Part:4 Growth of Muslim Opposition and the Young Turk Revolution

While designing the Murzsteg Scheme, the governments of Austria-Hungary and Russia were aware that the Macedonian problem was due less to the maladministration of the Ottoman government and more to the weakness of the Ottoman administration. The reforming Powers were therefore aware that they could not solve the problem through these reforms but thought they might bring temporary tranquillity to the provinces.

The British Foreign Minister Lord Lansdowne, under pressure from the Slavophile Balkan Committee, believed that a measure of political autonomy should be promised to the Macedonian lands and that the Murzsteg Scheme was inadequate. But the British left Russia and Austria-Hungary to deal with the reforms and tried to remove any obstruction in their implementation. However, after the establishment of the Financial Commission at the end of 1905, the Murzsteg Scheme became more or less a joint action of all the Great Powers and made the British adopt a more active role in the affairs of the provinces.

There were two major measures by which the British, with the support of Russia, wished to introduce further reforms. The first was to increase the numbers of foreign officers and gendarmerie to deal with the insurgents and to reduce the numbers of Turkish troops in the provinces. The second was to reform the judiciary system by appointing Christian inspectors to the Financial Commission to control and supervise all tribunals with the exception of Sharia courts and prisons. The British also wanted the powers of the Governor General to be extended, a similar idea to that introduced in Crete and Eastern Rumelia. The British officials believed that since the arrival of the European officials progress had been made in the civil administration and in the quality of the gendarmerie force, and that management of finances had been improved through the control of the Financial Commission in Macedonia. However, the British failed to see that at the same time, strife between different nationalities and outrages committed by armed groups had increased dramatically during the period of the reforms, and made life and property in Macedonia less secure than ever before. In that sense, as the Italian Ambassador in Constantinople stated, the whole reform project failed in its initial purpose.

The German Ambassador Marschall went even further and stated that the British proposals were only designed to gain the sympathy of the Christians and not to improve the existing situation. He also pointed out that the reforms of the more conservative powers had kept the Muslims quiet and so far prevented a Balkan catastrophe. However, as he saw it, the mistimed British proposals were leading precisely in that direction.

The deterioration of the political situation in Macedonia, the extension of the service and privileges of the foreign officers and the general atmosphere encouraged during the reign of Abdulhamid II increased the number of Muslims who believed radical reforms in the Ottoman administration were needed without further delay. These circumstances resulted in the formation of the Ottoman Freedom Society (OHC) in September 1906. OHC was formed on the initiative of Talat Bey (Pasha) in Salonika. Although most of the founding members held civilian positions at the time, OHC spread very quickly in various units of the Macedonian army, especially among the officer corps.44 Most of the General Staff graduates who were serving in Macedonia showed little hesitation in joining the movement in its early stages.

There had been attempts to form Young Turk organizations in Macedonia before 1906, but most were short-lived due to the lack of support and the espionage methods of pro-Sultan officials in the area. Therefore, until 1906 Freemasons' lodges and other secret societies attracted many Muslims as meeting places to discuss their ideas. Abdulhamid II was aware of the growth of freemasonry among the Muslims in Macedonia and warned Hilmi Pasha, but his intervention did not bring any decrease in the number of lodges.45 Almost all prominent citizens belonged to one or more secret organizations in Macedonia, mostly freemasonic. Talat Bey had become a freemason in 1902, interestingly after his attempt to form a branch of Ittihat ve Terakki had failed in that year. Talat, Rahmi Bey, Mithat Sukru¨ and Kazým Nami were members of the lodge called Risorta, whose leader was Emmanuel Karasu, who later joined the movement. Talat Bey, Naki and Kazim Nami were also members of another lodge in Salonika called Veritas.

Another founding member, Tahir Bey (Bursalý), was a prominent member of the Melami Sufi orders of Islam. Melami was a liberal Sufi order and its members had the reputation of being in close contact with the freemasons in the area. With his position among the Melamis and also as the Director of the Military Rus¸diye, Tahir Bey played an important role in spreading the movement among civilians. According to Skendi and Ramsaur, Albanian Bektas¸is were also attracted to the movement. They sympathized with the liberal ideas of the Young Turks and hoped to establish a Bektas¸i state in Albania with their support.

OHC was in fact a local organization formed as a result of the recent developments in Macedonia.51 Members of OHC opposed European intervention, European favouritism towards Christians and also the weakness of the Sultan. Its supporters wanted immediate radical reforms in the Ottoman administration and the restoration of the 1876 Constitution. There were constant demonstrations and uneasy feeling among the Muslims against the presence of the European reformers and Christian insurgents, but they lacked the necessary organization and strength to take any action. In the prevailing circumstances, OHC succeeded in using the presence of the Europeans as a propaganda tool to gain the support of the Muslim population and it easily attracted various groups, civilian and military, in the area. From the beginning the movement had a nationalist-Muslim outlook. However, it was the religious element that unified the various classes of Muslims in Macedonia and contributed to the growth of the movement.

The leading members of OHC were in touch with the Young Turks outside Macedonia. In the autumn of 1907, the Paris Group approached OHC in Salonika for the unification of the Ottoman Freedom Society and Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress. The unification took place on 27 September 1907 and the new name Ottoman Committee of Union and Progress was adopted. However, there is no convincing archival evidence that the members of the Committee abroad had any influence on the Young Turk activities in the provinces prior to the Revolution.

It is also important that the direct co-operation of the Young Turk Committee with the Christian revolutionary organizations was minimal, even though its co-operation has often been exaggerated. The Committee in Macedonia wanted to develop close relations with the Christian organizations purely to gain their support to pressurize the Sultan for the restoration of the Constitution. There is no evidence that any military co-operation took place between them before the Revolution, though there were individual Christian revolutionaries and intellectuals who were sympathetic to the Young Turk movement. Among the Vlachs, a prominent Vlach teacher N. Batzaria from Monastir joined the Committee in 1907. He was brought on to it because of his views on peaceful co-existence with all nationalities in the Balkans and his support for constitutional change in the Ottoman Empire. Among the Greeks, some prominent members of the Hellenist movement such as Dr Zannas and Karomilas co-operated closely with the civilian wing of the Young Turks, but there is no evidence of official co-operation between the two organizations. Among the Bulgarian organizations, the Young Turks were closest to the Sandanski Group. Sandanski gave his full support to the Revolution and the two organizations developed a close relationship in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution. The reason for the co-operation was mainly that Sandanski opposed the policy of the Bulgarian government and any foreign intervention and partly because the Young Turks wanted to show the reforming Powers that they were more successful in bringing the forces together.

The main support for the Young Turk Committee came from the Albanians. After 1907, the Albanian and Young Turk committees started to co-operate and their leaders were convinced that only through joint action could they succeed in improving the situation. Niyazi Bey, one of the architects of the Revolution, used his influence in the army as well as on the Albanian committees to join up with the Young Turks in Resne. At the same time, his brother Muzahir Bey, a well respected local businessman in Monastir, was gaining many professionals and bureaucrats, mostly Albanians, for the movement on the eve of the 1908 Revolution.

The Monastir branch was formed under the leadership of Enver Bey (Pasha). Enver raised funds from the authorities to open new schools in Muslim villages and employed members of the Committee to investigate further needs of the population and recruit supporters. Soon OHC spread to all the kazas of Monastir, and was especially strong in Ochrid and Kesriye. By the spring of 1907, only a few men were reluctant to join OHC in Ochrid, and here OHC also had the support of the Eshraf because they were unhappy at the lack of business, mainly caused by the activities of Bulgarian insurgents. This had a unifying effect on Muslim businessmen, which was later used by the Monastir branch of the Young Turk Committee to gain their support.

In Kosovo, the Committee grew through the efforts of Kalkandelenli Galib Bey, who was a commandant in the foreign-inspected gendarmerie force. By 1907 in Kosovo two-thirds of the officers in the army and the gendarmerie were members of the Young Turk Committee. Galib also succeeded in recruiting civilians, mainly Albanians, from the Eshraf and Ulema, but while the movement was growing rapidly in Monastir and Kosovo, progress was slower in the rest of the provinces.
In 1908 the intense struggle of the various revolutionary organizations continued, and there was a significant increase in the activities of local Muslim rebel groups as well, more and more of which were attacking the Bulgarians in Monastir. Similar problems were already evident between the Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. Europeans complained about these activities but no serious precautions were taken to prevent the growth of these groups. At the same time, mutinies in units of the Third Army over issues such as irregular pay and the extension in the service of the reservists became common. From the start, the burden of the local struggle and expenses related to the reforms fell on the army. Therefore, it was not difficult for officers belonging to the Young Turks to find the necessary support among the soldiery.

While discontent among the Muslims was escalating, both the Albanian and Young Turk committees were gaining many supporters during the first half of 1908. As the German Ambassador rightly stated in the spring of 1908, the Macedonian Muslims were ready to rebel and were only waiting for impetus from the army. However, the British and the Russians ignored and underestimated anti-Europeanism and the strength of the growing opposition among the Muslims in Macedonia. When the Russian Foreign Minister A. Isvolsky and C. Hardinge of the British Foreign Office, a former Ambassador in Russia, met at Reval in June 1908, they agreed to impose further reforms in the provinces without delay. It is widely held in Ottoman historiography that the Reval talks indicated to the leading members of the Committee that the time was ripe for revolt.

The present study does not intend to cover the Young Turk Revolution in detail but it would not be inappropriate to point out that it was spontaneously initiated by a group of officers of the Monastir garrison in the month of July. A major revolution with co-operation of all branches was already on the agenda but it had been planned for a later period. In any event, it started spontaneously as an uprising in Monastir but did not take long to spread to all the Macedonian provinces and also to the Second Army Corps in Adrianople. It happened as a result of the skill of a handful of Young Turk officers in Monastir who persuaded the Muslim population and the rest of the soldiery to join the revolt. Two factors made the Revolution a success. One was the support of the Muslims, among whom the majority were Albanians, and the second was the support received by the movement from the Anatolian reservists. The main civilian contribution to the revolt probably came from the Albanians' meeting in Ferizovic, an area 50 km away from Usku¨p. In early July, the Albanians gathered in Ferizovic to protest against an excursion train due to arrive at a village near Ferizovic. There was nothing suspicious about the excursion, but soon rumours started to spread that Christians had been given some land and Austrian soldiers were about to enter Usku¨p. These rumours encouraged more Albanians in the region to gather and demonstrate. During the demonstrations, some influential members of the Albanian community were successful in persuading local Albanians that the best remedy for their grievances would be to demand a Constitution.

Thus the revolt was getting out of the Sultan's control, and 18,000 extra men were brought in from Asia Minor to suppress it. But these new arrivals were also sympathetic to the Young Turks and refused to fight the insurgents.
At the same time, major changes were taking place in the central administration. The most important was that the Albanian Grand Vizier Ferid Pasha refused to give any advice to the Sultan on the Ferizovic meeting and the rumours were that the Vizier was sympathetic towards the Albanian movement. On 22 July Said Pasha replaced Ferid Pasha, and on the new Grand Vizier's advice the Sultan on 24 July 1908 agreed to the restoration of the 1876 Constitution. With the proclamation of the Constitution the reform proposals were put aside for the time being. The gendarmerie officers were given unlimited leave but the Financial Commission continued to work as usual.

Beneath the joyful atmosphere of the Constitution some anxieties persisted in the local as well as the international arena. Although the Balkan nationals expressed their pleasure at the restoration of the Constitution, they had serious worries as well. For if the Constitution was applied properly, the new regulations would allow the Christian elements to develop politically and materially, and this would lead them to abandon their aspirations in Macedonia. The Albanians, however, were filled with true satisfaction, as were other Muslims.
In conclusion, the Young Turk Revolution was the work of the military, but it was the support of the Muslim civilians in the Macedonian provinces that made it a success. The Young Turk Revolution could therefore also be called the revolution of the Macedonian Muslims, because it was the Macedonian situation that united the army and the Muslims.

European reforms and foreign intervention encouraged the Christians and frustrated the Muslims. The latter believed that the Europeans had treated them unfairly and also that the central government was not capable of solving the problems that arose. At the same time, the military e´lite stationed in Macedonia wanted to bring change to the established system, which they believed was at the core of the Empire's problems. In these circumstances various Muslim forces—urban and rural, peasantry and professionals—joined together to fight the common enemy.

AHSENE GÜL TOKAY