Committee for Unity and Progress

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The Committee for Unity and Progress ( Ottoman إتحاد و ترقى جمعيتی İttiḥâd ve Teraḳḳî Cemʿiyeti ), also known as Ittihadists , was a political organization in the Ottoman Empire . It was the driving force behind the constitutional revolution of 1908 and the Armenian genocide, and ruled with a brief interruption from 1908 to 1918. It was the most powerful and longest-lived party in the Young Turks movement .

founding

The Committee for Unity and Progress is an amalgamation of several groups from abroad and at home, all of whom fought against the rule of Abdülhamid II .

The first germ of the KEF domestically was the secret organization called İttihad-ı Osmani Cemiyeti (Committee of Ottoman Unity) , founded in 1889 in the Military Medical Academy ( Askeri Tıbbiye ). Five students named İshak Sükûti (1868–1902), İbrahim Temo (1865–1945), Abdullah Cevdet (1869–1932), Mehmed Reşid and Hikmet Emin founded this organization. They took the Italian Carbonari Secret League as a model, which had advocated the unification of Italy ( Risorgimento ). So they organized themselves into cells with four members. The organizations also spread to the other military schools. Some members were arrested, some fled to Paris and met with other Ottoman refugees who also wanted the constitution to be reinstated .

This group, under the leadership of Ahmed Rızâs , founded the Osmanlı İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti (Ottoman Committee for Unity and Progress) and from 1895 published the newspaper Meşveret (advice), which appeared in Ottoman and French. At a congress in 1896, the more liberal and England-friendly owner of the liberal newspaper Mizan Mizancı Murat became the new chairman. In 1897 the headquarters of the KEF were moved to Geneva.

At the first Young Turks Congress in 1902, the committee split into a liberal part under Prince Sabahaddin and a nationalist part under Ahmed Rızâ. Prince Sabahaddin led the decentralized group and was called from there Teşebbüsü Şahsi ve Ademi Merkeziyet Cemiyeti (Organization for Private Initiative and Decentralism). From there on, Ahmed Rız's groups called themselves the Committee for Unity and Progress. From 1905, the propaganda and organizational actions were intensified by Doctor Nazim and Bahaeddin Şakir , who came from Turkey. In September 1906, the telegraph officer Mehmed Talat founded the Osmanlı Hürriyet Cemiyeti (Society for Ottoman Freedom) in Saloniki and came into contact with the Young Turks in exile. Two months later, officers of the Fifth Army, including Mustafa Kemal Pasha, founded the organization Vatan (Heimat) in Damascus. At the second Congress of Young Turks in Paris in September 1907, the movement was named “Committee for Unity and Progress”. With the accession of the Vatan group even more other opposition forces were united. All opposition parties and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation known as Dashnaks took part in the congress. At the congress a military coup against Abdülhamid II was decided.

From 1895 on there are reports of the establishment of revolutionary groups within army units throughout the Ottoman Empire. It has not yet been sufficiently clarified whether these groups were in contact with one another or had a central command structure. Many of these groups later joined the KEF.

The third army with headquarters in Saloniki became the focus of the revolutionary groups from the beginning of the 20th century. Within the army unit that was tasked with suppressing the Macedonian uprising, groups based on the Macedonian groups were formed from 1903 onwards. New members, regardless of whether they were civilians or soldiers, had to swear an oath on weapons and accepted death in the event of treason. The revolution of 1908 was organized by the Central Committee of the KEF in Saloniki. All important leaders of the KEF after 1908 such as Talat, Enver, Cemal, Cavit Bey , Mustafa Kemal, Rahmi and Şükrü, who became active in Ottoman politics, were already members of the KEF in Salonika before 1908.

Cemal Pasha

The first 10 membership numbers were assigned according to the age of the members:

  1. Major Tahir Bey (Director of the Military High School in Salonika)
  2. Major Naki Bey (French teacher in the military high school in Salonika)
  3. Talât Bey (Post clerk in Salonika)
  4. Mithat Şükrü (civil servant in education)
  5. Rahmi Bey (member of the notables in Salonika)
  6. Captain Kâzım Nami Bey (adjutant to the Marshal of the Ottoman 3rd Army )
  7. First Lieutenant Ömer Naci Bey
  8. First Lieutenant Hakkı Baha Bey
  9. First Lieutenant İsmail Canbolat Bey
  10. Captain Edip Servet Bey

Numbers 11 to 110 were not assigned. Other numbers are: 111. Mustafa Necip, 132. İsmail Hakkı (Beşiktaş), 135. Çolak Faik, 136. Hüsrev Sami, 137. Tevfik (Selanik), 138. Halil Kut , 150. Cemal Pascha , 152. Ismail Enver , 155 . Necip Draga, 156. Fethi Okyar , 158. Rasim, 165. Hafız Hakkı Pascha , 171. Emanuel Karasu , 185. Zinnun, 186. Eyüp Sabri, 187. Abdülkadir, 190. Süleyman Fehmi, 191. Ali Fuat Cebesoy , 195. Mustafa Kâmil , 196. Mühendis Salim, 204. Hasan Rıza Pascha , 238. Baytar Recep, 280. Vasıf, 295. Cavit Bey , 322. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk , 331. Refet Bele , 362. Cemil, 385. Ulah Yesarya Efendi, 386 Ulah Çele Efendi, 387. Reşit Pasha and 6436. Nureddin Pasha .

Mustafa Kemal Pasha

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) in Damascus in 1906

Mustafa Kemal joined the committee in February 1907 and participated as a delegate from Tripoli at the party congress on September 22, 1909, criticizing the party as follows:

“There must be no officers in the party. Those who go into politics should resign from their military posts. Otherwise the military chain of command will mix with the party hierarchy and military discipline will come to a standstill. That would have negative consequences for the army. The committee must give up its identity as a committee and become a party. "

- Mustafa Kemal Pasha

The leadership of the committee did not share Mustafa Kemal's opinion, only Kâzım Karabekir had the same views as himself. After the party congress, Mustafa Kemal turned away from the committee to devote himself to his military career. After Mustafa Kemal Pascha proclaimed the Republic of Turkey on October 23, 1923, he had the committee banned because he did not want any secret societies in the newly founded state.

The Second Ottoman Constitutional Period

The rise of the committee to power

After the proclamation of the second Ottoman constitutional period on July 24, 1908, the KEF did not come directly to power. Rather, it controlled the governments of Hüseyin Hilmi Pascha , İbrahim Hakkı Pasha and Mehmed Said Pasha from outside . Most of the House of Representatives elected in December 1908 were KEF-sponsored individuals. In February 1909, for the first time in Ottoman history, a government was overthrown by MPs of the KEF by a vote of no confidence.

The committee held its first four congresses in 1908, 1909, 1910, and 1911 in secret in Salonika, and the members of the Central Committee were not disclosed to the public. The government, which ran government business with the support of a secret society without political responsibility, was heavily criticized in early 1909. The term “invisible persons” ( Rical-i gayb ) found its way into political satire. In April 1909 a journalist who opposed the committee was shot dead by an unknown person on the Galata Bridge . This led to an uprising against the KEF government known as the " March 31 Incidents ". This uprising was suppressed by the Saloniki military units. It made the committee even more powerful. Mehmed V , who replaced Abdülhamid II in power, was nothing more than a puppet. With a constitutional amendment in August 1909, parliament had a monopoly on political power.

Loss of power

The reactions to the nationalist politics of the government in the Balkans and in particular in Albania and the concerns about the politicization of the army led to the fact that the faction in parliament dissolved in 1911 and at least two opposition parties were formed. The February 1912 elections became the stage for the violence and corruption directed by the KEF. In the so-called thrashing election, the KEF candidates won almost everywhere. Thereupon the opposition declared the results to be null and void and within the army a group formed with the Halaskar Zabitan, which wanted to remove the KEF from the government. According to a memorandum from the Halaskar Zabitan dated July 16, the KEF government under Said Pasha had to resign.

The bipartisan cabinet of Gazi Ahmet Muhtar Pasha wanted to put an end to the rule of the KEF. Because of this, the February 1912 election was canceled and Parliament dissolved. On the other hand, groups like the "Kayıkçılar Cemiyeti" and others in Istanbul are attacking the new government. These were supported by the police organizations controlled by KEF.

After the rapid defeat in the First Balkan War in autumn 1912, the political mood changed again in favor of the KEF. The committee, which had adopted a violent nationalist policy, accused the government of defeat on the one hand and won important officers on its side on the other. On January 23, 1913, an armed group led by Envers, who was a major at the time, attacked a government meeting in Babıali , shot the Minister of War Nazım Pasha and forced the Grand Vizier to resign with a gun to his head. The KEF came to power through a military coup.

The government of İttihat ve Terakki

After it regained power through a military coup , the committee did not set up a government of its own, but appointed the respected soldier Mahmud Şevket Pasha as Grand Vizier. But he died on June 11, 1913 by an assassination attempt, so that a comprehensive dictatorship was built under the new Grand Vizier Said Halim Pasha . 24 people, including political leaders of the opposition, were sentenced to death in connection with the attack, the first political executions since 1820. The KEF government exiled around 250 opponents, including many writers, journalists and parliamentarians, in Sinop . All opposition newspapers were banned.

Talât Pasha 1916

The policies and reforms of the KEF government after 1913, which saw itself as a revolutionary government, can be summarized as follows:

  • The armed forces were thoroughly reformed. Enver Bey jumped four ranks and was appointed general and commander in chief of the army.
  • Foreign policy was geared towards Germany.
  • Turanism and Turanism were accepted ideologically . Writers who took this point of view included Ziya Gökalp , Ahmet Ağaoğlu , Mehmet Emin Yurdakul , Ömer Seyfettin , Yunus Nadi and Halide Edip Adıvar , along with the mouthpiece of the committee . On the other hand, the Islamic nationalist tendency of poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy also gained supporters within the committee.
  • A national economic policy was established that wanted to force the non-Muslim minorities out of the economy. In 1914 the surrenders were unilaterally terminated.
  • Work on simplification and Turkishization of the language has started.
  • Were carried out reforms that the training system in the madrasas to modernize and should assume the Ministry of Education.
  • Through the Hukuk-ı Aile decree, men and women were equated in civil law. Women were given the right to divorce.
  • By decree in April 1917, all intellectual courts were placed under the Ministry of Justice.
  • In 1917 the proposal was made to overthrow the Osman dynasty and (possibly under the leadership of Enver Pasha) to establish a republic. But because of the opposition within the committee under Talat Pasha, it was abandoned.
  • The official Rumi calendar was changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Furthermore, the beginning of the year was moved to January 1st.

War years

As a result of an agreement of August 2, 1914, which was concluded between the leadership of the committee and Germany without the knowledge of the government and the Sultan, Turkey entered the First World War on the side of Germany . This incident led to criticism and division within the committee. Prominent unionists such as Cavid Bey , Ahmed İzzet Pascha and Çürüksulu Mahmud Pascha left the government and the army. Others such as Fethi Bey , Rauf Bey and Mustafa Kemal stayed, but took varying degrees of stance against the committee under Enver Pascha.

Cemal Pasha , who had previously been Istanbul's police chief, minister of the navy and one of the regime's key figures, was appointed army commander of Syria during the first months of the war and was thus de facto removed from the government. The competition between the two remaining leaders Talât and Enver came to light from time to time, but did not lead to a split.

The heavy defeats in the battle of Sarıkamış , Suez and Iraq did not lead to the political position of the Commander-in-Chief Enver Pasha being shaken, but rather that doubts arose about his strategic capabilities. The KEF government was also accused of extensive embezzlement accused of supplying minister Topal İsmail Hakkı Pascha , who was close to Enver Pascha.

Armistice and Turkish Liberation War

Given the certain defeat in World War I, the Talat Pasha's government resigned on October 8, 1918. At an extraordinary congress on November 1st, the KEF dissolved itself and founded the Renewal Party (Teceddüd Fırkası). On November 2, the leaders of the KEF Enver, Talat, Cemal, Bahaeddin Şakir and Dr. Nazım to Berlin with German help to evade the unionist trials and the death sentences imposed on them for their responsibility in the genocide of the Armenians .

At the time, it was believed in Turkey and the victorious powers that the committee had not disbanded, but went underground in order to become active again later. Leaders involved in corruption or massacres during the war were hidden. Other cadres such as Cavit Bey , Rauf Orbay , Fethi Okyar , Kara Vasıf , Rahmi Bey and İsmail Canbulat , who were not directly responsible for massacres and embezzlement during the war and for the alliance with Germany, came to the fore.

As early as 1915, a resistance group was founded under Enver in the event of defeat and the occupation of the country. Finally, in the winter of 1918/1919, people who would later play important roles in the national resistance struggle were summoned to Istanbul and trained. Newspapers and associations were founded in various Anatolian cities and the Kuvayı Milliye resistance groups were built up in western and northern Anatolia with the help of former members of the "Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa" . By the spring of 1921, the opinion was widespread in the press that at a certain level of resistance, Enver would return to take over the government. The main point of criticism of the Istanbul press in the years 1919–1920 of the National Resistance was its unionism .

If you leave aside the few exceptions such as Rıza Nur and Ahmet Ferit Tek , the cadres of the resistance movement consisted entirely of former committee members. Nationalist leaders like foremost Mustafa Kemal and Rauf, Fethi, Kâzım Karabekir, İsmet (İnönü), Celal (Bayar), Adnan (Adıvar) , Şükrü, Rahmi, Çerkez Raşit, Cerkez Ethem , Bekir Sami Yusuf Kemal, Celaleddin Arif, Ahmet Ağaoğlu , Recep (Peker) , Şemsettin (Günaltay) , Hüseyin Avni, Ziya Hurşit were all members of the old KEF cadres and were even active in Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa . The committee's representatives and propagandists in the media such as Ziya Gökalp, Mehmet Emin (Yurdakul), Mehmet Akif (Ersoy), Celal Nuri (İleri), Yunus Nadi (Abalıoğlu), Falih Rıfkı (Atay), Velid Ebüzziya and others advocated the National Resistance Struggle.

Hence the question of whether the core of the resistance movement were old members of the committee or whether it was a new movement under Mustafa Kemal cannot be answered satisfactorily.

In 1924 some ex-members of the KEF such as Kâzım Karabekir, Rauf Orbay, Ali Fuat Cebesoy, Refet Bele and Adnan Adıvar founded the opposition party Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası . This new party was banned in 1925 with its opposition to the law to restore public calm, the Takrir-i Sükûn Kanunu . 13 prominent party members were brought before the Independence Court and partially executed because of allegations of a connection with the İzmirattentat of 1926 on Ataturk .

The end of the leaders of İttihat ve Terakki

  • Generals Enver , Talât and Cemal left Istanbul with the German submarine SM U 17 on the night of November 2, 1918 and arrived in Sevastopol on November 3, 1918 .
  • Talât Pascha was shot by Soghomon Tehlirian , an Armenian survivor of the genocide , on March 15, 1921, when he was leaving his apartment at 4 Hardenbergstrasse in Charlottenburg .
  • Cemal Pasha fell victim to Armenian assassins in Tbilisi on July 22, 1922 .
  • Enver Pascha was involved in fighting with the Red Army on August 4, 1922 at Çegan Tepe , which is 15 km east of Baldschuan in Tajikistan , and killed by Armenian Red Army soldiers.
Said Halim Pasha

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mustafa Gencer: Imperialism and the Ottoman question. Ankara 2006. page 91. ISBN 975-16-1914-9
  2. ↑ a b Erik J. Zürcher: Turkey: A Modern History ; 3. Edition; London 1997; ISBN 1-86064-222-5 ; Pp. 91-94
  3. ↑ Alan Palmer: Bir Çöküşün Yeni Tarihi ; Istanbul 1992; ISBN 975-7339-00-8 ; P. 223
  4. ^ Society for Threatened Peoples : Threatened Peoples, Volumes 148-149. Society for Threatened Peoples, 1989. p. 266
  5. ↑ A translation of the judgment in: Taner Akçam: Armenia and the genocide. The Istanbul Trials and the Turkish National Movement. 2nd edition, Hamburg 2004, pp. 353-364. See also the English version
  6. ↑ Boris Barth: Genocide. Genocide in the 20th Century. History, theories, controversies. Munich: Verlag CH Beck, 2006, pp. 73-75
  7. ↑ "vaktiyle zaten birçoğumuz o cemiyetin müessis veya azasından bulunuyorduk. Son kongresi kararıyla tarihe intikal eden mezkûr cemiyetin müntesibleriyle bilahare teşekkül eden Teceddüd Fırkası mensublarının bir kıism-ı küllisi büyük milletimizin azm-i bülendinden doğan Anadolu ve Rumeli müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti'ne iştirak ve iltihak etmiş ve bu cemiyetin programını kabul eylemiştir. "- Gazi Mustafa Kemal, Nutuk .
  8. ^ Gürsel Köksal: Enver, Talat ve Cemal Paşalar Nasıl Kaçtı. ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Bianet. 7 May 2005. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bianet.org
  9. ↑ Talat Paşa Berlin Blogspot
  10. ↑ Cemal Paşa: Hatırat. 5.Baskı (1.Baskı = 1920, İstanbul), 1996, Arma Yayınları, İstanbul, Arka kapağı.
  11. ↑ Şevket Süreyya Aydemir: Makedonya'dan Ortaasya'ya Enver Paşa, Volume III: 1914–1922. 4. Basım, Remzi Kitabevi, pp. 648-650.

literature

  • Feroz Ahmad: The Young Turks. The Committee of Union and Progress in Turkish Politics 1908–1914 . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1969, ISBN 0-19-821475-8 .
  • Feroz Ahmad: The young Turks: struggle for the Ottoman Empire, 1914–1918, Istanbul Bilgi University Press, Istanbul 2019, ISBN 978-605-399-530-2
  • M. Şükrü Hanioğlu: The Young Turks in opposition . Oxford University Press, New York NY u. a. 1995, ISBN 0-19-509115-9 , ( Studies in Middle Eastern history ).
  • M. Şükrü Hanioğlu: Preparation for a Revolution. The Young Turks, 1902-1908 . Oxford University Press, Oxford u. a. 2001, ISBN 0-19-513463-X , ( Studies in Middle Eastern history ).
  • Friedrich Schrader : The Constantinople mutiny of April 13th . In: März , Issue 3, Issue 9, May 4, 1909, pp. 169–180
  • Friedrich Schrader: The Young Turkish Idea . In: March , Issue 3, 1909, p. 284
  • Friedrich Schrader: Political Life in Turkey . In: Die Neue Zeit , Volume 37, Volume 2, 1919, pp. 460–466
  • Friedrich Schrader: The Young Turkish Lausanne Program . In: Die Neue Zeit , Volume 38, Volume 2, 1920, pp. 6–11, 31–35
  • Ferudun Ata: The Relocation Trials in Occupied Istanbul. Manzara Verlag, Offenbach am Main 2018, ISBN 978-3-939795-92-6 .
  • Jeremy Salt: The last Ottoman wars: the human cost, 1877-1923, The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City 2019, ISBN 978-1-60781-704-8
  • M. Talha Çiçek: War and state formation in Syria: Cemal Pasha's governorate during World War I, 1914-17, Routledge, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-415-72818-8