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Young Turks/Jön Türkler
1.       thehandsom
7403 posts
 25 May 2008 Sun 07:56 pm

Young Turks/Jön Türkler

When Abdulhamid said 'could not they find anybody apart from an Ermenian, a Jew and an Albenian to tell a Turkish Sultan and calipah about this decision?', one of the visitors' s finger was in the trigger of his gun in his pocket!
Becasue, they all knew Sultan Abdulhamid carried a revolver in his pocket and he was a very good shot..

Date was 27 Nisan 1909. And Abdulhamid and was sent to Selonica with his family and he lived there until Selonica fell to Greeks..
Anyway, the group, which was sent to Sultan, merely conveying the decision of Committee of Union and Progress Ittihat ve Terakki aka Young Turks/Jön Türkler.

Young Turk conspricy was broken in out in 1889 in military medical college but easily supressed by sultans military police.. But however, Committee of Union and Progress emerged as the most powerfull secret society in Selonica where the sultan's police was weaker and cencorship was looser.
Young Turk propaganda was so powerful and effective that on 3 July 1908, some officers rebelled and took the hills of Macedonia, the revolution spread so fast, 26th of July 60.000 people marched with the banners 'liberty, equality, fraternity and justice'.
Sultan did not have the choice but accept the constitution.
But at the same year, Bulgaria and Bosnia were lost. A preacher blind Ali led a huge crowd in Istanbul with the call 'we want a shaperd' and denounced the constitution. Couple of months later soldiers mutiny and their wish to have sheria back was not unanswered by the Sultan and he took the power in his hands again.
But Committee of Union and Progress would not go away easily.. They prepared and army called 'Action Army' in selonica.
Sultan was not in a position to fight back..On 24 of april, Istanbul was under the control of action army. Three days earlier than sultan's exile to Selonica (begining of this post)

Some info from wiki about young Turks -these principles may give an idea about todays Turkey as well- :

-All Young Turks were on Empire payroll. Their participation in the government apparently had led them to value state.
-The Young Turks did adopt liberal ideas.
-They were progressive, conflicting with the status quo. -Partisan in this, they did have a common goal, initially, in reform, believing in a parliamentary system, rather than a monarchy or theocracy.
-Their theory was based of creation of a new governing elite..
-Another guiding principle for the Young Turks was the transformation of their society into one in which religion played no consequential role. In this ultra-secular and somewhat materialistic structure, science was to replace religion
-It was not until 1904 that nationalism came to be based on a scientific theory, the Young Turks began to base their nationalism on the pseudo-scientific race theories of Europe.
-Most of their leaders believed that the state, not popular will, was the instrument by which social and political change would be achieved.


Three of the young Turks were three pashas, who dominated the politics next 10 years in last years of ottomans: Enver, Cemal and Talat Pashas.


Of course the first thing they did was to find a new sultan, Resad.


Under Committee of Union and Progress, the modernisation started in every aspects.
Women, who were ordered to wear charsaf rather than yashmak in 1889 by the Sultan, enjoyed more freedom. They supported the revolution entusiastically by showing their faces.
They started to talk about they would never be a modern nation unless women emerged behind the folds of yashmak. Women established clubs where there would be female lecturers lecturing men. (one of them was Halide Edip Adivar).

They talked about the revolution in language.

It was also the times when the nationalisms started to emerge as powerful ideas. Kurdish, Arap nationalisms and more importantly Turkish nationalism (long after Greeks, Ermenians and Bulgarians!!)

It was the first time, they started to talk about the 'real force' behind the Ottoman dynasty. They started to think that Turks forgot their roots, their own history and language..(we should mention here some of the names Ziya Gökalp, Mehmed Fuad Koprulu)

However, in october 1911, the Italians attacked Tripoli in Northern Africa; in april and july 1912 they blocked Dardanells.
Enver pasha went to Tripoli to orgonise the resistance.
War broke out in 17 october 1912 in Balkans..And the result was, Ottomans lost the provinces which were Ottomans for 5 centuries, in 5 weeks..
Greeks entered Selonica..28 november 1912, Albenia become an independent country. 15 november 1912, Bulgarian army was in Catalca (very close to istanbul). It was pushed back in the mid 1913.

On the eve of WWI, Enver become more powerful and he was the minister of war. The trio (Enver,Cemal,Talat) thought that empire needed an alliance for the war.
And on 2nd of August 1914 in said Halim Pasa Yalisi (in Yenikoy) Enver and Talat signed a secret alliance with Germans without the rest of the cabinet's knowledge. (ah..i remembered, i used to go out with an architect who was working for the restoration of that yali-Said Halim Pasa Yalisi-. And, strangely, she is now married to a man who was in the same class with me in uni , anyways)

On 10 August two German battleships(Goeben and Breslau) entered into Marmara sea, escaping from British fleet. 15 of August two ships become Ottoman 'purchased' ships (named Yavuz and Midilli). Crew remained German but in public they wore fez.
End of august-this is important- Britain, France and Russia guranteed the integrity and independence of the empire as long as it remanined neutral.
But Enver and his friends were determined..
He drew up new war plan (a day later when Enver received a soft loan from Germany) and on 29 october at 3:30 am, without declaring war, two ships bombarded Odessa and Sebastopol.
On November 2nd Britain, France, Russia declared war!!
It was not the Sultan's war nor the people's!!

Note:
Enver got killed in on 4 August 1922 in Dushanbe, trying to realize his pan-Turkic ideas after serious number of failures..
Cemal was assasinated on July 21, 1922 in Tiblisi by the Ermenians.
Talat was assasinated on 15 March 1921 in Germany by the Ermenians.


sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_of_Union_and_Progress
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmed_Talat_Pasha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enver_Pasha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Djemal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Courts-Martial_of_1919-20
http://www.serdarsabri.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziya_G%C3%B6kalp
http://www.amazon.com/Constantinople-Philip-Mansel/dp/0140262466
And some other turkish blogs..

2.       catwoman
8933 posts
 25 May 2008 Sun 08:43 pm

VERY interesting post, thank you! (You could capitalize the names of cities and people though)

3.       Deli_kizin
6376 posts
 27 May 2008 Tue 09:31 pm

To know some of this group is an absolute must to understand a bit of the evolve of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Paşa.

Thanks for the post thehandsom

4.       thehandsom
7403 posts
 27 May 2008 Tue 09:54 pm

Thanks for appreciating the post ladies..
DK, you are absolutely right, without knowing what went on during that period, it is almost impossible to make sense about Turkish politics.
ps..catwoman..I tried to correct my capital letters

5.       catwoman
8933 posts
 27 May 2008 Tue 10:21 pm

Quoting thehandsom:

Thanks for appreciating the post ladies..
DK, you are absolutely right, without knowing what went on during that period, it is almost impossible to make sense about Turkish politics.
ps..catwoman..I tried to correct my capital letters


Hmmm.... that's intriguing.. because I haven't heard about these people before and you are saying that it's so important to know them in order to understand today's TR... Therefore, more posts about this topic would be greatly appreciated!

6.       Avalon
381 posts
 27 May 2008 Tue 10:35 pm

Read that post with a great interest,really educational,thank you for preparing it

7.       Roswitha
4132 posts
 06 Sep 2008 Sat 05:24 pm

Thanks for the reminder, the handsom,  I guess I am tired today.

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