Young Turk Revolution

Young Turk Revolution
Part of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire

Declaration of the Young Turk Revolution by the leaders of the Ottoman millets in 1908
DateJuly 1908
Location
Result

Young Turks victory

Belligerents
CUP
Left-wing of IMRO
Dashnak Committee
Ottoman Empire Ottoman Imperial Government
Commanders and leaders
Ahmed Niyazi
Ismail Enver
Eyub Sabri
Bekir Fikri
Salahaddin Bey
Hasan Bey
Abdul Hamid II
Ottoman Empire Mehmed Ferid Pasha
Ottoman Empire Shemsi Pasha X
Ottoman Empire Tatar Osman Pasha  (POW)

The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. Revolutionaries belonging to the internal Committee of Union and Progress, an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore the Constitution, recall the parliament, and schedule an election. Thus began the Second Constitutional Era.

The revolution took place in Ottoman Rumeli in the context of the Macedonian Struggle and the increasing instability of the Hamidian regime. It began with CUP member Ahmed Niyazi's flight into the Albanian highlands. He was soon joined by İsmail Enver, Eyub Sabri, and other Unionist officers. They networked with local Albanians and utilized their connections within the Salonica based Third Army to instigate a large revolt. A string of assassinations by Unionist Fedai also contributed to Abdul Hamid's capitulation. Though the constitutional regime established after the revolution eventually succumbed to Unionist dictatorship by 1913, the Ottoman Sultanate and the court ceased to be the base of power of the empire after 1908.

After an attempted monarchist counterrevolution known as the 31 March incident in favor of Abdul Hamid the following year, he was deposed and his brother Mehmed V ascended the throne.


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