An English Account
of the Young Turk Revolution (1908)
[From Edwin Pears. Forty Years
in Constantinople: The Recollections of Sir Edward Pears, 1873-1915.
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1916]
I have already mentioned that the misgovernment
in Turkey had led to the formation of committees, both in and out of Turkey,
with the object of bringing about a change of government. Every foreign
power interested in the good government of Turkey, but especially England,
France, and Italy, was anxious in its own interest to effect reforms throughout
the empire generally. The massacres in Armenia had disgusted not merely
the whole of the Christian population of the empire, but thoughtful men
amongst the Turks. In the Public Works Department nothing could be done
without bakshish. The Minister was a creature of the Sultan's, whose history
was typical. He was one of two brothers, both of whom professed Christianity,
and, as not infrequently happened, when they got into office became more
subservient than the Turks. They had the reputation, rightly or wrongly,
of being always open to bribes.
One of the brothers had been the editor of a
newspaper in one of the states of North Africa. While there he had distinguished
himself by the bitterness of his enmity towards Great Britain, and had
gone out of his way to make personal attacks upon Queen Victoria. When
he came to Constantinople, his brother already being in power, he paid
a visit to Sir Philip Currie, who described the interview to me on the
following day. A card was brought in bearing a not unusual Turkish name,
for in the part of the country from whence he came many names are employed
equally by Moslems and Christians. Sir Philip glanced at the card, saw
that the name was, as he thought, that of a Turk, and gave instructions
that he should be admitted. He was first struck in conversation by the
volubility and the correctness of his visitor's French.
The man began by saying that no doubt His Excellency
knew that he had attacked England, but explained that that was all in the
way of business, and now that he had come to Constantinople he was quite
prepared to take up a different line. "Who on earth can the man be?"
was the thought of Sir Philip, and in order to obtain the information he
made an excuse to get back to the table, to take up the man's card, and
then found that it had upon it, "Editor of the ______." Thereupon
Sir Philip recognised that he was the responsible editor who had been attacking
the Queen, and at once addressed him in something like the following language:
"You are the scoundrel who dared to attack Queen Victoria. How dare
you put your foot inside this Embassy ? There is the door. Go! Get out!"
The other brother was much more wily, and had
a French wife who was greatly respected and against whom no one had a word
to say. He rose to be Minister of Public Works. I was engaged professionally
in obtaining from the Government for clients an agreement, the terms of
which had been settled by both parties, and only required the signature
of the Minister. I attended several weeks in succession, and was put off
with excuses. The matter required further looking into. "Come again
next week," was the invariable answer. This game went on for nearly
three months. The honest members of his Council, and I believe in fact
all of them except the president, recognising that the project would be
for the advantage of the country, saw that the Minister was intentionally
delaying the matter. He had told me that there were points in the agreement
which members of the Council wished to examine again.
I did not believe him, and went boldly to the
CouncilÑto most of the members I was fairly well knownÑand asked what were
the points as to which further consideration was necessary. One of the
most prominent members replied there were none. Every member had approved
of it, and all that was necessary was to obtain the Minister's signature.
"He is here now," said one of them. "Then," said I,
"I am going to see him, and shall tell him that I have your assurance
that nothing is wanting but his signature." I went into his room and
he began, in the most plausible way, telling me that he was doing his best,
but that his Council considered the matter required further consideration.
Then I opened out upon him. I told him that I had just seen the Council
and that they had assured me as one man that there was no point which required
further consideration, and I added, "You have told Sir Nicholas O'Conor
that you are doing all that you possibly can to further this and all English
business, and it is you, and you alone, that are stopping this business."
He assured me that I was mistaken, and that I had no right to make any
such statement.
A second person was in the room who, I think,
was his secretary, and he appealed to him for confirmation of the statement
that the Council wanted to give the matter further consideration. I said
at once that I did not believe it, because I had just left the Council.
The person in question was immediately sent to the Council Chamber to enquire,
and came back after two or three minutes with the statement that I was
quite right. Thereupon the Minister begged my pardon, sent for the document,
signed it, and I took it away with me. As in the department of Public Works,
so in every other matter. The creatures whom the Sultan had placed in power
needed only one qualification, unswerving loyalty, per fas et nefas,
to his interests.
I remember at the time having a long consultation
on legal matters with eight or ten of the leading advocates in Constantinople.
One of the oldest and ablest members present declared that the Courts of
Law were never so rotten as at that time, that the administration of justice
was worse than it had been twenty years earlier. "I quite agree with
you," said another old lawyer; "at that time if you wanted to
get hold of a judge you found his man and made your bargain with him. Nowadays
the judges will come round themselves." All agreed that in cases where
the rights were in the slightest degree doubtful a decision had to be paid
for. If the man had influence a judgment might be obtained without bribery,
but ordinarily not otherwise. The whole administration of the country was
rotten through and through.
There were two grievances in particular that
made the Moslems, as distinct from the Christians, opposed to the Government.
The first was palace espionage, the second the terrible restriction of
travel applied both to Moslems and Christians. The average Moslem has the
virtues of a dominant race. He is usually one who tells the truth and has
the courage of his opinions. But it was commonly said that neither in the
streets nor in their private houses were they free from the espionage of
the Sultan's agents. Bulgaria and other Balkan States, even a quarter of
a century ago, employed the telephone as commonly as it is employed in
western countries. Neither the Sultan nor his Ministers would permit it
to be employed. Probably every Minister to whom projects for the establishment
of telephones was submitted was opposed to it. It is within my knowledge
that very large sums were offered to the Government, which was always in
want of money, and to Ministers privately, for a concession to establish
telephones. But applications were met with constant refusal. The explanation
was that given to me by one of the ablest of the Ministers. "Abdul
Hamid sends to us at all times, night and day. If we had telephones in
our houses we should be rung up every hour of the night."
In the country districts the misgovernment was
most markedly seen in the want of protection to life and property. A mine-owner
would not venture to work the mine without taking the zaptiehs,
or police, of the neighbourhood into his pay. Many mines were in consequence
shut down. Natives and foreigners alike who had acquired tracts of land
let them go to rack and ruin rather than pay the sums which the police
and local government tried to exact from them.
The condition of the army and navy aroused the
indignation of the best men among the Moslems. Young officers who had passed
through the military schools were sent off to regiments in the provinces
and not allowed to return to the Bosporus. I remember a conversation with
a captain amongst them whom I knew well. He declared that there was no
camaraderie in the army, and that he himself did not know who were the
other officers in his regiment. The navy as I have already mentioned, had
been allowed to become nearly worthless. Promotion in it was due to palace
favouritism. An efficient Turkish officer and gentleman, who had been for
a time in the British Navy, told me that his one chance of promotion was
through the connection of his wife with one of the palace ladies. There
was no question or pretence of merit or of ability, but simply of favouritism.
The Sultan's palace at Yildiz was surrounded
by troops commanded by ignorant officers. Amongst these troops in the later
years of Abdul's reign the Albanians held so favoured a position as to
render plausible the statement made to me by an officer of the Genie, a
corps corresponding to our Royal Engineers, that the army would like the
chance of attacking the regiments around Yildiz and of killing every man
in them. What Abdul Hamid apparently dreaded both in the army and navy
was a tendency towards improvement of any kind. In I908 it was commonly
believed that at least 20,000 of the most intelligent officers in the two
services had been banished to remote provinces. The story was common that
others had entered the palace, but had never been seen alive again.
It was Tom such causes that when we reached the
year I908 the disaffection towards the Sultan had become general. The chief
committees in Paris and Salonica, after a long search for reforms, had
arrived at the conclusion that the most practical remedy was the establishment
of constitutional government. A fairly well-drawn Constitution, drafted
by Midhat Pasha, had been accepted by Abdul Hamid in December, I876, and
promulgated, as already stated, as a counterstroke to the proposals of
reforms made by Lord Salisbury, General Ignatief, and the other members
of the European Conference. A Turkish parliament had actually met, but
Abdul Hamid, finding that it could not be dictated to, had solved the difficulty
to his own satisfaction by bundling off the whole of the members in the
course of a single night from Constantinople (July, I877) and decreeing
that the portion of the Constitution which related to representative government
should remain in abeyance. During these long years of misgovernment the
really workable instrument of Midhat had never been forgotten. To have
openly advocated its re-establishment would, however, have meant the suppression
of any newspaper in the Empire.
When the Committees at Salonica and at Paris
had seen the failure of the Powers to carry out the MŸrsteg Programme,
their determination to obtain the Constitution was increased, because it
was in Macedonia more than in any other part of the Empire that the effects
of misgovernment were visible. They had seen gendarmerie established in
Macedonia and had observed its beneficial effects in the section of country
assigned to British and French officers. They noticed, however, that Austrian
and German officers had either taken no part, or were strangely lukewarm
in their exertions, so that the beneficial effect was not general.
The Salonica Committee, as nearly as I can fix
the date, was established in the autumn of I905. Of course anyone known
to be connected with a revolutionary Committee would have been at once
seized, and therefore it had to have recourse to secret methods; and an
organisation said to be founded on the lines of freemasonry was established
and soon had branches throughout the Empire. There was always some display
of secrecy in the election of its members and the promulgation of its orders.
One of these members, who is since dead and who was a trustworthy man,
told me of his own experiences. He was summoned by a secret Committee whose
notices I have often seenÑsealed, but never signedÑto attend at a certain
house. He obeyed the summons. After certain formalities he was shewn into
a room where in front of him were three masked men, seated at a table.
The centre of them addressed him by name and said they knew that he had
borne a good character, but they wished him to become one of their members.
They explained generally their objects, with which he declared himself
in sympathy. He was then asked, and consented, to swear an oath of fidelity
to the Central Committee, and was informed that if any orders were given
respecting him they would always be confirmed through a person who was
named.
The Paris Committee had at its head Ahmed Riza
Bey, who must have become known to many hundreds of Englishmen, though
I am not aware that he speaks English. He was, and is, a man of essentially
conservative tendencies, and an opponent of violence. In Paris the Young
Turks had already taken the title of the Committee of Union and Progress,
often indicated in later times by its initials as the C.U.P. It is undoubted
that during the two or three years preceding I908 the movement spread throughout
the empire with great rapidity. In presence of the great army of spies
people had become desperate, and the old question was constantly asked
amongst Europeans, "Were the spies themselves loyal to Abdul Hamid
?" Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? The answer is that as the
movement increased there is good reason to believe that some of the spies
themselves played a double game. But the Committee probably got more information
about the doings at Yildiz than did Yildiz about the doings of the Committee.
The great feature about the organisation of the
Committee was, in my opinion, its secrecy. No ordinary member knew more
than two or three persons who were associated with him. He did not know
who were the leaders, and influential men amongst them told me that it
was very rare that the chairman at one meeting appeared more than once.
The Committee was a great power without visible organisation, but which
soon made its influence felt throughout the empire. One of the first objects
of the Salonica Committee, which soon became much more powerful than that
in Paris, was to obtain influence in the Third Army Corps, which was stationed
in Macedonia. It was to this province that the undue proportion of young
military officers trained in the military schools of the Harbia in Constantinople
had been sent by Abdul Hamid. Thus the ground was well prepared for sowing
disaffection. It is said that by the end of I907 practically the whole
of the Third Army Corps had sworn fidelity to the Constitution. But other
portions of the army, and especially in Asia Minor and Adrianople, had
come under the influence of the Committee.
We Europeans in Constantinople knew of the existence
of the Committee, but we knew little of its ramifications, and I myself
asserted in the British Press at the time, that though disaffection was
general, there was apparently no organisation amongst the disaffected that
gave any prospect of success. The writer of an able paper in Blackwood's
Magazine of January, I909, as an illustration of the way in which the
Committee kept its secret, states that a British officer of the gendarmerie
who was immensely popular with the Turks told the writer that until two
months before the Revolution he knew nothing of the adherence of the army
to the movement.
In truth the regime of misrule under Abdul Hamid
was rapidly drawing to an end. He had begun the system of arbitrary rule
by appointing Ministers who, so far as he could accomplish it, were deprived
of power. After a while, and sometimes ostentatiously, he named sub-ministers
who were chosen for their known hostility to their chiefs. The Ministers
often became mere clerks. In a conversation with one of them some years
ago, after dwelling upon the universal corruption that prevailed in every
department he remarked that we should never get rid of it until the Sultan
was changed. To my reply that the mere change of sovereign would probably
not be a remedy, he answered, "We shall at least get back government
by Ministers instead of by the palace clique." The Minister was right
in the position he took up, because amongst the evils of Abdul's rule was
the tacit permission given them to fill their pockets at the expense of
the State so long as they were subservient to his wishes.
The results of corruption had steadily increased.
Customhouse duties were divided between the Exchequer and the officials.
The Valis, or Governors, paid for their appointments and often contributed
a portion of their salaries to the palace gang which kept them in place.
In return, no inconvenient questions were asked of their extortions in
the provinces. Public meetings were everywhere forbidden, and during the
last four or five years of Abdul Hamid's reign no wedding festivity or
dinner-party could take place among Turkish subjects without the permission
of the authorities and a scrutiny of the list of invited guests. An attempt
was even made to prevent evening parties and balls at wealthy European
houses, and when, with the aid of the Embassies, this demand was resisted,
spies were stationed round the houses to forbid the entrance of Turkish
subjects.
Not a line was permitted to be printed in any
newspaper once until it had passed the censor. If a historian had to depend
for his information upon files of Turkish newspapers, Egypt during these
years would be considered to be still under the direct rule of the Sultan
as it was before I879. The word Armenia was not permitted to be printed.
"There is no such place," said the chief censor. Macedonia was
tabooed also, and this to such an extent that it was difficult for the
Bible Society to obtain permission to print a translation of the text of
St. Paul's message, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." The
censor claimed that the sections of the three provinces into which Macedonia
had been divided should be substituted. Theatrical performances were censored
with equal severity. "Hamlet" and "Julius Caesar" and
a host of French historical plays were forbidden because they spoke of
killing a king.
After the massacres in I895-97 nearly all the
Armenians had been expelled from Constantinople, and the result was that
the industrious mass of guardians and workmen, who had been in the habit
of sending the largest portion of their income to their villages in Armenia,
were thrown out of work and their families reduced to starvation. The army
of spies was constantly increased. Some of the smaller fry only received
a salary of £2 to £3 a month. One man, a foreigner, is known to have obtained
£9¡ a month. One year's Budget of Turkey set the sum of £I,200,000 aside
for spies.
Thousands of men belonging to every class of
the community, Mahometans as well as Christians, were denounced and taken
for secret examination to the palace or other police authorities. Very
few were ever sent for trial, but were dealt with arbitrarily. Abdul Hamid
made a serious mistake in dealing with suspected Mahometans. They were
usually banished from the capital and sent into remote provinces. There
they became the centres of revolution. The whole empire was thus prepared
for revolution when an organisation should declare for it. Everywhere there
were exiles of ability and energy above the average, and full of a sentiment
of hostility towards the Sultan. In some of the provinces, as for example
in Erzeroum, the exiles were so numerous and so superior in reputation
and ability to the Governor and officials, that they practically became
the rulers of the provinces, and in one case which I reported in the year
I906, the population, led by the exiles, dictated to and obtained from
the Sultan a change of governor.
In the army the system of espionage destroyed
its esprit de corps and created a strong current of dissatisfaction among
the officers, who were thus prepared during the two or three years preceding
I908 to welcome the emissaries of revolution. As the months passed on and
the system of espionage failed, Abdul Hamid's only remedy was to make it
the stricter. The local post was abolished because it facilitated conspiracy.
Letters to and from the provinces in the Turkish post were ostentatiously
opened and delivered open.
So long as the Sultan confined his persecution
to the Christian communities, the Moslems made no strong objection, though
in justice to them I must repeat that there was always a considerable number
who condemned the Armenian massacres and other atrocities, sometimes out
of sympathy with the innocent victims, but more usually because they recognised
the injury that was done to the welfare of the country. When, however,
Abdul Hamid began to make himself objectionable to Moslem and Christian
alike, misfortune made the two parties join forces. During the first half
of I908 the Committee of Union and Progress was joined by numbers of Turks,
Albanians, Bulgarians, and Greeks.
A curious development of the movement was due
to Turkish women. Though there were female spies, yet the manner of life
of Turkish ladies was more favourable to the new movement. It offers many
facilities for carrying messages which are not at hand for men, for Turkish
public opinion would not permit either spies or ordinary police agents
to search them. They were much more outspoken than their husbands and brothers.
Moreover, a large number of the wealthier class of Turkish women had received
education in French and English, and their ideas had been influenced by
what they read. They played a large part as emissaries of the revolutionary
party. They conveyed letters and verbal messages from one harem to another.
They were not less active in Macedonia than were their sisters in the capital.
The agents of the Government endeavoured to preserve the loyalty of the
troops by representing the revolutionary movement as one favoured by Greeks
and Bulgarians and against the Faithful, but Turkish women instinctively
knew better.
The Sultan's spies no doubt sent hundreds of
reports on the situation to Yildiz. The Sultan became alarmed, and, ever
eager to crush disaffection, sent a Commission to Salonica with instructions
to stamp out the movement everywhere, but especially in the army. In Constantinople
we heard much about this Commission, and for the first time we learned
that Yildiz was afraid of an insurrection. The satisfactory feature about
it to us foreigners, and to all the Christian population, was that it was
confined strictly to Moslems. The Commission was composed of some of the
ablest of the adherents of the Sultan. The general belief existed that
it would be followed by many executions. Its immediate effect, however,
was very different from what Abdul Hamid anticipated. Two officers in the
army took to the Resna Mountains and boldly declared themselves in opposition
to Abdul Hamid; these two men, whom the Commission had reported to Yildiz
as the leaders amongst the disaffected in Salonica, were Niazi Bey and
Enver Bey, now Enver Pasha, the Minister of War. Niazi was the first man
to raise the flag of revolt. This was on July 5, I908.
The Turkish general in the northern portion of
Macedonia was Shemsi Pasha. Niazi had publicly declared for the Constitution,
and the secret Committee had issued manifestoes in favour of it, which
were posted in Monastir, the largest town in that district of the country.
But the Committee and Niazi had chosen and well prepared their ground.
In the country between Monastir and Outrider the great majority of the
soldiers had sworn fidelity to the Constitution. When Shemsi marched against
Niazi he was shot ostentatiously in broad daylight in Monastir itself by
one of the officers of the army which he commanded, who, when he had killed
his man, walked coolly away, not a hand being raised to arrest him. When
the news reached Yildiz frantic telegrams were sent to stamp out the movement.
Nazim Bey, not to be confounded with Dr. Nazim or with another Nazim whom
we shall hear more about, who had been in prison for seven years in Armenia,
endeavoured to crush out the rebellion. But it soon became evident that
the army in Macedonia would not act against the rebels. Forty-eight officers
were arrested on the report of Nazim on July 8, and sent off at once to
Constantinople, their principal accuser being Hakki Bey. Two days afterwards
Hakki was shot in Salonica, and on the following day, July II, Nazim Bey
was wounded in open day in the streets of the same city. His would-be assassin
was not even arrested. Nazim immediately returned to Constantinople to
report to the Sultan, and a second Commission was sent on a similar mission
to its predecessor.
Enver Bey, who had been attached to the staff
of Hilmi Pasha, was the first man accused by this second Commission. They,
however, acted with more cunning than their predecessors. Enver was invited
by Abdul Hamid in flattering terms to proceed at once to Constantinople
to inform His Majesty of the position, and at the same time promises of
promotion were made to him. Enver, however, was much too suspicious to
be caught by this kind of flattery. He therefore, as already mentioned,
went to the Resna Hills, and with him there went a considerable number
of soldiers. The movement of Niazi had become an insurrection. Two days
after Hakki Bey had been shot the C.U.P. publicly associated itself with
the insurrection. At the same time the Second Army Corps, which was stationed
at Adrianople, supported the demands of the Macedonian troops, and when
the Committee cabled direct to the Sultan that unless he granted the Constitution
the Third Army Corps would march on Constantinople, the Second Army Corps
associated themselves with its comrades.
When Shemsi was killed Osman Pasha was named
as successor, and began his career at Monastir by a message from the Sultan
threatening the direst punishment upon the insurgents, and promising all
sorts of rewards to those who remained loyal to Yildiz. The result was
that the troops fired upon the Pasha.
In the spring of I908 the Grand Vizier was Ferid
Pasha, an Albanian of pure blood. In my opinion it is beyond doubt that
he behaved loyally to the Sultan. I have known him personally for several
years and believe him to be not only an honourable and trustworthy Moslem,
but a man of exceptional ability. I may here interpolate the story of his
appointment. He had been Governor of Konia, and on my visit to that city,
four years after the Revolution, I found that both natives and foreigners
spoke highly of the justice of his government and of his character.
Two or three years before the time of which I
am speaking, the post of Grand Vizier became vacant, and, as I have already
explained, Ferid Pasha was appointed as a stopgap under the impression
that he might be removed when the two secretaries of the Sultan agreed
as to his successor. But it was impossible in the spring of I908 that so
intelligent a man as Ferid should not see that the arbitrary rule of Abdul
Hamid was in extreme danger, and equally impossible that he should not
sympathise with the movement to get rid of it. Let it be noted that in
Constantinople and throughout the country no one had yet spoken of deposing
the Sultan. All that they wished was the re-establishment of a Constitution
and the transformation of the Government from an absolute to a limited
monarchy.
When Shemsi was shot, and when the revolt began
rapidly to spread throughout Macedonia in July, Ferid Pasha was ordered
by the Sultan to take measures with the heads of the army to put an end
to it and to punish the discontented. Ferid pointed out that this was not
the business of the Grand Vizier, but of the Minister of War. Let me remark
in passing that Turkish Ministers have always been very susceptible to
any invasion of the privileges of their ministry. The Sultan however, instead
of leaving the matter to his Minister of War, took it into his own hands.
He had shewn on many previous occasions that he believed he was much more
competent than any Minister, and the one institution in which he still
had confidence was that of espionage. To set spies to work, and then set
others to spy upon them, was his great panacea against political troubles.
He at once ordered forty spies to report upon the conduct of the troops
in Macedonia, and of course to send the names of those officers whose loyalty
to him was doubtful. Unfortunately for Abdul the object of the mission
became at once known and was resented by the great mass of army officers
to whom espionage of course was peculiarly obnoxious. Shortly after the
Revolution General von der Goltz published a letter in the NeŸe Freie
Presse in which he expressed the opinion that the system of espionage
was the principal grievance of the Turkish soldier. When the mission of
the forty spies was known, many men who had hesitated to join the disaffected
party now saw their safety lay in throwing in their lot with those who
demanded reforms. An influential number of officers telegraphed to the
palace their request that the Chamber of Deputies should be assembled.
Abdul Hamid soon learned, for the telephone was constantly working between
Yildiz and Salonica, that this demand was backed by the whole Third Army
Corps, that is, by nearly all the troops in Macedonia. Thereupon the Sultan
was more determined than ever to suppress the movement. He ordered troops
from Smyrna to go to Salonica, evidently believing that these troops did
not share the discontent amongst their fellow soldiers.
Then there came a serious obstacle, one, in fact,
of an entirely unexpected character. Moslemism itself was about to oppose
Abdul. Against such a conflict of Moslem against Moslem the Sacred Law
of the Sheri is especially strict. But, evidently believing that the class
of Ulema in Constantinople, consisting of the heads of the Islamic faith
would make no objection, Abdul Hamid applied formally to the Fetva EminŽ,
that is, the head of the Chief Court of Sacred Law, charged with the issue
of fetvas or legal decisions, for its authorisation. I may explain, in
passing, that the form of drawing a fetva and the practice of employing
it is in the line of direct descent from the time of the Emperor Justinian.
Upon the statement of a simple case and the payment of a small fee, a decision
may be obtained from the Fetva Emine on almost any point of Turkish law.
I have obtained at least twenty such decisions, most of them relating to
questions of succession. They correspond to what students of Roman law
know as responsa prudentum, the "answers of the learned in
law." Such answers or fetvas are authoritative, and form precedents
for future use.
The question put for Abdul Hamid was in the usual
form, and to this effect: "Is war justifiable against Moslem soldiers
who rebel against the sovereign authority ? "The Court, however, decided
that before giving an answer they must have a statement of facts, which
should include the demands of the discontented. I had the pleasure of knowing
the Fetva Emine at the time. He is usually a judge occupying a lofty position
and a man of ability and character. The actual occupant had the confidence
of all Moslems in Turkey on account of his piety and independence. "He
would not shake hands with me," said one of the ex-ministers, in speaking
of this judge in the early autumn of I908, "because he knows that
I am not regular in my prayers." He was a very old man, probably eighty-five,
but was universally respected as one who cared nothing for the judgment
of men, be they Sultans, Ministers, or paupers. Accordingly, when Abdul
Hamid asked for the fetva, both sides held their breath in expectation
of what his decision would be. After he had obtained the demands of the
troops and fuller explanation of the facts, he gave his answer. Substantially
it was that the demands for reforms for the redress of grievances and for
government by Representative Chamber were not against the Sacred Law, and
consequently if the demand for a fetva were pressed it could not sanction
the war by Moslems against Moslems.
In consequence of this decision, the Smyrna troops
which were on their way to Salonica were sent back. When this step was
known, the Salonica army formally declared that they would not fight against
the revolted troops in Monastir. From that decision to making common cause
with them was but a short step. Then came a telegram to Yildiz which sounded
the knell of Abdul's rule. It was sent either on July 2I or 22, I908, and
demanded the re-establishment of the Constitution, or abdication, mentioning
at the same time that the revolted troops had sworn not to lay down their
arms until the Constitution was established.
Meantime the Sultan had not been idle. His great
object was to get rid of the disaffected officers both in the army and
the navy. Within the first fortnight of July 2,000 officers in the navy
were promoted. Fifty-five columns of the Turkish official papers were filled
with promotions in the Third Army Corps at Salonica and the Second at Adrianople.
The Sultan had become seriously alarmed. The Ulema had failed him and the
demand in the telegram from Monastir for the re-establishment of the Constitution
was like a thunderbolt. Actually it was an ultimatum. Almost continuous
sittings took place during the forty-eight hours after its arrival at Yildiz.
They must have been curious meetings. I have heard accounts of them from
three different persons who were present. It was known that the Sultan
was in a most irritable mood, and to suggest either his abdication or his
compliance with the demands of his revolted officers was more than any
Minister ventured to undertake. Each man looked at or suggested his neighbour.
At length someone proposed that Abdul Houda,
the Court astrologer, should be called in as the only man who dared suggest
to His Majesty that he should accept the Constitution. The mention of such
an officer reminds us of the curious medieval attitude still existing in
the Turkish mind. Everyone knew that such a functionary existed, that he
was consulted on all important occasions, and that on account of his facility
for reading the heavens he was supposed to bring supernatural knowledge
which could not be despised. Let me say in passing that, after the Revolution,
the cunning old astrologer came to live in the island of Prinkipo and near
to my own house. Those who knew him, amongst whom I was not one, spoke
of him as a kindly, well-intentioned man who did not appear to have much
faith in his own reading of the stars,
He was, however, brought before the Council)
and after considerable hesitation consented to give the advice that everybody
present felt must be given, but dared not give. He was ill at the time,
and had to be carried into the room upon his sick-bed. But he gave his
advice boldly. Though he was distrusted by the Committee, they nevertheless
looked not unfavourably upon him during the few months of life which remained
to him, for his boldness in daring to advise the Sultan to accept a Representative
Chamber.
The Sultan even yet hesitated to accept the recommendation,
and his telegram to Hilmi, who was in Salonica, urged resistance. But the
Committee were determined, and at their request Hilmi sent a telegram to
the Sultan stating that he was in the power of the Committee and would
be shot if the Constitution were not proclaimed within forty-eight hours.
Then, but not until the evening of July 22, Ferid Pasha resigned. He had
never declared himself in favour of the Committee of Union and Progress,
but he knew the country too well to advise His Majesty to resist a demand
which had become almost universal.
Then the Sultan recognised that he must bow to
the storm. He sent for the two men whom public opinion generally recognised
as the men of the highest reputation in the ministerial class. One was
Kutchuk Said and the other Kiamil Pasha. Each of these men had at one time
believed his life to be in danger from Abdul Hamid's vengeance. I have
told the story of Kutchuk Said's taking refuge in our Embassy in the time
of Sir Philip Currie. Kiamil had taken refuge in the British Consulate
at Smyrna at a more recent date, until Sir Nicholas O'Conor received assurances
that if he came to Constantinople his person and property would be safe.
They were summoned to the palace because they had the reputation of being
favourable to Constitutional Government and to British institutions, and
therefore likely to be popular. On the evening of the 22nd the Sultan published
an irade declaring that Parliament would be convoked.
All ranks and classes in Constantinople went
delirious with joy. The proprietors of the Turkish newspapers met together
and agreed to a resolution which they immediately carried into effect to
turn out the censors from each of their offices. The decree only spoke
of a Representative Chamber. The Turkish papers chose to interpret it as
granting all the rights under Midhat's Constitution, a document which during
thirty years had been idolised by Turkish reformers as a symbol of liberty.
The popular cries became, "Vive la Constitution !" and a Vive
le Sultan !" A new cry taken up everywhere at once followed, "Down
with the spies !" a cry so dangerous that Abdul Hamid and the creatures
around him who were opposed to the popular movement dared not interfere.
Word was passed round that on Friday, July 24 the Sultan would go in state
to St. Sophia. Many years had passed since the Sovereign had visited this
stately temple raised by the great architects of the time of Justinian
for Christian worship, and justly regarded by the Turks after their capture
of Constantinople in I453 as the glory of the city. Pera, Galata, and Stambul
burst out with the greatest display of flags which I have ever seen.
The Revolution was an unmistakably popular movement
By this I do not mean that it was without leaders, but that people of all
ranks were full of the revolutionary spirit, and once action had commenced,
the leaders would have been incapable of stopping it. Newspaper people,
who had felt as acutely as any section of the population the burdens of
Abdul Hamid's coercion, were among the first to take steps to support the
Revolution. They all denounced the system of espionage. At the last moment
Abdul declined to go to St. Sophia. Had he gone he would have been frantically
welcomed. As it was, throughout the 24th the mere announcement of the Sultan's
intention to cross the Horn and go thither made Abdul for the time popular.
An enormous crowd, however, gathered before Yildiz, which IS about three
miles from Stambul. They clamoured to see the Sultan, and kept up a continual
shout for him and the Constitution. When he shewed himself at the window
in reply to these cries he was cheered by a mob consisting about equally
of Moslems and Christians. From the window he made a short speech, in which
he declared that henceforward all his subjects, without reference to race
or religion, would be treated alike.
On Sunday, July 26, a crowd of mollahs and softas,
the latter being students of Moslem law, made another demonstration at
Yildiz in which the cry was raised for the first time in the Sultan's presence,
"Down with the spies!" The Sheik-ul-Islam was present, and other
leading men representing the chief teachers of Islam. The Sheik-ul-Islam
swore the Sultan to respect the Constitution of Midhat. This was another
distinct step confirming the popular interpretation of the original irade
which spoke only of the assembling of Parliament. The Council of Ministers
met, and an order was issued abolishing the item in the Budget which provided
for the pay of the spies. The Moslem portion of the crowd on this Sunday
passed from Yildiz to the residence of the Armenian Patriarch in Pera in
order to express their fraternal feelings with his community, and subsequently
visited the Orthodox Patriarch and even the Bulgarian Exarch.
Speeches were delivered in many places, in mosque
yards, even in the great mosque of Sultan Ahmed itself on the Hippodrome.
Everywhere it was proclaimed that the Revolution meant "hurriet,"
or liberty, equality, and fraternity, above all no distinction of men on
account of their creed. In conversation with two of the leading speakers,
of whom one was a Jew, they spoke with enthusiasm of the sincere desire
which existed among the leaders of the Revolution to have the adherence
of all Christian denominations of the empire. The Armenians responded cordially,
and on this Sunday and on the following days speeches were delivered by
leading Armenians and Greeks declaring that henceforward it would be possible
for the Christians of the empire to co-operate cordially with their Moslem
brethren for the benefit of the empire.
I had seen something of both these demonstrations.
In that of the Monday, which took place before the Town Hall of Pera, immediately
opposite to which is my own house, I estimated that there were at least
2,000 Turkish officers and military students in the great crowd. In the
processions which went through the streets it seemed to me that every public
carriage in the place had been taken possession of. Such carriages in Constantinople
are usually open, and an arrangement had been made in which a saracli,
or mollah, should be seated side by side with a Christian priest. At the
principal points passed by this procession, prayers were publicly offered
up for the Sultan and for the Constitution.
The sight was a novel one. Hundreds of carriages,
nearly all with occupants of two different faiths, thousands of people,
about equally divided between Moslems and Christians, prayers clearly and
distinctly read either from a carriage or from some point of vantage, and
the whole crowd standing in the usual Turkish attitude of devotion, that
is, with the hands held up horizontally, the palms skywards. At the end
of each prayer there came a great volume of Amin, followed usually by cheers
for the Constitution. These processions were undoubtedly carefully organised,
but none the less the enthusiasm was general and honest. One of them entered
the courtyard of the British Embassy in Pera, the Ambassador and his staff,
however, being absent at their summer residence at Therapia. On Sunday,
July 30, Sir Gerard Lowther arrived, and the cheers for King Edward and
for the new Ambassador were such as could not leave any Englishman unmoved.