THE REBIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS IN MACEDONIA

THROUGH THE ITALIAN FREEMASONRY

Author(s): OZAN ARSLAN and CINAR OZEN
Source: Oriente Moderno, Nuova serie, Anno 24 (85), Nr. 1 (2005), pp. 93-115
Published by: Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25817997 .
Accessed: 18/02/2015 07:03
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Oriente Moderno.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

OZAN ARSLAN- CINAROZEN

(izMiRUNIVERSITYOF ECONOMICS)

THE REBIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN COMMITTEE

OF UNION AND PROGRESS INMACEDONIA
THROUGH THE ITALIANFREEMASONRY

Introduction
article aims at clarifyingthe data concerning the birth of theOttoman
Liberty Committee (OLC) in Sal nica and its furthertransformationto a
in the 1900s.
second Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) inMacedonia
movement
in theOttoman Empire
The researchdone around theYoung Turks
during its last threedecades has seldom dealt with the differencesbetween vari
ous Young Turks groups opposing the rgime of istibd t of Sultan Abdulhamid
II. On the other hand, in this articlewe will emphasize the role of the Freema

This

sonry andMasonic lodges on the foundation and organization of theOLC. The

protagonists of theYoung Turks Revolution of 1908 were theYoung Turks of
Sal nica who had founded theOLC in 1906 after a preliminary organization in
theMasonic lodges of the ItalianObedience of the same city.
The founders and leading figures of theOttoman Liberty Committee (Os
kr
manli Hurriyet Cemiyeti) such asMehmet Talat Bey (laterPasha), Midhat

(Bleda) Bey,Mustafa Rahmi (Evranos, laterArslan) Bey, Omer Naci Bey, Naki
(Y cek k) Bey,Manyasizade Refik Bey, IsmailHakki Canbolat Bey, Hakki Ba
ha (Pars) Bey, Cavid Bey and Kazim Nami (Dum) Bey were (or became) all Free
masons. Except Cavid (hewas a member of thePerseverencia lodge of the Span
ish obedience in Sal nica) and Kazim Nami Beys, theywere all members of the

Masonic lodgeMacedonia Risorta ("Macedonia Resurrected" in Italian, named

after
Macedonia, the firstMasonic lodge of the Italian Obedience founded in
Sal nica in 18641) of the Italian Obedience conducting its affairsaccording to
the Scottish ritual.This lodge founded by an Ottoman Sephardic Jew,Emanue
leCarasso (he later rebaptised himself as Emanuel Karasu) provided a solid, reli
able and secret shelterfor the revolutionaryactivitiesof theseYoung Turks.
The Salonican Young Turks benefited from a suitable environment for their
was decisively marked by the
revolutionary organization. That is, the context
nationalist and revolutionarycurrentsofMacedonia, the relative freedom of the

1-

Angelo

Triangolo

Iacovella,

veHilal, Ittihad-Terakki
Gonye
Yurt
Vakfi
Tarih
Istanbul,
Yayinlari, 1998, p. 19.

trans, by Tulin Altinova,

e laMezzaluna),

veMasonluk

OM, XXIV n.s. (LXXXV), 1,2005, p. 93-115

C. A. Nallino - Roma
Istitutoper l'Oriente

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

(Il

94

OZANARSLAN

cosmopolitan city of Sal nica, the secrecy of the foreign Freemasonry, and the
participation of young and tremendously ambitious staffofficers serving in the
in the other towns ofMace
region. The organizational expansion of theOLC
donia and the furthermerging with the earlier Young Turk groups in exile
brought considerable prestige to themovement of Sal nica. The bold and impa
tientdemands of themilitarywing of theCommittee inMonastir in order to re

proclaim theConstitution of 1876 (Kanun-i Esasi) paved theway for theRevo

lution of 1908.
The Young Turks movement, their committees and revolutionary activities
have been subject to several articles and books. Some Turkish and foreign dis
tinguished academicians, such as Enver Ziya Karal, Tarik Zafer Tunaya, Sukru

Hanioglu, Sina Aksin, JanErik Z rcher,StefanosYerasimos, Ernest Edmondson

Ramsaur, Paul Dumont, Ilhan Tekeli or Selim Ukin provided valuable works
published inTurkish, English and French. Furthermore, some Young Turks and
"Unionist" leading names such as Kazim Nami Dum, Midhat Sukru Bleda,
Kazim Karabekir published their own memoirs. The approach to the constitu
tionalist revolutionaryorganization of Salonican Young Turks in the 1900s and
their connections with the Freemasonry has been also crucial for the analysis of
the rebirthof theOttoman Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and the
Young Turks' Revolution of 1908. The outstanding researchofAngelo Iacovella
and his book II Triangob e laMezzaluna
(The Triangle and theCrescent) reveal
the ties between the Italian Freemasonry and Salonican Young Turks via the
documents from the archives of the Italian grand lodgeGrande Oriente.

AbdulhamidIL hisregimeofoppression
and thefirst Ottoman Liberal movements

Sultan Abdulhamid II is undoubtedly one of thewell-known sovereigns of the

Ottoman history.He reigned as the Sultan of theOttomans and theCaliph of
theworld Muslims for 33 years between 1876 and 1909. He was called le Sultan
rouge (The Red Sultan) by theWestern press blaming him for brutality against
his Christian subjects and ordering severalmassacres of Christians. He was sa
luted as Ulu Hakan (The Great Emperor) by the religious and pan-islamist cir
cles due to his religious and calm character and pan-islamist ideas. There are
numerous publications written by Turkish and
foreign authors describing Ab
dulhamid II according to both of these views. Sultan Abdulhamid II is relevant
to thispaper because he implemented a harsh oppression policy on all constitu
tionalistOttoman movements during his reign.His reignwas aptly named by
theYoung Ottomans and theYoung Turks as the rgime of istibd t or the rgime
of oppression.

Abdulhamid was born on 21 September 1842 as the second son of the then
Sultan Abdulmedjit (his first son was Murad, laterMurad V). Unlike his older
brotherMurad, he did not have a modern Western-style education and did not
study foreign languages but he was a very good observer during his childhood.
In his adolescent year, he watched theWestern European powers allyingwith
theOttoman state against theRussian Empire in theCrimean War in the name

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE REBIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS.

95

of "Balance of Powers". Thus, he realized theweak position of theOttoman

state and the necessity of pursuing a diplomacy of balance among the Big Pow
ers.After his father'sdeath, his uncle Abdulaziz ascended to the throne and Ab
dulhamid became the second heir-apparent prince afterhis older brotherMurad.
Abdulaziz ruled 16 years until 1876 when he was dethroned by a coup d' tat of
theYoung Ottomans demanding a constitutionalmonarchy and replaced by the
pro-constitutionalMurad. The 34-year old Abdulhamid witnessed themysteri
ous death of his uncle,2 the former sultanAbdulaziz, afterhis dethroning. Al

though he became the heir-apparent prince after the enthroning ofMurad, Ab

dulhamid was irritatedby the power and coupd' tatof theYoung Ottomans and
by theirdesire to restrictthe political power of theOttoman Sultan.When his
older brother had to be dethroned due tomental health problems3 after brief
over the throne toAbdul
reign of 93 days, theYoung Ottomans had to hand
hamid. Abdulhamid seemed favorable to a constitutionalmonarchy and was en
throned inAugust 1876. However, since he was skeptical about theYoung Ot
tomans and the constitution, he tolerated the parliament and the constitutional
rgime foronly 17months until February 1878 when he abolished the constitu

tion under the pretext of the extraordinaryconditions of theTurco-Russian War

of 1877-1878.
The abolition of the constitutionwas only the startof the oppressive rgime
of Abdulhamid II. After the end of theTurco-Russian War, he sent away the
movement and took absolute control of
leading figures of theYoung Ottomans'
the state. Suspicious about the political loyalties of the army and the navy, he
appointed loyal but incompetent subjects to the high commands and eliminated

the merit system.He suppressed the press. The remaining Young Ottomans
who were not sent to exile to the far-awayprovinces of the Empire were forced
to flee toEgypt or Europe.
However, the failure of theYoung Ottomans and the harshmeasures of the
Palace did not completely extinguish the revolutionary effortsof theOttoman
intellectuals.During the firstdecade of the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II the
Ottomans' Union Committee (Ittihad-i Osmani Cemiyeti)was founded in 1889
by studentsof the ImperialMilitary Medicine Faculty in Istanbul. In the follow
ingyears, itwould be renamed as the firstCUP in theOttoman political life.
Thefirst Committee ofUnion and Progress
The organizational effortsof the new generation of theOttoman revolutionaries
were carried out in theMilitary and Medical schools of Istanbul at the end of
the 1880s and in the early 1890s. In 1889, a group of students from theMilitary
School ofMedicine (Mekteh-i Tihbiye-iAskeriye) in Istanbul founded a revolu
tionaryorganization called Ottomans' Union Committee (Ittihad-i Osmani Ce
2 - Abdulaziz
-

was found dead with his wrist veins slit.

to live under a permanent custody of Abdulaziz's

spies and police in his
was a
of being assassinated
heir-apparent prince. This custody and the danger
palace when he
made a very negative effect on his mental health.
3

Murad

had had

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

o6

OZANARSLAN

were Ibrahim Temo,

miyeti) aiming to dethrone Abdulhamid.4 The founders
Abdullah Cevdet, Huseyinzade Ali, Ish k Sukuti andMehmet Resid.5 The Com
mittee renamed as theOttoman Committee ofUnion and Progress (Osmanli It
tihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti) opposed the rgime of oppression of Sultan Abdul
hamid II and sought a parliamentary constitutionalmonarchy through the re
proclamation of the abolished Constitution of 1876. During the following years,
many students from the ImperialMilitary, Medicine, Engineering and Navy

Schools joined theOttomans' Union Committee (OUC), but "the nucleus of

theCommittee were theMilitary Medicine Faculty (Tibbiye-yiAskeriye) and the
War Academy (Harbiye).6
In additional, communication was established between the OUC
and the
Ottoman intellectualsforced into exile after the abolition of theConstitution of
1876. The leadingmembers of theseOttoman intellectualswere Mizanci Murad
Bey (a pan-islamist Young Turk named asMizanci afterhis weekly newspaper
Mizan which he had started to publish in 1886),7 Ahmet Riza Bey, a positivist
Young Turk intellectual, and, Prince Sabahaddin, the cousin of Sultan Abdul
hamid II. The Committee was organized in cells of four people based upon the
model of Italian revolutionaryCarbonaria.
InAugust 1896, theCommittee decided to attempt a coup d' tat.However,
the existence of theCommittee was discovered by the network of spies and de

tectives of Abdulhamid. Moreover, the outburst of the Turco-Greek War of

1897 that ended with a fastvictory of theOttoman state consolidated the pres
tige and authority ofAbdulhamid II in domestic politics. After the uncovering
of theCommittee, theYoung Turks of theCUP met the same fate as theYoung

Ottomans:

had

Abdulhamid

them

arrested

and

sent

to exile.

arrests

The

and

trialsof 1896-1897 destroyed the entire infrastructure

of the organization within
theOttoman state and for the next ten years the resistance against the rgime of
Abdulhamid II was carried on from abroad.8 The defeat of the firstCUP was to
prove instructiveand greatly influenced the furthereffortsof theYoung Turks
of the 1900s.
After theirdefeat in 1896-1897, most ofYoung Turks fled to Europe, espe
cially to Paris,while a smaller group went to Egypt. Both of these groups linked
theYoung Ottomans

Stefanos Yerasimos,

I. Dunya

Savasi'na

in their respectiveplaces of exile. The branch in Paris was

trans, by Bab

(Turquie:

rKuzucu,

le processus d'un

Azgelismislik Surecinde Turkiye, Tanzimat'tan

sous-d veloppement),
3 vols., 5th ed., Istanbul,

Beige Yayinlari, 1987, 2, p. 415.

5 Enver Ziya Karal, "Birinci Mesrutiyet ve Istibdat Devirleri (1876-1907)",
Cilt VIII, Ankara, Turk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, 1988, p. 513-514.

Osmanli

6 - Erik Jan Z rcher, trans, by N

Factor, The Role of the Committee

Tarihi,

zhet Salihoglu, Milli Mucadelede

Ittihatcilik (The Unionist
of Union and Progress in theTurkish National Movement
Istanbul, Baglam Yayincilik, 1995, p. 41.

1905-1926),
- Sina
Aksin, Jon Turkler ve Ittihat ve Terakki, Istanbul, Remzi Kitabevi,
8 Z rcher,Milli Mucadelede
Ittihat tlik,p. 43.

1987, p. 34.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE REBIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS.

97

gathered around Ahmed Riza Bey and his bilingual newspaperMeshvere pub
lished in French and inTurkish, and the second and smaller branch inCairo
around Murad Bey (Mizanci) and his Turkish-language newspaperMizan.10
Nonetheless, the late 1890s and the early 1900s were a period of passive opposi
tion through the journalism in exile for theYoung Turks. These newspapers
published abroad were strictlyprohibited by theAbdulhamid's rgime and se
cretly reached theOttoman lands and theirmass of readers (high school, mili

taryand university students, small and middle bourgeoisieand some bureaucrats)

through the foreign postal services and post offices scattered throughout in the
Empire due to the capitulations.After the collapse of the organization of thisfirst
CUP, theOttoman constitutionalistmovement and the Young Turks had to
wait until 1906 in order to establish once again an efficientand well-founded
organization thatwas to be called theOttoman LibertyCommittee.

A Convenient Political Climate For a New Constitutionalist LibertyMovement:

The Social and Political Conditions of
Macedonia and ItsNationalist Currents
At the beginning of the 20th century,Macedonia was a restless region of the
Ottoman Empire. Bulgarian, Greek and Serbian nationalists supported by the
Russian and Austrian Empires, intent on interferingthe region,were claiming
thiswealthy and cosmopolitan province of the Balkans and fighting theOtto
man administration by using
a region
guerilla tactics.Moreover, Macedonia was
were
where Bulgarian, Albanian, Greek, Serbian and Romanian ethnicities
living
mixed togetherwith Muslim-Turks.
Greece

and

Serbia,

were

aiming

Each of the neighbor states of Bulgaria,

to annex Macedonia.

Under

the Ottoman

ad

ministrative system, the administrative region ofMacedonia consisted of three

provinces: Sal nica, Kosovo, andMonastir (todayBitola). The population of these
three provinces was approximately 3,000,000 inhabitants of which half of this
number was divided among 900,000 ethnic Bulgarians, 300,000 ethnicGreeks,
100,000 ethnic Serbians and 100,000 ethnic Romanians while the remaining
half of the population consisted of 1,400,000 Muslim Turkish and Albanian
Ottomans.11

The Question ofMacedonia startedwith the annexation of Eastern Rumelia

by Bulgaria in 1885 and the firstkomitas12were founded in Sofia and theyhad
became

active

Meshveret

in Macedonia.13

means

"consultation"

Actually,

inOttoman

even

after

Turkish. The

the annexation

of Eastern

French version of the newspa

per was called Meshveret Suppl ment Fran ais.

10 - Mizan means "balance" inOttoman Turkish.
11 - For these numbers,

see Aksin, Jon Turkler, p. 49. However,

it seems that Aksin
to number
can
in
which
Macedonia
be
estimated
Jewish community
inhabitants, mainly living in Sal nica, at the beginning of the 20th century.

the Ottoman

100,000
12 - Komita was

ignored
around

theword for committee in Bulgarian and referred to the armed bands of Bul
means in their conflict with the Ottoman
administration and
garian nationalists using guerilla
and Albanians.
the other ethnicities of the Balkans, such as Greeks, Serbians, Romanians
13 Yerasimos, Azgelismislik Surecinde Turkiye, 2, p. 406.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

OZANARSLAN

98

Rumelia by Prince Alexander of Bulgaria, the region continued nominally to be

under theOttoman administration until Bulgaria became officially independent
in 1908.
After the creation of the first komitas in Bulgaria, every ethnicity living in
Macedonia started to form its own nationalist armed bands and ethnic clashes
raised in the region.Moreover, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece were prone at the

beginning of the 20th century to exaggerate the number of its compatriots in

Macedonia according to its interests in the region and sent themmoney and
weapons.

The komitas aim was to incite and to arm their compatriots against theOt
toman administration and the other ethnicities of the region.Their furtheraim
was to provoke theOttoman administration to takemeasures (preferablyharsh

ones) against their guerilla activities and finally to provoke the interventionof
the Big Powers, especially of Russia and Austria-Hungary. The Great Powers
threatened the Sublime Porte with a common interventionand to disregard the
Ottoman sovereigntyover the region. Since theydid not have a consensus on a
peaceful solution to theMacedonian Question, each of theGreat Powers was

afraid of an interventionwhich excluded itself. In order to prevent that, they

on the Sublime Porte tomake concessions concerning the
agreed to put pressure

administration

of

forms

almost

creating

the

These
region.
an autonomous

concessions

were

international

some

comprehensive
in 1903

administration

re

in

the vilayetofMacedonia.

"However, theBulgarians who were ignored in the reforms issues, started the

vicious
over,

circle
all

of

'provocation-suppression-reaction'
to
events were
presented
European

these

religiousMuslims
The

to the reformplans."15

Austro-Hungarian

and

Russian

Empires

of
public
saw

the Big

Powers.14

opinion

More

as a reaction

the opportunity

of

to inter

vene in theMacedonian affairsof theOttoman Empire through the instability

in the region.As a prelude for its furtherexpansion in the Balkans, theHabs
burgmonarchy was looking forward to occupying militarily Bosnia-Herzegovina
which was still officiallyan Ottoman vilayet at that time.On 2 October 1903,
after a meeting of Francis Joseph ofAustria and Nicholas II of Russia inMiirz
steg,Austria, Vienna and Saint-Petersburg agreed on a reformproject concern
ing theOttoman administrative region ofMacedonia without even asking the
opinion of the Sublime Porte. After having received the approval of the other
Great Powers, Austria-Hungary and Russia submitted their "reformprogram" to
the Sublime Porte on the 9th ofOctober 1903.
14 - The

It is
and Greece.
agitations of the Bulgarians worried also the Greeks ofMacedonia
some Greek officers offered
to
that during the revolt of the former inMacedonia,
help
theOttoman
ambassador inAthens (see Tekeli and Ukin, "Ittihat
army through the Ottoman
ve Terakki'nin Olusumunda
Selanik'in Toplumsal
Belirleyiciligi ("The Social Key Factor of
claimed

Sal nica

Tarihi,

in the Foundation

of the Union
and Progress)"
in Turkiye'nin
(The Social and Economic History of Turkey, 1071-1920),
Inalcik, Ankara, 1980, p. 370.

1071-1920

Sosyal Ekonomik
ed. Osman Ok

yar, Halil
15 Yerasimos, Azgelismislik Surecinde Turkiye, 2, p. 410.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE REBIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS.

99

"One of themost important articles of the program concerned the appoint

ment of two foreign inspectors,one Russian and one Austrian, towork with the
Ottoman

General

Inspector.

Another

important

article was

about

the appoint

ment of a foreign general at the head of theOttoman gendarmerie forces of the

region and of foreignofficers in the same gendarmerie. The generalwas an Ital
ian16 and Macedonia was divided into five districts, and each districtwas given
25 officersfrom a Great Power (Germany did not accept to participate). Fur
thermore,the budgets of the threeprovinces ofMacedonia were to be controlled
by theOttoman Bank."17
In 1902, the Sublime Porte had appointed Huseyin Hilmi Pasha as General
Inspector of the Ottoman administration in the threeMacedonian provinces
(Sal nica, Monastir and Kosovo) in order to implement the reformprogram of
the Sultan. The reformswere ineffective,so the General Inspector was com

pelled to use force to suppress the rebellion. However,

rebellion

attracted

undue

international

attention

the suppression of the

toMacedonia.

Under the pressure of all of theGreat Powers exceptGermany, the Sublime

Porte had to accept all theirdemands and conditions.When theOttoman gov
ernment asked theirpermission to increase the custom tariffsby 3% (from 8%
up to 11%) in order to finance the reforms inMacedonia, thiswas accepted by

each of theBig Powers only afterobtaining furtherfinancial concessions (capitu

lations) from the Sublime Porte. However, the interferenceof the Big Powers
regarding theMacedonian Question did not improve the situation in the region.
The komitasyprobably encouraged by the fact that the legitimacy and sover
eignty of theOttoman administration inMacedonia was eroding by the arrival

of an international interventioncorps, increased theirguerilla activities.

In spite of the reformsand suppression of the rebellion, disturbances and the
to the records of Huseyin
guerilla warfare continued inMacedonia. According
Hilmi Pasha, therewere in the year 1906, 98 engagements between theOtto
man gendarmerie and the komitas inMacedonia, 56 with Bulgarian, 32 with
Greek and 10 with Serbian bands killing 530 people. In the following year of
1907, the human cost of the armed conflictwas high again: a total of 79 en
gagements between the gendarmerie and armed bands (46 with Bulgarian, 24
with Greek and 9 with Serbian bands), resulted in thedeaths of 435 people.18
Reactions inside theTurkish military elite inMacedonia

The permanent interventionof theEuropean Big Powers into the internalaffairs

of theOttoman state and theirdemands stimulatedOttoman-Turkish patriot
ism inMacedonia. The young staffofficersof the twoOttoman army corps sta
inMacedonia
16 - It is interesting to see that theMasonic
lodges of the Italian Obedience
at
(Sal nica) became more active after the appointment of an Italian general called Degiorgis
the head of the international gendarmerie
17 Aksin,/<? Turkler, p. 50.
18 - For these numbers
Toplumsal

Belirleyiciligi",

see Tekeli

in the region.

and Ukin, "Ittihat ve Terakki'nin

Olusumunda

p. 371.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Selanik'in

wo

OZANARSLAN

doned inMacedonia were watching the constant interventionsof the European

powers with great concern. These idealistyoung graduates of theOttoman War
Academy, forming the lite of theOttoman Army, were worried about the fu
ture of theOttoman state and the destiny of itsTurkish-Muslim people. They
were also irritatedby the arrogant interferenceof foreign officers.These young

Turkish staff(erkan-i harbiye) officers, seeing often engagementswith the Bul

garian, Greek, Serbian and Albanian bands, risking their lives for the survivalof
their country, shared increasinglypatriotic feelings.They also blamed the rgime

of Sultan Abdulhamid II and his lack of trust in themilitary for hindering all
kinds of progressive activities in the Empire and for neglecting the needs of the
army.

Remembering the role of theOttoman army and the navy in the dethroning
of his uncle Sultan Abdulaziz, Abdulhamid II neglected both and he intention
ally kept them in a weak position. He favored assigned (alayli)19 officers to the
staffofficers trained in theWestern style at themodern military schools of Is
tanbul, arguing that the formerwere more devoted to their Sultan than the lat
ter.However, since the hot region of the Empire was Macedonia due to ethnic

conflicts, the Sultan's government and General Staffwere sending the young
graduates of theWar Academy for their field internships to the liteOttoman
army corps stationed inMacedonia. These young staffofficers,themost success
ful and brilliant students in theOttoman War Academy, were expected to be the
best officersof theOttoman Army. Moreover, theywere gathered in themost
suitable region of theEmpire for a revolutionwhere the tyrannical rgime of the
Sultan was smoother compared to the other regions of the Empire. Most of
themwere stronglycritical towards the rgime ofAbdulhamid II. They had lead

ership skills and thewill to change the destiny of theEmpire. Thus, Macedonia
became the breeding ground of nationalism of these young and idealistOtto
man-Turkish staffofficers.The Turkish officers,by fighting the komitas strug
gling to achieve theirnationalist aims inMacedonia got inspirationfrom the lat
While the latterwere all fightingfor a national state, theTurkish officers
ter.20
were fightingfor a despot sultan.21
During their internships22and services inMacedonia, these officers saw en
gagements, learned about the guerrilla tactics of the komitas and theirnational
isms, lost their brothers-in-arms in ambushes, and all the time had a constant
and overriding question on theirminds: "How can we save the state?".Their
19 - These

officers called alayh in theOttoman Army were soldiers or non-commissioned

offi
promoted to the class of officers after having served in the army for a long time. Since they
did not have a professional training of a staff officer,
generally, they had poor military knowl
edge and commanding skills.
cers

20 - Tekeli

and Ukin,

"Ittihat ve Terakki'nin

Olusumunda

Selanik'in

Toplumsal

Belirleyici

ligi, p. 371.
21 - Ibidem.
22 - In theOttoman

army, newly-graduated staffofficers used tomake

and
units
cavalry
artillery
regardless their branches.

internships in infantry,

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE REBIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS. ..

101

existing revolutionaryaims and plans began to take shape and were influenced
by what they learned from theMacedonian secretorganizations. Moreover, the
arrival of foreign officers toMacedonia also stimulated the revolutionary and
nationalist feelings of these young Turkish staffofficers.The Turkish officers
risking every day their lives for their statewere receiving their salaries only six
months per year and these salarieswere clearly low compared to salaries of the
foreign officersof theGreat Powers sent toMacedonia. The provocative activi
ties and encouraging propagandas of European consuls (at the beginning of the
20th century, the big European states,namely Britain, France, Germany, Russia,
Austria-Hungary and Italy,had consulates in almost every town ofMacedonia)
towards theBalkan ethnicitieswere also irritatingtheTurkish officers.23
The mobile combatant life in the pursuit of komitas created a strong solidar
ityamong the young Turkish officersserving inMacedonia and kept them away
from the suspicious surveillance of the secret detectives (hafiye) of the Sultan.

Their organizational skills and abilities improved considerably. They began to

think that the absolute monarchy of the Sultan was the first obstacle to over
come

to save

in order

the Ottoman

state.

The traditional role of theFreemasonry

in theOttoman Constitutionalist movements
It is essential to emphasize the fact that the revolutionarymovements of theOt
toman Turks were the late response of the intellectualsof theTurkish society of
the Empire to the ideals of the French Revolution, ideals such as libertyand

nationalism. These intellectuals,young officers,medical doctors, academicians,

civil servantsand merchants of the small bourgeoisieknew verywell that the col
lapse of the Empire was getting closer if theydid not do something soon. They
did not know what exactly to do, but all wished to transformthe Empire into a

modern statewithout its dismemberment. These people, concerned about the

destiny of theOttoman nation and of the Empire, were called at the end of the
19th and at the beginning of the 20th centuries consecutively as Young Otto
mans

and Young

Turks.

At thispoint, the role played by the Freemasonry andMasonic lodges for the
Ottoman intellectualsneeds to be analyzed.Masonic lodges provided organiza
tional facilitiesfor theYoung Ottoman and Young Turks movements. The lead
ing figures of both of the Constitutional Monarchist Eras were organized in
Masonic lodges consecutively in Istanbul and in Sal nica. The Ottoman digni
taries realizing the First Constitutional Era were organized in the Proodos and
Envar-i Sarkiye lodges of the French Obedience in Istanbul, and the ones realiz
were
organized in theMacedonia Risorta and
ing the Second Constitutional Era
later also in the Labor et Lux lodges of the Italian Obedience in Sal nica. The

factwhy the Second Constitutional Era was organized in Sal nica will be later
discussed in this article.

23

See Karabekir,

Ittihat ve Terakki CemiyetU p. 91 and 101.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

OZANARSLAN

I02

The very firstpioneers of the revolutionaryYoung Turks movement were

these constitutionalistYoung Ottomans who opposed Sultan Abdulaziz and his
rgime. The Young Ottomans enjoyed the support and protection of theMa
sonic lodges of Istanbul in the 1870s. Tarik Zafer Tunaya states that "to tell the
fact that the Freemasonry has been at the outset of the very first liberal and con

stitutionalistcurrents in theOttoman Empire is not in contradiction with his

torical realities".24The leading and famous figures of theNew Ottomans like
Midhat Pasha, Ziya Pasha, Namik Kemal Bey, Ali Suavi Bey, Sinasi Bey, Ibra
him Hakki Pasha, Sadullah Pasha, Ali Haydar Bey, Ali Sefkati Bey, Cemaleddin
as well as the
Afgani Bey, Tunuslu Hayrettin Pasha and Ahmet Vefik Pasha25
a
for
Murad
of
Murad
Sultan
V26
(later
93-day
heir-apparent prince
reign)were
freemasons inducted into the ranks of the lodges Proodos ("Progress" inGreek)

and Envar-i Sarkiye (thefirstMasonic lodge conducting itsaffairsin theTurkish

language) in Istanbul. These leading statesmen and dignitaries ofOttoman soci
etywere supported by some well-known Freemasons such as Cleanthi Scalieri,
an Istanbul Greek by birth, and, Fran ois Louis Aimable, then a French lawyer

in Istanbul and latera leading figure of the universal Freemasonry and mayor of
Paris,27 in their reformistand constitutionalist activities.
These leading intellectuals and high-ranking bureaucrats of the eramanaged
even to replaceAbdulaziz by his nephew, the heir-apparent princeMurad who
would reign for 93 days as Sultan Murad V and proclaim the firstOttoman
constitution in 1876.
After his dethroning,Murad was kept in theCiragan palace in Istanbul un
der a strict surveillance ofAbdulhamid's police and spies.However, freemasons

of Istanbul, led by Scalieri, kept in touch secretlywith Murad and they even
tried to rescue him from the palace in 1878.28 But, afterfailed attempt, the Free
masons had to stop theireffortsto freeand enthrone him once again.Murad had
to live in his palace under surveillance for 29 years until his death in 1905 and
Abdulhamid II suppressed allMasonic lodges in Istanbul and in provinces under
thepretext that theywere conspiracy centers of theYoung Ottomans.
The birth of theOttoman Liberty Committee and the role of theFreemasonry

24

Tarik Zafer Tunaya, Turkiye'de Siyasal Partiler, Cilt I: Ikinci Mesrutiyet Donemi,
Istanbul, Hurriyet Vakfi Yayinlari, 1988, 1, p. 381.

25-

Ibid., l,p. 381-382.

26- Murad

V.

Sultan who

ascended

(1840-1904)

Istanbul on 20-10-1872
Mimar
27Middle

3 vols.,

Sinan, 66

The

oldest

the throne on
(seeMesut

son of Sultan Abdulmecit

18-05-1876.

Tuncel,

He

"Masonlar

Sukru Hanioglu,
"Notes on the Young
Eastern Studies, 25 (1989), p. 187.

28 - See Suha Umur,

ofMurad

inducted

ve V. Murad

and

the 33rd Ottoman

in the Proodos
(Masons

in
lodge
and Murad V)",

(1987), p. 8.

See M.

masonry

was

"V. Murad'in

V)", Mimar

Turks

Hakkinda
Masonlugu
Sinan, 18 (1975), p. 32-33.

and the Freemasons

Belgeler

(Documents

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1875-1908",
on the Free

THE REBIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS. ..

103

The Secretary of theGrand Master of theGrande Oriente (the highest national

Masonic lodge in Italy) Ettore Ferrari visited theOttoman cities of Istanbul,
Sal nica and Izmir in 1900 in order to deliver the privatemessage of the Italian
Grand Master. The aim of this tripwas to awaken the lodges of ItalianObedi
ence in theOttoman Empire from their sleep inwhich theywere since the as
cension ofAbdulhamid II to the thrown in 1876. Shortly after this trip in 1901,
theMacedonia lodge restarted to conduct its affairsunder its new nameMace

donia Risorta in itsold temple in theBoulma Giani street in Sal nica.29 The first
person inducted into the ranks ofMacedonia Risorta was SalvatoreModiano, a
financier of Sal nica, who was inducted on 24 December 1901.30 This resur
rected lodge of the Italian obedience was going to play a crucial role in the
foundation and efficientorganization of theOLC thatwas the precursor of the
second CUP of theOttoman history. Iacovella states that "under the light of
documents

and

events,

the connection

between

the

resurrection

of

the Mace

donia lodge and the birth of theCUP is beyond any doubt. And Ettore Ferrari
also confirms this fact in his conference titled La Massoneria e la Rivoluzione
Turca (TheMasonry and theTurkish Revolution)".31
The Macedonia Risorta lodge owes its rebirth in Sal nica not only to the
Grande Oriente and to Ettore Ferrari but also to a young Ottoman Sephardic

Jewish lawyer,Emanuele Carasso. Carasso held the post ofworshipful master of

the new lodge and welcomed later in 1903 three importantYoung Turks of the
futureOLC founded in 1906 in Sal nica. This Ottoman Jewish lawyerwas the
person who would connect in the coming years theYoung Turks of Sal nica to
the Italian

Freemasonry.32

Ferrarimentioned the connection between theYoung Turks of Sal nica and

the Italian Freemasonry in the FrenchMasonic reviewAcacia in 1910, quoted
as follows:
by Iacovella in //Triangolo e laMezzaluna^
"Abdulhamidwho was livingwith a constant fearof being killed
had only feelingsof suspicion and hatred.He was carryingout the

most

cruel

revenges,

imprisonments,

exiles

and

unjust

executions.

Perhaps, in doing so he was hoping to eliminate the seeds of the

the rights of associa
law was not recognizing
[...] Turkish
were
it.
founded
tions and was forbidding
get
secretly
Organizations
were
their
members
of
and
after
denunciations
abolished
spies
ting
revolution.

some of leaders of the Ottoman

In that phase,
imprisoned.
out the existence
movement
and
of our organization
found
liberty

getting

thequalities of itsprinciples. [...]They decided to apply to the Free

masonry and threeof them introduced themselvesto the high rank
29
30

Iacovella, Gonye veHilal,

p. 37.

Ibid., p. 60.

31-Ibid.,
p. 37.
It is also an important point to bear in mind that the Italian Freemasonry
32
in the 1850s.
protected Young Italians in their revolutionary efforts
33

Iacovella, Gonye veHilal,

p. 37-38.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

helped

and

OZANARSLAN

104

ing authoritiesof theMacedonia Risorta lodge of the Italian Grande

Oriente inSal nica. They told that theywere readyfor the conducted
affairs and

asked

assistance

against

inflicted on

the oppression

them.

[...] The lodge accepted thesepersonswho were eligiblenot only be

cause of their social statusbut also for the sense that theyexpressed
afterfulfillingall rituals. [...] Other two Turkish liberalswho had
been inducted earlier into the ranksofMacedonia Risorta also joined
these threenew brothers.Thus, theyfounded the firstgroup of the
of the Young
commissioned

agitation organization
sonry of Sal nica also
ers to be volunteers.

Since

they

Turks

were

community.

five other

The

Freema

non-Ottoman

foreigners,

broth

these persons

had

the

freedom to correspondwith theYoung Turk groupswhich were liv

ing abroad, in France, Bulgaria and Switzerland, and risking their
lives in case of return to their homeland.

tee was

its affairs

conducting

commit

The

successfully

revolutionary
since they were

protected

by the effortsof foreignfreemasons.As themembers of theCommit

tee did not have any place where theycould safelymeet each other
and

the current

evaluate

lodge

events,

was
tionary work

prepared

Risorta

the lounge of theMacedonia

tell that that wonderful

can

their center. We

became

and directed

hour

by hour

revolu

there."34

movement" applying to the Freema

These "some leaders of theOttoman liberty
are
to
Ferrari
beMehmet Talat35 Bey,Midhat Sukru
sonrymentioned above by
Rahmi
(Bleda)36Bey andMustafa
(Evranos)37Bey who were all inducted into the
in
ranks ofMacedonia Risorta
1903. However, it is not easy to name of the
two
Turkish liberalswho had been inducted earlier into the ranks ofMa
"other

34

- Ettore
Ferrari, "La Massoneria

35- Mehmet

Takt

e laRivoluzione
Grand

(1874-1921)

and Deputy
(1913-1917)
Masonic
lodge Macedonia

of Edirne. His
Risorta

Vizier
birth date

in which

Turca", Acacia

2 (1910),

Minister

(1917-1918),
is registered as 1869

he was

inducted

p. 122.

of Interior Affairs
in the records of the

in 12/06/1903

(see Iacovella,
veHilal, 60). He
Gonye
joined the first "Committee of Union and Progress" in the 1890s and
was sent to exile in 1896 to Sal nica where he founded the OLC
in 1906. After the Young
in 1908, he was always one of themost influential
figures of the Committee
and Progress. After the end of theWorld War
I, he fled to Germany and was mur
assassin called Soghomon Tehlirian on 15 March
dered by an Armenian
1921 in Berlin. Al
was released
by the German tribunal.
though themurderer admitted his crime, he

Turk Revolution
of Union

36- Midhat

Sukru

General Secretary
Founding member of the OLC,
of the Central Board (merkez-i umumi) of the CUP
(1917
1918). He has been the deputy of Serez (1908), Drama
(1912) and Burdur (1916) in consecu
tiveOttoman
Parliaments and sent to exile toMalta by the British after the occupation of the

(k tib-i umumi)

(Bleda)

(1874-1956)

and member

latter in Istanbul. He was

the Turkish Republic.

in 1935 deputy of Sivas to the Great National Assembly

inducted inMacedonia
Risorta on 19/09/1903 (ibid. idem).

elected

He was

of

Governor
of Izmir (1913-1918),
37- Mustafa Rahmi
(Evranos, later Arslan)
(1873-1947)
of the wealthy family of Evranos of Rumelia. He
Deputy of Sal nica (1908-1912). Member
was inducted inMacedonia
as Rahmi bin Riza
Risorta in 19/11/1903. His name ismentioned
(Rahmi, son of Riza in Arabic)
as well (see ibid., p. 61).

in some sources and

in the records of theMacedonia

lodge

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Risorta

THE REBIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS. ..

cedonia

Risorta'.

Nevertheless,

since he was

the person

who

supported

105

the revo

lutionaryactivitiesof theYoung Turks of Sal nica, Emanuele Carasso (who later

adopted the Turkish family name Karasu) must be one of those two Turkish
liberals.

Mehmet Talat, Midhat Sukru andMustafa Rahmi Beys had all been mem
bers of differentbranches of the firstCUP in the 1890s, Talat Bey in Edirne,
Midhat Sukru Bey in Geneva, Mustafa Rahmi Bey in Sal nica and Talat Bey
had kept in touchwith themembers of theCommittee living abroad in the late
1890s and early 1900s through the connection of Bulgaria.38 He had even been
arrested once for that. Furthermore,Midhat Sukru and Mustafa Rahmi Beys
had been before in touch inGenoa with the leading figures of the firstCommit
teewho escaped from the rgime ofAbdulhamid II, and, also with the Freema
sonry.Midhat Sukru Bey had worked with Mizanci Murat Bey and been in
touchwith Ishak Sukuti and Abdullah Cevdet Beys inGenoa.39
After the startof the revolutionary activities of theseYoung Turks of Sal nica in the
Macedonia Risorta lodge,many elite officersof the II. Ottoman Army
stationed in Sal nica as well as some notables of the city such asManyasizade

Refik Bey40 joined them in the ranks of the lodge in the following years. Since
1903, the yearMehmet T lat and his friendswere inducted, until 1908 when
the Young Turk Revolution emerged, eighteen officers of theseArmy Corps
were inducted in
Macedonia Risorta.
After the preparatory phase of a revolutionary committee in theMasonic

lodges of the city, ten Salonican Young Turks founded the Ottoman Liberty
Committee in September 1906. They were namelyMehmet Talat Bey, a young
officer (later the secretarygeneral) of the Postal and Telegraph Services of Sal
nica; Midhat Sukru Bey, the director of the municipal hospital in Sal nica;
Mustafa Rahmi Bey, a young merchant from thewell-known, wealthy Salonican
family of Evrenos; First Lieutenant Ismail Hakki Canbolat41 Bey, Major Naki

- For
the connections ofMehmet Takt Bey with Bulgaria, see thememoirs of Kazim Kara
38
bekir (Karabekir, Ittihatve Terakki Cemiyeti, p. 168-171.
- See Z
cadelede Ittihatcilik, p. 43.
39
rcher,Milli M
Z rcher is seemingly confused about the birth and death
40 - Manyasizade
Refik (1855-1909)
dates of Refik Bey stating them as 1853 and 1908 (see ibid., 74), Iacovelk quotes his obituary

on 04/03/1909
in Italy on 31/03/
released by Rivista Massonica
declaring his date of death
Risorta (see Iacovelk, Gonye veHilal, p. 41-42
1909 and the records of members ofMacedonia
and for records 62). Minister of Justice (1908) until his death, professor at the Political Sci
ences Faculty
in Sal nica. He joined theOLC
after his mov
(Miilkiye) in Istanbul and lawyer
was not one of the
of the
to Sal nica from Istanbul.
members
he
founding
ing
Although
he became a leading figure of it.He was the first "Unionist" serving in the Otto
Committee
man Cabinet. He was inducted inMacedonia
Risorta on 17/11/1906.
41 - Ismail Hakki

Minister of
Canbolat
(1880-1926)
Founding officer member of the OLC,
to Sweden (1918), Governor of Istanbul (1915)
Interior Affairs (1918), Ottoman Ambassador
and Deputy of Izmir (1912). He was sent to exile toMalta by the British after their occupa
tion in Istanbul (1920). He was sentenced to death and executed in 1926 due to his connec
tions to the assassination

attempt toMustafa

Kemal.

He was

inducted

inMacedonia

21/09/1907(ibid.,p. 60).

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Risorta on

io6

OZANARSLAN

(Yucekok) Bey, instructorof French at the Sal nica Military High School; Ma
jorMehmet Tahir Bey, the director of the Sal nica Military High School; Cap
tain Edip Servet (Tor) Bey, theOttoman aide-de-camp of the Italian general
was the commander of the international gendarmerie stationed
Degiorgis, who
inMacedonia; Captain Kazim Nami (Dum) Bey, the aide-de-camp of theOt
toman Field Marshal Ibrahim Pasha in Sal nica; First Lieutenant Hakki Baha
(Pars) Bey, First Lieutenant Omer Naci Bey.42
The joining of Turkish officers into theMasonic lodges of Sal nica follow
ingMehmet Talat, Midhat Sukru and Mustafa Rahmi Beys made the revolu
tionary group in the lodge and later theCommittee not only more influential

but also secure.This connection between theMasonic lodges of Italian Obedi

ence and some Turkish staffofficers seems to have served crucially the revolu
tionary aims of theCommittee. Once again the records of the Grande Oriente
dltalia concerning the conferences of Ettore Ferrari released by Iacovella throw
light on the grave danger that theYoung Turks Committee of Sal nica faced
only fourmonths before theYoung Turks' Revolution of 1908. According to

these records, Ferrari stated in a conference in the GoffredoMameli

Genoa in 1910 thisdanger as follows:
the government

"When

out

found

about

lodge in

the fact that the officers

of the army adopted the cause of libertyand thus joined theYoung

Turks party and all officersof the 2. and 3. Army Corps chose the
sent two gen
very severely. The government
to the army corps to Sal nica in order to sup
assigned
was
the liberty movement
which
[...]
continuously
growing
move
as the center of the
Sal nica was known
revolutionary
it reacted

Freemasonry,
erals (pashas)
press
Since
ment,

two

these

generals

sent

by

the government

were

ordered

to

find out theheadquartersof theYoung Turks Committee and the list

Risorta
Masonic
theMacedonia
lodges and especially
not
this was
observed
However,
continuously.
being
a
to reach the
set
in
the
of
government:
by
morning
goal

of itsmembers.
lodge

were

enough

March of 1908, the lodgewas foundwith broken gates and disrupted

inside. The

archives

and

the personal

closet

of the worshipful

master

which contained the list of the brothers and the dangerous docu

ments

committee
had been emptied. This
of the agitation
arrogant
a sud
the brothers worry, however
they felt relieved by

stroke made

den letterof theworshipfulmaster. The night before, a brother of

ours who

was

an

aide-de-camp

of one

of the pashas

was

able

to in

form theworshipfulmaster about thenight raid of the lodgesand the

worshipfulmaster had taken away the listof the brothersand all the
documentswhich could be considered as a proof of crime of the ar
chives

and his personal

closet..

,"43

42 - For the list of the founders and their occupations seeM. Sukru Hanioglu, Preparation For
A Revolution, The Young Turks, 1902-1908,
(New York, Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 212.
- See
43
Iacovella, Gonye veHilal, p. 7.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE REBIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS.

107

This aide-de-camp who was also a Freemason is to be Kazim Nami Bey who was
a young captain in the 3. Ottoman Army and the
aide-de-camp of FieldMarshal
Ibrahim Pasha in Sal nica.
Kazim Nami Bey states in hismemoirs the role of theMasonic lodges for the
OLC as follows:
"At the beginning, theMasonic lodge served to hide our meetings,
but in thesemeetings we were mostly criticizingthe administration
and iftherewere some people listeningto us,we made them join our
we were
gaining
doing,
and trying to understand
of them in case of need."44

criticisms.

In so

masons

Turkish
vantage

non
sympathy also among
whether we could take ad

According to these statements,Kazim Nami Bey is also to be a Freemason, how

ever,his name is not among themembers of theMacedonia Risorta lodge in the
lodge records released by Iacovella.45He is supposed to be an adherent of either
the Labor et Lux lodge or the Veritas lodge.46 Prior to that,he had belonged to
theTirana branch of the firstCUP until 1897.47 He was also the informerof
in the headquarters of the Field Marshal in Sal nica and was letting
theOLC
Talat Bey (who was then the general secretaryof the Postal and Telegraph Ser
vices in Sal nica) know the contents of the coded messages sent to theheadquar
ters from Istanbul.48 Furthermore, it is interestingto see that he mentions the
activitiesof the founders of theOLC in theMasonic lodges of Sal nica only in a
small paragraph in his memoirs. This isprobably due to the fact that theYoung
Turks who were freemasons did not want tomake their connections with the
Freemasonry known by the public afterwards.
Iacovella insertsa table (seeTable 1) prepared according to the records of the
Macedonia Risorta lodge which are in theArchivio Storico del Grande Oriente
dltalia (Historical Archives of theGreat Orient of Italy) and which illustrates
the accession of officers to the lodge between 1901 and 1909 in his book Ll Tri
e
angolo laMezzaluna. According to this table, 23 adherents of the lodge out of
188 persons inducted between 1901 and 1908 were officers.Nevertheless, all of
these officerswere not Turkish. According to the lodge records released in the
same book of Iacovella, therewere also in the lodge one
foreignofficerand four
non-Turkish

military

doctors.

In this case, we

can

state

that only

eighteen

per

44 - Kazim Nami

of the Union and Pro

Duru, Ittihat ve Terakki Hatiralarim
(My Memoirs
14.
Matbaasi,
1957),
(Istanbul,
p.
gress),
Sucuoglu
- Tekeli
the name of Kazim Nami Bey
and Ukin seem to be mistaken for mentioning
45
Risorta. They seem also confused since they state the names
among themembers ofMacedonia
of Emanuele Carasso as theworshipful master and of Talat, Naki and Ismail Canbolat Beys as
adherents of the Veritas lodge from the French obedience
(see Tekeli and Ukin, "Ittihat ve
Terakki'nin Olusumunda
Selanik'in Toplumsal
Belirleyiciligi", p. 373).
46 - Yet

was

it ismore probable that he was from the Veritas lodge of French Obedience
and an instructor of French.

good francophone

Hanioglu, Preparation For A Revolution, p. 213.

48
Dum, Ittihat ve Terakki Hatiralarim,
p. 28.
47

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

since he

io8

OZANARSLAN

sons out of 188 adherents of the lodgewere Turkish officersfrom theOttoman

Army.

some secret rituals that can be

accepted itsnew members through
easily viewed as being inspired from themysticism and symbolism of the Free
The OLC

the Committee

When

masonry.

decided

as

a person

to accept

a member,

his

to
guide (a member of theCommittee knowing the candidate personally) used
take him to thehouse of a Committee member at a definite hour in the evening
while the eyes of the candidate member were bound by a tie. In order to confuse

the candidate about the location of the house, theywould walk in zigzags. After
to the
reaching the house, the guide would tell the password Hilal (Crescent)
watchman waiting behind thedoor. The watchman would proceed to take them
to a waiting room where the guide opened the eyes of the candidate and asked

him ifhe was sure about his decision to join theCommittee. After the confirma
tion of the candidate, the guide reblindfolded the candidate and took him to the
"oath ceremony room" and sat him down on a chair in frontof the table of the
"oath team".While the guide waited standing behind the candidate member,
one of themembers of the "oath team" whom the candidate member did not

know gave a speech about the situation of theOttoman state.At the end of the
was sure
a
speech, the "oath team" used to ask for last time if the candidate
about his decision of joining theCommittee. Following the positive answer of
the candidate member, the "oath team"members put the righthand of the for
mer on a Koran and his lefthand on a revolveron the table and made him take
the oath of theCommittee word byword. After having taken the oath, the new
member of the Committee was allowed to see his new comrades of the "oath
team" dressed with long red clothes and black masks in the gloomy lightof the
"oath

room".

ceremony

He

was

told his membership

number

of the Committee

and also that he was to receive the help of his brothers and the punishment of
treason of his brotherswas death. He was also told the passwordMuin (which
means "helper" inOttoman Turkish) which was used to recognize themembers of
the Committee.
the

letter

The

"MIM"49

new member

and

to receive

was

supposed
a sentence

to say a sentence

starting with

the

starting with
letter "AIN",50

the formerwas supposed to replywith a sentence startingwith an "YE"51 this

time and receive a sentence startingwith the letter"NOON".52 Thus, theywere
to create theword "Muin" together.After the end of themembership ceremony,

49

- In the Arabic

nounced

as "MIM"

the Arabic
letter of "." is pro
Empire
alphabet used by the Ottoman
iswritten by the latin alpha
and refers to "M" when the word "MUIN"

bet.
50

- The

"MUIN"

" "

is pronounced
iswritten by the latin alphabet.

Arabic

- The Arabic

letter of

letter of"." is pronounced

iswritten by the latin alphabet.
52 The Arabic letter of "." is pronounced
iswritten by the latin alphabet.
"MUIN"

51

as "AIN"

and

refers to "U" when

as "YE" and refers to "I" when

as "NOON"

theword

and refers to "N" when

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

the word

"MUIN"

the word

THE REBIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS. ..

109

the new member of the Committee used to be taken back blindfolded once
more to the place where he had firstmet his
guide thatnight.53
All these rituals, symbolism and secrecyof theOttoman Liberty Committee
which was to be the famous Committee ofUnion and Progress in the following
years, are supposed to be inspired from theMasonic rituals and symbolism
adopted by the freemasonYoung Turks of the lodges of Sal nica.

Thefeatures of the centerof theOLCin Sal nica

and of the
Monastir branch and their roles
in thefoundation of the secondCUP
The role of officerswas to be crucial in theOLC due to the fact that a branch of
the Commitee was established inMonastir (Bitola) by some elite and idealist
young staffofficers,namely Enver and K zim (Karabekir) Beys. This was the

first branch of theOLC and mainly made up of officers serving inMonastir

region.The Center of theCommittee itselfin Sal nica was relativelymore civil
ian oriented compared to its first branch although therewere several officers

among itsmembers. Moreover, allmembers of theCentral Board of theOLC54

in Sal nica were civilians and freemasons as well as a considerable portion of
members of theCommittee. Most of the civilian members were either part of
themiddle bourgeoisieor civil servantsof Sal nica.
The group of Sal nica had a liberal political tendencywhile the group of
Monastir had a nationalist tendency.These differentpolitical tendencies seemed

to pose a dilemma in the organization of theOLC. For instance,while the offi

cers of the group ofMonastir were
fighting the komitas of the Balkan ethnicities
in the field and consolidating theirnationalist feelings, theCenter of theCom

mittee in Sal nica had tieswith these komitas and celebrated the proclamation
of theConstitutional rgimewith Greek and Bulgarian bands in Sal nica.55
In order

to better

understand

the cosmopolitan

structure

of Sal

nica

at the

beginning of the 20tn century, the large community of Sephardic Jews living in
the city for centuriesmust also be taken into consideration. This Jewish com
munity was composed of the descendants of Jews of Spain who togetherwith

of Spain had to leave the country after the fall of the lastMoorish
kingdom in 1492. They had enjoyed the protection of theOttoman Turks and
were settled in thewealthy coastal towns of theOttoman Empire such as Sal nica. At the beginning of the 20^ century the Sephardic Jewish population in
Sal nica was estimated to be approximately 60% of the total population of the
city. Since theywere regarded as a particular millet (nation) by the Ottoman
administration and enjoyed large religious, communitarian and commercial lib

Muslims

- For
the rituals of the entry in theO LC, see thememoirs of the following: Dum,
Terakki Hatiralarim,
p. 15-16; Karabekir, Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti, p. 169-181
of the Empire),
Sukru Bleda, Imparatorlugun Cokusu (The Collapse
185; Midhat
53

Remzi Kitabevi, 1979, p. 22.

54 Mehmet Talat, Midhat
Sukru, Mustafa Rahmi and Ismail Canbolat
- See
ve
Ittihat
Terakki
55
Hatiralarim,
Dum,
p. 34.

Beys.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Ittihat ve
and

183

Istanbul,

no

OZANARSLAN

erties, theywere prone to support revolutionaryeffortsof theOttoman Turks to

reform and consolidate the Ottoman state.The Salonican Jewish community
was worried about the growing unrest inMacedonia and did not want to see

Macedonia occupied and ruled by any neighbor state.Moreover, Greeks were

themain competitors of Salonican Jews in commerce and finance. Furthermore,
therewere not anymain conflict of interestbetween Turks and Jews since the
formerwere soldiers, farmersand civil servantswhile the latterwere mainly mer
financiers

chants,

and

craftsmen.

Under

these

the Jewish

circumstances,

com

munity of Sal nica was in favorof the continuation of theOttoman administra

tion inMacedonia at the beginning of the 20thcentury and they supported the
Salonican Young Turks and theirOttoman Liberty Committee startingwith the
preliminaryorganization of the latter in theMasonic lodges of the city.
Besides the cosmopolitan featureof the center ofOLC in Sal nica, itspeace

ful environment differs it from theMonas tir branch. At the beginning of the
20r century,Monastir was one of the restless towns ofMacedonia due to the
ethnic conflicts and the fact that itwas home to the headquarters of the III. Ot
toman army. Important numbers of young and brilliant
graduates of theOtto
man War Academy were
to
in or aroundMonastir.
the
stationed
troops
assigned
In theOttoman army, in order to be eligible for theWar Academy, therewere
some strictcriteriaand among the
War Academy, only themost
graduates of the
successfulone thirdwere graduated as staffofficers.These officershad a modern
Western-style education and intellectual skills and were exposed to the ideas of
modernism, constitutionalism and nationalism.Most of themwere critical about
the Sultan and the Sublime Porte and were also determined to struggle for the
salvation

of

as brothers-in-arms.

other
life,

state. After

the Ottoman

they

their

to the hot

assignments

regions

of

and seeing engagements against the komitas, they began to see each

Macedonia

were

Moreover,
to use

prone

force

since

were
their daily
struggle
to achieve
their
revolutionary

the armed

if necessary

cause.

The group ofMonastir was welcomed to the revolutionarygroup of Sal nica

at the end of 1906 but the officers
forming theMonastir branch did not join
Masonic
of
nica.
Sal
Rumors
any
lodge
concerning the bad health of Sultan
Abdulhamid II peaked during 1906. The interferenceof theBig Powers into the
internal affairsof theOttoman state inMacedonia was another reason for the
accession ofTurkish officers to theOLC. Dum states this fact as follows:
"This situation56was the leading factorfor the creation of theOt

toman

Liberty

Committee,

that was

to cause

to win

the hearts

of the

young Turkish officers.As a matter of fact, it happened so. The

friends whom
were

56
57

- He
-

eager

to

we

trusted

and wanted

join the Committee

with

to welcome
great

to the Committee

idealism..

."57

refers to the foreign interference inMacedonia.

Dum,

Ittihat ve Terakki H

tiralarim, p. 14.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE REBIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS.

III

Enver Bey founded the branch of theOLC togetherwith Kazim (Kara

bekir) Bey inMonastir at the end of 1906 following the entryof the earlier to
theCommittee on 9 October 1906 in Sal nica, he had no difficulty in finding
idealistmembers. This very firstbranch of theOLC grew very fast and many
staffofficersand officers serving in the III. Ottoman Army joined it in the fol

When

lowing

months.

Other groups in several towns of the Ottoman Macedonia

followed the
of
Monastir
and
their
local
cells
the
Committee.
of
founded
Yet, the
group
Monastir group was not only themost active branch among the newly-created
ones

but was

even more

active

than

the center

of

the movement

in Sal

nica.

Moreover, every local branch of theOLC was autonomous in its activities.58 In

time, the local branches used this freedom of activity and action efficientlyand
since theywere dominated by bold staffofficersof theOttoman army, theybe
gan to lead the constitutionalistmovement. As Dum states in his memoirs, the
center of theCommittee in Sal nica "knewwell the big love of freedom and the
patriotism of the young officersof the army".59He also says:
"This movement

could

not be considered

as an

intervention

of the

army in thepolitics.The only force to thrustforgranting libertyand

establishing the constitutionalorder in theOttoman landswas the
young graduate officersin the army.Only theycould end the strug
gle with

victory.

When we founded theCommittee, we did not expect such fastde

velopments bringingus to a full achievement. I had though thatwe
would

work

for many

years and

suffer many

casualties..

."60

The dynamism of young staffofficers, particularly of the ones of Monastir,

seems to have been underestimated by theCenter of theCommittee in Sal nica.

the other hand, the newly-createdMonastir branch overestimated the power

On

the number

and

of members

of the Committee

in Sal

nica.

In order

to

give

stronger impression, theCenter of theCommittee gave numbers startingwith

111 to new members after establishing theCommittee with the first tenmem
bers. They

even

gave

numbers

to new

comers

starting with

thousand

later on.

Actually, until the creation ofMonastir branch, only 42 new members joined
the first ten foundermembers of theOLC in Sal nica.61 By the time, theMo
nastir branch realized itsoverestimation concerning the network of theCommit
tee in Sal nica and decided to become more and more active in the effortsof
to proclaim the
enlarging the network of the Committee inMacedonia and
r
Constitutional rgime. The proclamation of theConstitutional gime was fixed
for 24 July 1908 in Sal nica by the center of theCommittee and the decision
was to proclaim it everywhere inMacedonia at the same time. However, the
58-See
59
60
61

ibid., p. 21.

Ibid., p. 29.

Ibid., idem.
- For
these numbers

see Karabekir,

Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti, p. 176-180.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

OZANARSLAN

112

group ofMonastir did it one day earlier on 23 July through 101 rounds of can
non

fire.62

In a short period of time, theMonastir branch became even stronger than

the center of theCommittee in Sal nica and this led to some dramatic differ
ences between the
political aspirations and goals of the two groups. The group
of Sal nica had a liberal political tendencywhile the group ofMonastir had
rather a nationalist tendency.These differentpolitical philosophies posed a di
lemma in the organization of theOLC. For instance,while the officersof the
group ofMonastir were fighting the komitas of theBalkan ethnicities in thefield
and consolidating their nationalist feelings, the Center of the Committee in
Sal nica had tieswith these komitas and celebrated the proclamation of the
Constitutional rgimewith Greek and Bulgarian bands in Sal nica.63
However, the role of theCenter was crucial in having connections with the
Young Turk groups in exile abroad. The Monastir branch appreciated this role
of the Center because Sal nica was the gate of the Ottoman Empire to the

Western world and theOLC. The connections of theCenter of theCommittee

with the Young Turk committee in Paris brought prestige and lan to the
movement. The coalition made up of the
cosmopolitan structureof theOLC
Center in Sal nica, the dynamic and themilitarily powerfulMonastir branch of
theOLC, and the experienced Committee of Progress and Union of Paris, gave
birth to a second CUP in theOttoman history.The OLC renamed itselfin the
spring of 1907 as theOttoman Committee of Progress and Union (Osmanli
Terakki ve Ittihad Cemiyeti) after thisYoung Turk committee of Paris
having
merged with them following the clandestine visit ofDr. N zim Bey to Sal nica
as the
representative

of the latter, and

tee of Union

then, definitely,

as the Ottoman

Commit

and Progress (Osmanli Ittihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti) after the re

of
theOttoman Constitution in 1908.
proclamation
Conclusion
The Committee and later the Party of Union and Progress is the firstwell
organized political party inTurkish political history. It is the revolutionaryor
ganization of theYoung Turks movement. However, its genuine history is not
well known enough and the role of theOLC
in the rebirthof theCUP, which
ruled theOttoman Empire in the eve of and during theWW I, is often
ignored.
There has been a continuous confusion concerning the firstCommittee of Un
ion and Progress founded by the students of the ImperialMilitary Medicine
Faculty in Istanbul in the 1880s and the second CUP revitalized by theOLC of
Mehmet Talat Bey and his friends, founded in Sal nica in 1906, and
adopted
later respectivelythe names of "Progress and Union" and "Union and
Progress".
The constitutionalistmovements in the Ottoman Empire were a late re
sponse

of

the Ottoman

intellectuals

educated generation ofOttoman

to the French

Revolution.

western-style

intellectuals formed the firstYoung Ottomans

62 - See Dum, Ittihat ve Terakki Hatiralarim,

- See
63
ibid., p. 34.

p. 30.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE REBIRTH OF THE O TTOMAN COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS. ..

113

movement in the 1870s and theyaimed a rgime of constitutionalmonarchy for

the government of theOttoman Empire. By the time, theybecame influential in
the domestic political lifeof theEmpire in the leadership of liberal and reformist
administrators such as Midhat and Ziya Pashas. These Young Ottomans op
posed the absolute monarchy of Sultan Abdulaziz and they replaced him by the
liberal heir-apparent prince Murad who accepted to proclaim a constitutional
rgime. However, Murad's
reignwas very short due to his mental health prob

lems and the leading names of theYoung Ottomans had to offer the crown to
the then heir-apparent prince Abdulhamid only 93 days after the dethroning of
his uncle Abdulaziz. Abdulhamid seemed prone to a constitutional rgime at the
beginning but he abolished itduring theTurco-Russian War of 1877-1878 with
the pretext of the extraordinaryconditions of thewar. The new Sultan sent the
leading names of theYoung Ottomans to exile, suppressed theirpress and took
absolute control of state.That was the beginning of the infamous rgime of op
pression ofAbdulhamid II.
However, the constitutionalistmovement of Ottoman intellectualsdid not
disappear and went on in exile in France and inEgypt. Besides a committeewas

established in 1889 among the students of the ImperialMilitary Medicine Fac

ulty in Istanbul.Although this committee, named firstOttomans' Union Com
mittee and laterOttoman Committee of Union and Progress, had connections
lateron with the leading figuresof the firstOttoman constitutionalistmovement,
its creationwas an independent initiativeof military medicine students having
liberaland constitutionalist ideas.The foundersof thisveryfirstorganized Young
Turks' committee were Ibrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, Mehmet Resid,64 Is
hak Sukuti and Huseyinzade Ali Beys. The Committee started to gain power in
Istanbul at ImperialMilitary, Medicine, Engineering and Navy Schools and also
in provinces in the early 1890s throughhis opposition to the absolute monarchy
ofAbdulhamid II and gathered around itselfa largegroup ofmilitary and medi

64 - For a brief biography of Dr. Mehmet Resid Bey and his role in the organization of the
see Ahmet
firstCUP
Ittihat ve Terakki'nin Kurucu Uyelerinden Dr. Resid
Mehmetefendioglu,
Dr.
and Pro
Hatiralari
of
Resid
(Memoirs
Bey, One of the Founders of the Union
Bey'in
gress), 2nd ed. (Istanbul, Arba Yayinlari,
Table
Years

1901

1993), p. 9-20.

1. Joining to theMacedonia
Number

Risorta lodge in the 1900s

of adherent

Officers

1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
April 1909
Source: Angelo

35
18
20. Labor et Lux
17
18
24
Iacovella, Gonye veHilal,

p. 43.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

114

OZANARSLAN

cine students as well as civil servants and medium and even high-level officers
and bureaucrats. The Committee decided tomake a coup d' tat inAugust 1896.
However, the large and imprudent network of theCUP was uncovered by the
spies ofAbdulhamid II and the attempt of the coup d' tatwas informed.Many
were either arrested or sent to exile. The out
Young Turks of theCommittee
War
of
burst of the Turco-Greek
1897 and its end with an Ottoman victory
r
consolidated the prestige and the gime ofAbdulhamid II in domestic politics
and helped to the suppression of theYoung Turks' movement.
The thirdgeneration of theOttoman constitutionalistmovements on which

this article is focused was officially initiated to their revolutionary activities by

in 1906 in Sal nica byMehmet Talat Bey and his
the foundation of theOLC
friends.However, the preparations for the creation of this Committee dated
back to 1903, two years after the foundation of theMacedonia RisortaMasonic
lodge of the Italian obedience in Sal nica. This lodge founded in 1901 and its
firstworshipful master Emanuele Carasso, an Ottoman Sephardic Jewish lawyer

of Sal nica welcomed Mehmet Talat, Midhat Sukru and Mustafa Rahmi Beys
who were to form the nucleus of the futureOLC, and provided a solid shelter
for the revolutionaryactivities of the latter.Later, the creation of a second lodge
of the Italian obedience in 1906, named Labour et Lux, gave a furtherrelief to
the organization of Salonican Young Turks.
Actually, theYoung Ottomans had also enjoyed the secret organization of
the Freemasonry for their revolutionaryaims in the 1870s.Many of the leading
figures of theYoung Ottomans and even the heir-apparent princeMurad (later
SultanMurad V) and his sonswere inducted into the ranks of theProodos lodge
of the French obedience. It is interestingto see that theYoung Ottomans who
paved theway for the First Constitutional Era in the 1870s were organized in
the lodges of the French Obedience in Istanbul and theYoung Turks who pre
pared the Second Constitutional Era in the 1900s in the lodges of the Italian
obedience in Sal nica. The fact that theMasonic lodges played a crucial role in
both of the preparations of the Constitutional Eras in the Ottoman political
history cannot be denied.
However, although theOLC was a continuation of the ideals of the consti
tutionalism of the earlierYoung Ottoman and Young Turk generations in terms
of ideological context, itwas founded as a completely independent society from
the earlier revolutionaryOttoman committees. This revolutionaryYoung Turk
organization of the cosmopolite city of Sal nica adopted first the name of "Ot
toman Committee of Progress and Union" after the unificationwith the veteran

Young Turks branch of Paris in 1907 and, later,after the re-proclamation of the
Ottoman Constitution, it named itself "Ottoman Committee of Union and

Progress" after the first revolutionary committee of the Young Turks of the
1890s.
Macedonia and itsport city Sal nica provided a very suitable social and po
litical environment for the revolutionary activities of some Young Turks as

Mehmet Talat, Mustafa Rahmi and Midhat Sukru Beys. These young revolu
tionarieshad all connections in the 1890s with the earlierCUP and in the early

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE REBIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN COMMITTEE OF UNION AND PROGRESS. .

"5

1900s in the relatively liberal environment of Sal nica, themost sophisticated

city of theOttoman Empire after the capital at that time, they joined the Italian
Freemasonry in order to have a solid shelter and tomeet influentialpeople of
the city. Since themost of themembers of theMasonic lodges of Sal nica were
Jewish and Christian Ottomans or foreignersenjoying the protection of foreign
states, they had large immunities in front of theOttoman law because of the
capitulations and the lodges' properties enjoyed the same status.These people
had close relationswith abroad and used the foreign post offices settled in the
Ottoman Empire thank to the same capitulations.All these circumstances and
the secrecy and solidarity of the Freemasonry facilitated the organizational ef
fortsof theYoung Turks of Sal nica. At the end of 19thand at the beginning of
the 20th

centuries,

Macedonia

was

region

where

there were

many

revolution

ary committees and organizations of differentethnicities of the Balkans. How

ever, theTurks did not have any after the collapse of the firstCUP until the
creation of theOttoman LibertyCommittee in 1906.
The founders of the Committee in September 1906 were Mehmet Talat,
Mustafa Rahmi, Midhat Sukru, Kazim Nami, Ismail Canbolat, Mehmet Tahir,
Naki, IsmailHakki, Omer Naci and Edip Servet Beys. Other famous names of
the futureCUP, namely Ahmet Cemal Bey (later Pasha) and Enver Bey (later
Pasha) joined themovement in the followingmonths and Enver Bey founded
the firstbranch of the new committee inMonastir togetherwith Kazim (Kara
bekir) Bey. This branch was composed predominantly of young officers and
staff-officers
fighting theMacedonian bands and played a crucial role in the
realization of theYoung Turks' Revolution in the late July 1908. This fact ex
plains also how the then leader of theMonastir branch, young and ambitious
staffcaptain Enver Bey became increasingly influential in the futureCUP and
challenged Talat Bey who was the real founder and the leader of the civilian

wing of theOLC
handful

young

and

in the control of the CUP. The creation of theOLC

ambitious

Ottoman

intellectuals

and

officers

enjoying

by a
the

secrecyand the protection of the Freemasonry in the cosmopolitan city of Sal

nica and the furtherorganizational expansion of theCommittee inMacedonia
awoke and stimulated the Young Turk movement, revitalized the CUP, and,
paved theway for theYoung Turk Revolution of 1908. Then, the preponder
ance of themilitarywing in theCUP characterized the policies and the admini
strationof theCommittee during the following years of theRevolution. Finally,
the emergence of theTurkish military lite in theOttoman political lifecreated
the oligarchy thatwas to dominate politics in the eve of the
World War I.

This content downloaded from 152.118.24.10 on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:03:49 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions