Young Turks

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This article refers to the Turkish nationalist constitutionalist society. For other uses, please see Young Turks (disambiguation).

The Young Turks (Turkish Jöntürk (singular), Jöntürkler (plural), from French Jeunes Turcs, Arabic: تركيا الفتاة ) were Turkish, constitutionalist, progressive, partisan, which brought the second constitutional era by a revolution against Abdul Hamid II. The first movement was established among the military students in 1889, and with the official establishment of Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) in 1906, among the other parties, Young Turks became members of this party. The Young Turk movement built a rich tradition of dissent that shaped the intellectual, political and artistic life of the late Ottoman period (decline, dissolution).

The Three Pashas of the Young Turks ruled the Ottoman Empire from Coup of 1913 until the end of World War I. The Young Turks were responsible for orchestrating the Armenian Genocide#redirect .

Since this time "Young Turk" has also been used to signify any groups or individuals inside an organisation who are more progressive, seek prominence and power.[Dictionary.com defintion of "Young Turks"] [Forum discussion of definition of "Young Turk"]

Contents

Prominent Person

Young Turks were distributed among a couple big and many small organizations, besides the CUP. However, the prominent leaders and idealogists were

Pamphleteers and activists

Namık Kemal(1840-1888) supporter of concepts of french revolution and nationalist poet, translator, journalist, and social reformer;
Abdullah Cevdet supporter of biological materialism and later in his life promoted Bahá'í Faith.
Ziya Gökalp (1875-1924) publicist and pioneer sociologist, influenced by modern western European Culture.
Osman Hamdi Bey (1842-1910), painter, owner of the first specialized art school in Constantinople (1883).
Yusuf Akçura (1876-1935) journalist with secular national ideology, against Ottomanism and supporter of seperation in religion and social life.
Agah Efendi (1832-1885) founded the first Turkish newspaper and, aspostmaster, brought the postage stamp to the Ottoman Empire.
Ali Suavi (1839-1878), Nuri Bey, Ayetullah Bey, Refik Bey,

Governors

Ziya Pasha

Military Officers

Resat Bey, Enver Pasha

History

Underground, 1889-1906

The Young Turks originated from the secret societies of progressive university students and military cadets. 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.

Revolutionary, 1906-1908

The Young Turks were becoming a truly revolutionary movement with the 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 Talat. The OFS actively recruited members from the Third Army base, among them Major Ismal 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.

Congress of Ottoman Opposition

The Second congress of the Ottoman opposition took place in Paris, France in 1907. Oppositions 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.

Revolt

In 1908 the Ottoman Empire was facing the 'Macedonian Question'. Beginning with 1897 Czar Nicholas II and Franz Joseph was interested in the Balkans, and their policies were ready to brought the last stage of the balkanization process. Beginning with 1903 there were discussions on establishing administrative control of Russian and Austrian advisory boards and appointing them to Macedonian provinces. House of Osman was forced to accept this idea, which it was quite a while able to subvert its implementation. However there were signs that show this policy game was coming to an end. On May 13 1908 capability of CUP, and scale of its organization come to a point that its members could say to the Sultan 'Dynasty will be in danger' if he does not bring the constitution back. June 12 1908, the Third Army in Macedonia begin to march to Place. On 24 July the constitution was in order again.

Constitutional Era

Further information: Second Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire),Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire

Public assurances of equal treatment for the Empire's non-Muslim minorities that had been given in 1908 evaporated once the Young Turks were in power. Even among the Islamic majority, the Turkish-speaking segment of the Empire quickly emerged pre-eminent.

Ottoman territory was splintering away at the edges: Bosnia-Herzegovina annexed by Austria-Hungary (1908), Libya and the island of Rhodes annexed by Italy (1912), a rebellion in Albania, and the French were planning seizure of Syria (see Arab revolt). With the example of Egypt as a warning, the Young Turks sought to modernize the Empire's communications and transportation networks (which still relied on camel caravans), avoiding European conglomerates and non-Muslim bankers. Europeans already owned the meager railroad system (5,991 km of single-track railroads in the whole of the Ottoman dominions in 1914). Since 1881 the administration of the defaulted Ottoman foreign debt had been in European hands, and the Ottomon Empire was virtually an economic colony.

Balkan Wars

Further information: Balkan Wars

In 1913, as the government was losing the Second Balkan War, the power seized by coup of 1913. The dictatorial triumvirate government was headed by the Three Pashas. However, with the German archives were opened, it was revealed that the party was riven by internal dissent and loosely guided by a large directorate of the party's central committee.

WWI

Further information: Middle Eastern theatre of World War I

Rebuffed elsewhere by the major European powers, the CUP, with Ottoman-German Alliance led the Ottoman Empire to World War I. With the collapse of Bulgaria and Germany's capitulation, the Ottoman Empire was isolated. In 1915 the government executed a number of Arab nationalist intellectuals in Damascus and Beirut, as well number of Armenians, with the claim that there is Russia-backed uprisings (see Armenian Genocide for details). Later Ottomans faced with Arab revolt. On October 13, 1918, Talat and the CUP ministry resigned, and an armistice, the Armistice of Mudros was signed at the end of the month. On November 2, Enver, Talat and Cemal, escaped from Constantinople, but they will be faced with the executors of the Armenian Genocide.

Ideology

Liberalism

Although the European public and many scholars commonly labeled the Young Turks as liberals, these traits were never aspects of the Young Turk philosophy. The Young Turks did not adopt liberal ideas, and under the influence of the theories of Gustave Le Bon, they devalued parliaments as hazardous bodies.

Constitutionalism

Although the European public and many scholars commonly labeled the Young Turks as constitutionalists, Although a rhetoric promoting constitutionalism was implemented by the Young Turks, this scheme was merely a device to stave off any intervention by the Great Powers in the domestic politics of the Empire. The Young Turks followed the principle of developing an intellectual elite to govern the Empire, never envisioning participation of the masses in policy-making or administration.

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 Young Turks soon recognized the difficulty of spreading this idea and began to work at developing claims that Islam itself was materialism. As compared with later intellectual activities by Muslim intellectuals, such as the attempt to reconcile Islam and socialism, this was an extremely difficult thought. 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".

Positivism, with its claim of being a religion of science, deeply impressed Young Turks, who believed it could be more easily reconciled with Islam than could popular materialistic theories. 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.

Centralized 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 coincedence. 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 enlighment 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 non-Turkish members participating at the outset, the Young Turks were embraced the official state ideology - Ottomanism. However Ottoman patriotism failed during First Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire), and coming years. Many 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 Congress of 1902, a stronger focus on nationalism developed. It was at this time that Ahmet 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.

Impact on Republic of Turkey

The Young Turk movement built a rich tradition of dissent that shaped the intellectual and political life of the late Ottoman period and laid the foundation for Atatürk's revolution. Most of their leaders believed that the state, not popular will, was the instrument by which social and political change would be achieved. They bequeathed to Atatürk the conviction that reformers should seize state power and then use it ruthlessly for their own ends, not to democratize society in ways that would weaken the centralized state.

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 and nationalism. The new regime worked to be included in western culture while exerting an anti-imperialist rhetoric and convened a parliament composed not of elected politicians but of virtually selected intellectuals working on behalf of the people without cooperating in any capacity with the 'ignorant' masses. The impact of the Young Turks on shaping the official ideology of early modern Turkey went far beyond the political changes they effected.