Young Turks

The Young Turks were a constitutionalist movement that opposed autocratic rule in the Ottoman Empire and helped restore parliamentary government in 1908.

Committee of Union and Progress: A political organization that became the Young Turks’ most powerful faction and led the 1908 revolution. Its officers and organizers supplied the movement’s decisive political and military force.
Young Turk Revolution: The 1908 uprising that compelled Abdülhamid II to restore the Ottoman constitution and parliament. It was the movement’s defining success in returning parliamentary government to the empire.
31 March Incident: An 1909 revolt in Istanbul against the constitutional regime, suppressed by forces loyal to the Committee of Union and Progress. Its defeat strengthened the committee and led to Abdülhamid II’s removal.
Decentralization in the Ottoman Empire: A reform program that sought greater provincial autonomy within the Ottoman Empire. Its advocates opposed the CUP’s preference for centralized state authority.
Abdülhamid II: Ottoman sultan from 1876 to 1909 who suspended parliament and ruled autocratically. His suspension of the constitution made opposition to his rule the Young Turks’ central cause.
Niyazi Bey: An Ottoman army officer whose 1908 revolt in Macedonia helped trigger the Young Turk Revolution. His defection and armed resistance turned constitutional opposition into an open rebellion.
Mahmud Şevket Pasha: Ottoman general who led the force that suppressed the 1909 counterrevolution and later became grand vizier. His intervention helped secure the Young Turk regime after the revolution faced armed resistance.
Prince Sabahaddin: An Ottoman prince and reformer who championed decentralization and private initiative against the CUP’s centralism. He led a prominent rival tendency within the Young Turk opposition.
Midhat Pasha: Ottoman statesman who helped draft the empire’s first constitution, promulgated in 1876. His constitutional legacy became a model for the movement’s demand to revive parliamentary government.
Enver Pasha: An Ottoman military officer who became a leading Committee of Union and Progress figure. His role in the officer corps illustrates how military networks advanced the movement.

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