The Young Turks
The repressive policy of Abdul Hamid II fostered discontent, especially among the educated in Europe or in the “Western schools. Young officers and students who conspired against the regime of Sultan blended in small groups, especially outside of Istanbul. A young officer,Mustafa Kemal (later Atatürk) is organizing a secret society among the comrades in Damascus and later in Thessaloniki (Salonika) in present-day Greece. Atatürk group merged with other nationalist reform organizations in 1907 to the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) to form. The Young Turks is known, this group tries to restore the Constitution of 1876 and the unification of the various elements of the empire into a homogeneous nation through greater government centralization under a parliamentary regime.
In July 1908, army units in Macedonia revolted and demanded a return to constitutional government. Apparently yield, approved Abdul Hamid II parliamentary elections in November, in the World Cup won all but one of the Turkish seats under a system that allowed proportional representation of allmillets. The Young Turk government was weakened by splits between nationalist and liberal reformers, however, and was threatened by traditionalist Muslims and by demands from non-Turkish communities for greater autonomy. Abdul Hamid II was forced to abdicate and was succeeded by his brother, Mehmet V, in 1909. Foreign powers took advantage of the political instability in Istanbul to seize portions of the empire. Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina immediately after the Revolution of 1908, Bulgaria proclaimed its complete independence and. Italy declared war on Libya and confiscated in 1911. Having previously formed a secret alliance, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and instead invaded Ottoman Macedonia and Thrace in October 1912. The Ottoman troops were defeated, and the empire lost all of its European operations with the exception of the eastern part of Thrace.
The disaster overtakes the kingdom led to internal political change. The Liberal government in power since July 1912 was overthrown in January 1913 developed in a coup by Enver Pasha, and the most authoritarian elements of the Young Turk movement gained full control. A second Balkan war broke out in June 1913 when the Balkan allies began fighting among themselves over the division of the spoils from the first war. Taking advantage of the situation, Ottoman forces turned Bulgaria, Edirne and again establishing the western border of the empire at the Maritsa.
After a brief period of constitutional rule, the leadership of the Cup emerged as a military dictatorship with power in the hands of a triumvirate consisting of Mehmet Talat Pasha, Cemal Pasha, Ahmet and Enver, who as minister of war, focused its recognized leader in the war.
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