TheYoungTurkPeriod, 1908 – 1938
ThedecadesbetweentheYoungTurkrevolutionandthedeathofstatefounder
MustafaKemalAtatürkwereanageofturbulentturmoilintheOttomanlands
andTurkeyaswellasinGermanyalike.⁸⁹
The‘YoungTurksʼwereaheterogeneousgroupofyoungmilitarystudents,
clerksandstateofficials,foundedin 1889 inoppositiontotheabsolutistrule
ofSultanAbdülhamidII.Theywantedtoreformandarenewalofpowerof
theOttomanstate,includingthereintroductionoftheconstitutionandthepar-
liament,bothsuspendedbytheSultanin 1878 .Theirofficialnamewas‘Commit-
teeforUnionandProgress’(İttihadveTerakkıCemiyeti,CUP).Theofficers
amongthisgroupwereespeciallyconvincedthattheyweretheonlygroup,
whichcouldmodernizetheempire.On3July 1908,thoseofficerswageda
coupd’étatagainstSultanAbdülhamidII,forcingtheresignationofthegovern-
mentandtherestitutionoftheconstitution.TheSultan,whoremainedonthe
throne,wasforcedtoresignin 1909 afterafailedcounterputsch,whichledto
greattensionswithinthemilitary.Sofar,onlyasmallproportionoftheOttoman
officercorpshadbeenrecruitedfromthegraduatesofthemilitaryschoolsand
academy.MostoftheOttomanofficerswereformersergeantsandprivateswho
hadbeenpromotedbasedontheirprovenloyaltyandpaternalistprotection
bytheirsuperiorsandthesultan.Mostofthemwereanalphabetsandunable
tocommandlargerforces.Theprofessionalizationofthemilitaryleadership
wasthusonereasonwhytheYoungTurkgovernmentresortedtoGermanmili-
taryinstructors.TheotherwasthepoorstateoftheOttomanarmy,whichcom-
posedofuntrainedpeasantssuppliedwithaninadequatearsenal.Here,Germa-
nyprovidedsubstantialmaterialandideationalsupport.
Regardingforeignthreads,theterritoryofthelateOttomanEmpirewasthe
objectofinterestfortheinterferinginterestsofseveralforeignstates.Byexploit-
ingthosedifferentinterests,theOttomanstate,asidefromtheperiodbetween
1911 and 1913 ,managedtomaintaintheintegrityoftheempireuntil1918.Not-
withstanding,theOttomanandlaterTurkishleadership,andnotleastthepop-
ulationoftheempire,paidahighpriceforthispolicy.⁹⁰
SeeZürcher,Turkey:AModernHistory,9 7 – 191 ;KlausKreiser,“DieneueTürkei,”inKleine
GeschichtederTürkei,ed.id./ChristophK.Neumann(Bonn:BundeszentralefürpolitischeBil-
dung,2006), 383 – 42 3.
Forthegenerationalexperienceofdisplacementandtheresultingfavorforradicalsolutions
seeErikJanZürcher,“DemographicEngineering,StateBuildingandtheArmy:TheOttomanEm-
pireandtheFirstWorldWar,”inComparingEmpires:EncountersandTransfersintheLongNine-
teenthCentury,ed.JürgenLeonhardetal.(Göttingen:Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht,2011), 530 – 544 ;
20 1Introduction