Ottoman Empire. The movement was against the absolute
monarchy of the Ottoman Sultan and favoured a re-installation of the short-lived Kann- Ess constitution. They
established the second constitutional era in 1908 with what would become known as the Young Turk Revolution.
The term Young Turks referred to the members of Ottoman society who were progressive, modernist and opposed to
the status quo. The movement built a rich tradition of dissent that shaped the intellectual, political and artistic life of
the late Ottoman period generally transcendent to the decline and dissolution periods. Many Young Turks were not
only active in the political arena, but were also artists, administrators, or scientists.
Many modern Turkish citizens glorify the Young Turks as a group that initiated the process of liberalization in what
is now known as modern Turkey. Although certain sub sections of modern Turkish community still regard that the
Young Turks were actually the perpetrators of the first coup d'tat in modern Turkish History1913 Bab-i Ali
Baskini, it is widely believed among the Turkish community that their actions can be classified as of a progressive
movement even by today's standards.
Thus, the term "Young Turks" has come to signify any groups or individuals inside an organization who are
progressive and seek prominence and power.[1]

Prominent Young Turks

The prominent leaders and ideologists included:
Pamphleteers and activists
Yusuf Akura (18761935) a Tatar, journalist with a secular national ideology, who was against Ottomanism
and supported separation in religion and social life.
Ayetullah Bey
Nuri Bey
Osman Hamdi Bey (18421910), painter and owner of the first specialized art school in Istanbul (1883).
Refik Bey
Emmanuel Carasso Efendi, a lawyer and a member of the prominent Sephardic Jewish Carasso family.
Mehmet Cavit Bey (18751926) a Dnmeh from Thessalonica, Jewish by ancestry but Muslim by religion
since the 17th century, who was Minister of Finance.[2] He was hanged for treason in 1926.
Abdullah Cevdet, a supporter of biological materialism, who later in his life promoted the Bah' Faith.
Marcel Samuel Raphael Cohen (aka Tekin Alp) (18831961), 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.
Lewis Daly (18661921) a radical anthropologist specializing in Turkish peasantry.
Agah Efendi (18321885) founded the first Turkish newspaper and, as postmaster, brought the postage stamp
to the Ottoman Empire.
Ziya Gkalp (18751924), a Turkish nationalist from Diyarbakir, publicist and pioneer sociologist, influenced
by modern Western European culture.
Talaat Pasha, whose role before the revolution is not clear.
Ahmed Riza (18591930), worked to improve the condition of the Ottoman peasantry. He served as minister
of agriculture, and later ministry of education.
Military officers
Resat Bey
Enver Pasha

Young Turks

History
18891906
The Young Turks originated from groups of so-called "Progressive" university students. They were driven
underground along with all other forms of political dissent after the constitution was annulled by the Sultan. Like
their European forerunners such as the Carbonari, they typically formed cells, in which only one member might be
connected to another cell.
Congress of Ottoman Opposition
The first congress of Ottoman Opposition was held on February 4,
1902, at 8 pm, at the house of Germain Antoin Lefevre-Pontalis.
He was a member of the Institute France. The opposition was
performed in compliance with the French government. It was
closed to public. There were 47 delegates present. The Armenians
wanted to have the conversations held in French, but other
delegates rejected this proposition.
The Second congress of the Ottoman opposition took place in
Paris, France in 1907. Opposition leaders including Ahmed Riza,
Sabahheddin Bey, and Khachatur Maloumian of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation were in attendance. The goal was to
unite all the parties, including the CUP, in order to bring about the
revolution. However, varying positions on issues such as
nationalism made unity among the factions impossible.

The first congress of the Ottoman opposition (1902) in

Paris

19061908
The Young Turks became a truly organized movement with the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) as an
organizational umbrella. They recruited individuals prepared to sacrifice themselves for the establishment of a
constitutional monarchy. In 1906, the Ottoman Freedom Society (OFS) was established in Thessalonica by Mehmed
Talaat. The OFS actively recruited members from the Third Army base, among them Major Ismail Enver. In
September 1907, OFS announced they would be working with other organizations under the umbrella of CUP. In
reality, the leadership of the OFS would exert significant control over the CUP.
The Young Turk Revolution
In 1908, the 'Macedonian Question' was facing the Ottoman Empire. Czar Nicholas II and Franz Joseph, who were
both interested in the Balkans, started implementing policies, beginning in 1897, which bring on the last stages of the
balkanization process. By 1903, there were discussions on establishing administrative control by Russian and
Austrian advisory boards in the Macedonian provinces. The House of Osman was forced to accept this idea although
for quite a while they were able to subvert its implementation. However, eventually, signs were showing this policy
game coming to an end and on May 13, 1908, the leadership of the CUP, with the scale of its organization, having
had increased their power to such a point, were able to say to the Sultan that the 'Dynasty will be in danger', if he
were not to bring back the constitution. The Third Army in Macedonia on June 12, 1908 begins its march to the
Palace and on July 24, 1908 the constitution is restored.

Young Turks

Constitutional Era
With the Committee of Union and Progress coming out of the
election box the unity among the Young Turks that was originated
from the Young Turk Revolution replaced itself with the realities
of the Ottoman Empire. The details of the political events can be
found under Second Constitutional Era, while the details of the
military events can be found under Dissolution of the Ottoman
Empire.
19141917 period
On November 2, 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I
Declaration of the Constitution Muslim, Armenian,
on the side of the Central Powers. The Middle Eastern theatre of
Greek leaders together
World War I became the scene of action. The combatants were the
Ottoman Empire, with some assistance from the other Central Powers, and primarily the British and the Russians
among the Allies of World War I. The conflicts at the Caucasus Campaign, the Persian Campaign and the Gallipoli
Campaign affected where the Armenian people lived in significant amounts. Before the declaration of war at the
Armenian congress at Erzurum the Ottoman government requested from Ottoman Armenians to facilitate the
conquest of Transcaucasia by inciting a rebellion with the Russian Armenians against the tsarist army in the event of
an Caucasian Front.[50][51]
Jakob Knzler, head of a missionary hospital in Urfa, has documented the large scale ethnic cleansing of both
Armenians and Kurds by the Young Turks during World War I.[60] He has given a detailed account of deportation
of Kurds from Erzurum and Bitlis in winter of 1916. The Kurds were perceived to be subversive elements that would
take the Russian side in the war. In order to eliminate this threat, Young Turks embarked on a large scale deportation
of Kurds from the regions of Djabachdjur, Palu, Musch, Erzurum and Bitlis. Around 300,000 Kurds were forced to
move southwards to Urfa and then westwards to Aintab and Marasch. In the summer of 1917, Kurds were moved to
the Konya region in central Anatolia. Through this measures, the Young Turk leaders aimed at eliminating the Kurds
by deporting them from their ancestral lands and by dispersing them in small pockets of exiled communities. By the
end of World War I, up to 700,000 Kurds were forcibly deported and almost half of the displaced perished

Ideology
Liberalism
The European public and many scholars commonly labeled the Young Turks as liberals. The Young Turks did adopt
liberal ideas, and under the influence of the theories of Gustave Le Bon, they devalued parliaments as hazardous
bodies.

Materialism and positivism

Another guiding principle for the Young Turks was the transformation of their society into one in which religion
played no consequential role. In this ultra-secular and somewhat materialistic structure, science was to replace
religion. However, the Young Turks soon recognized the difficulty of spreading this idea and 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 Ulema, who
accused them of "trying to change Islam into another form and create a new religion while calling it Islam".[3]

Young Turks
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, Union and
Progress, is believed to be inspired by leading positivist Auguste Comte's motto Order and Progress. Positivism
also served as a base for the desired strong government.[3]

Centralised government
During the late Ottoman Empire, all the intellectuals were state officials, and all Young Turks were on Empire
payroll. Their participation in the government apparently had led them to value state. They were reluctant to
approach theories against the state, such as Marxism or anarchism.
Another result of the 1908 Young Turk Revolution was the gradual creation of a new governing elite, which had
consolidated and cemented its control over the Ottoman civil and military administration by 1913.
As empire-savers the Young Turks always viewed the problems confronting the Ottoman Empire from the
standpoint of the state, placing little if any emphasis on the people's will. Thus the Young Turks' inclination toward
authoritarian theories was by no means a coincidence. All the theories that the Young Turks developed and took
particular interest in, such as biological materialism, positivism, Social Darwinism, and Gustave Le Bon's elitism,
defended an enlightenment from above and opposed the idea of a supposed equality among fellow-citizens.

Nationalism
Further information: Millet, Ottomanism, Turanism, Kemalist ideology
In regards to 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 Riza chose to replace the term "Ottoman"
with "Turk". However, it was not until 1904 that nationalism came to be based on a scientific theory, and following
the Japanese victory over Russia, the Young Turks began to base their nationalism on the pseudo-scientific race
theories of Europe.

Effect on Republic of Turkey

The Young Turk movement created a certain degree of dissent and anarchy in order to shape intellectual and
political life of the late Ottoman period, but they had constituted the foundations for Atatrk's revolution which had
turned Turkey into one of the most progressive and modern states by the standards of the time (e.g. in terms of
women's right to vote). Most of their leaders believed that the central government, but not the popular will which
was embodied in uneducated, pre-industrial, feudal masses, was the instrument by which social and political change
could be achieved through.
Except for the shift in focus on nationalism, the official ideology of the early modern Turkish state was shaped
during this period. The Young Turks who lived long enough to witness the coming into being of the Republic of
Turkey saw many of their ideals realized it was a regime based on a popular materialistic-positivist ideology. The
effect of the Young Turks on shaping the official ideology of early modern Turkey went far beyond the political
changes they brought about.

Young Turks

References
Notes
[1] Young Turks (http:/ / dictionary. reference. com/ search?q=young turk), Dictionary.com
[2] Lord Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries
[3] M. kr Haniolu. "The Political Ideas of the Young Turks"

Bibliography
M. kr Haniolu, The Young Turks in Opposition, Oxford University Press 1995, ISBN 0-19-509115-9
M. kr Haniolu, Preparation for a Revolution: The Young Turks, 19021908, Oxford University Press 2001,
ISBN 0-19-513463-X
M. kr Haniolu, The Anniversary of a Century-Old Ideology (http://www.zaman.com/?bl=commentary&
trh=20050929&hn=23455), Zaman Daily Newspaper (http://www.zaman.com), September 29, 2005
Stephen Kinzer, Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds, Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2001, ISBN
0-374-52866-7
David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace
(French) Yves Ternon, Empire ottoman : Le dclin, la chute, l'effacement, Paris, dition du Flin, 2002, ISBN
2-86645-601-7
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.120; online at Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies (http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=BSO&volumeId=68&issueId=01)
Necati Alkan, Dissent and Heterodoxy in the Late Ottoman Empire: Reformers, Babis and Baha'is (http://www.
theisispress.org/), ISIS Press: Istanbul, 2008
Hasan Kayali. Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 19081918
(http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft7n39p1dn/). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997

External links
Committee of Union and Progress (http://www.turkeyswar.com/prelude/cup.htm) Turkey in the First World
War website

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