Making a Revolution, 1908 Pasha and Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha becoming members after 1908. One-
third of the members of another French-rite lodge, L’Avenir de l’Orient
(The Future of the East) were Muslim or Dönme.^70 The names of 23 of its
60 members in 1911 were Turkish; the rest were Jewish. At least as early as
1908 , members of the Terakki board and administration appear in the lists
of members of Masonic lodges. These included Sabiha Sertel’s brother,
Celal Dervish, one of the founders and board members.^71
Jews and Dönme were prominent in the clubs of Freemasons where the
CUP met in Salonika.^72 Mason and dervish lodges, where many Dönme
participated in Sufi rituals, sided with the CUP against the sultan in part
because they promoted equality and brotherhood.^73 Conveniently, given
Salonika’s secret CUP cells and secret Masonic membership and revo-
lutionary cells in the Third Army, ancient underground storage spaces
located in the main Dönme neighborhoods allowed passage undetected
from house to house and even from neighborhood to neighborhood.
When police raided homes, people on the run and the secret documents
they carried could easily disappear by this means.^74 The Dönme practice
of secrecy and group solidarity and fraternal intimacy was a good model
for the CUP. As it was for the Dönme, secrecy was inseparable from CUP
membership. Here the sociologist Georg Simmel’s understanding of the
difference between the outer and inner worlds, and the protective func-
tion of secrecy, also based on Freemasonry, became a reality. By this point,
many Dönme had turned from only having otherworldly concerns to try-
ing to realize a political plan in the world. Dönme members of Véritas
played a crucial role in the new CUP lodge.
The role of the Dönme in the CUP, like their role in Freemasonry, was
significant.^75 They immediately responded when the CUP opened its first
branch in Salonika in 1896 and began publishing news about its activities
aimed specifically at the Dönme.^76 Already that year, Dr. Nâzım “openly
commended their efforts for the Young Turk movement” in Meşveret.^77
This praise was seconded in Salonikan members’ letters to the newspa-
per. When, after an internal split, a second CUP branch was opened in
Salonika the following year, Dönme joined it “en masse.”^78 They refused
to pay dues, however, on grounds that they were already sending money
to the CUP’s Paris headquarters (further evidence of their international
connections). Şükrü Haniogˇ lu writes that “in spite of the strong religious
concerns of the ulema members [Muslim religious scholars] of the CUP,
the Salonica branch worked under the auspices of the dönmeler.”^79