1908
was a break it or make it year for the Ottoman Empire, which was on the
brink of collapse. Its interrupted process of modernizations was to be
resumed.
The
process of internal reform initiated with the imperial edicts of 1839
and 1856 led to the promulgation of the Constitution of 1876, which
ushered the First Constitutional Era. Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1876-1908),
who had sanctioned the Constitution, suspended it in 1878 and launched
his thirty-year long tyrannical rule.
The
conservative politics of Abdul Hamid went against the current of social
reform and more liberal environment. His tightened rule dismissed all
claims by minorities. His repressive policies peaked with the massacre
of Armenians in 1894-1896, which cost the life of some 300,000 people.
The
Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), an underground organization
founded in 1889, functioned as an umbrella party for the movement of the
Young Turks, which sought to end with the rule of Abdul Hamid and to
prevent the collapse of the empire. To this goal, they looked forward to
an alliance with the revolutionary forces that functioned within the
ethnic minorities, including the Armenians, in two opposition congresses
convened in 1902 and 1907. The Hunchakian party rejected to cooperate
on the grounds that the CUP tried to impose its Ottomanist plan and
leave aside any particular concern or demand from the minorities. On the
other hand, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation accepted the offer,
considering a priority the overthrow of Abdul Hamid’s regime. Different
methods of civil disobedience were anticipated, with an armed rebellion
anticipated for October 1908.
The
CUP had moved its headquarters to Salonica (Thessalonika in Macedonia,
now part of Greece) in 1906. Military officers gained to the cause of
the Young Turks accelerated the revolt after a meeting of King Edward
VII of England and Czar Nicholas II of Russia in the Baltic port of
Reval (now Tallinn, the capital of Estonia) in June 1908. During the
meeting, new reforms were drafted for the region of Macedonia, which in
the end would be detached from the Ottoman Empire after the Balkan War
of 1912.
The
fear that the meeting was a prologue to the separation of Macedonia led
to the mutiny against the sultan, which was initiated by major Ahmed
Niyazi on July 3 with a demand to restore the constitution. The movement
spread rapidly throughout Macedonia. The attempt by Abdul Hamid to
suppress the uprising failed, with the garrisons of Constantinople and
Asia Minor being also favorable to the rebels. The sultan capitulated
and on the night of July 23-24 the restoration of the Ottoman
Constitution of 1876 was announced. Abdul Hamid II became a nominal
ruler and the power went to the revolutionaries. Decrees establishing
freedom of speech and press, and a general amnesty were soon issued.
General
elections were held in November and December 1908, and the CUP won a
majority in the Parliament. The election was marred with fraud and
threats in places where Armenian candidates were on the ballot. As a
result, only 12 Armenian deputies were elected out of a total of 230.
The Senate reconvened on December 17, 1908, and the Chamber of Deputies
held its first session on January 30, 1909.
Armenian
hopes that the motto of “equality, fraternity, freedom, justice”
carried by the revolution would turn into real change were soon dashed.
In
April 1909 Abdul Hamid attempted to seize his power back with promises
to restore the sharia-based system and eliminate secular policies. He
attracted the support of masses of theological students and clerics, as
well as army units, which revolted on April 13, 1909. The Liberation
Army coming from Macedonia and commanded by Mahmud Shevket Pasha
restored the status quo and quashed the counterrevolutionary movement on
April 24, 1909. However, in the meantime, the double massacre of Adana
and surroundings, with its catastrophic sequel, was carried both by
representatives of the “ancien regime” and the local Young Turks on
April 13-15 and April 25-27, 1909, with an outcome of up to 30,000
Armenians, as well as Assyrians and Greeks massacred. The failure of the
Ottoman government to prosecute and thoroughly punish the culprits of
the massacre created profound disillusionment among Armenians. By
1910-1911 the revolutionary movement, caught in the conflict within the
CUP among conservatives and liberals, was finished. The Libya war of
1911 and the Balkan War of 1912 essentially threw the empire out of
Africa and Europe, and led to the coup d’état of January 1913 and the
establishment of the government headed by the triumvirate of Talaat,
Enver, and Jemal. World War I and the Armenian Genocide were not very
far ahead.
