When did the Young Turk movement began?

The Young Turks were the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide. The Young Turk Movement emerged in reaction to the absolutist rule of Sultan Abdul-Hamid (Abdulhamit) II (1876-1909). With the 1878 suspension of the Ottoman Constitution, reform-minded Ottomans resorted to organizing overseas or underground. The backbone of the movement was formed by young military officers who were especially disturbed by the continuing decline of Ottoman power and attributed the crisis to the absence of an environment for change and progress. Working secretly in unconnected clusters under the watchful eye of the Hamidian secret police, the Young Turks succeeded in overturning the rule of the autocratic sultan when the Ottoman armies in European Turkey openly supported the movement. Abdul-Hamid's reinstatement of constitutional and parliamentary rule in July 1908 ushered in a brief period of legalized political activity by a panoply of reformist Turkish parties as well as Armenian political and revolutionary organizations. The Young Turks earned further public support when their intervention was required to suppress the April 1909 counter-revolution staged by the palace.

At the center of the Young Turk Revolution stood the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) (Ittihad ve Terakki Jemiyeti) formed in 1895. Its members came to be known as Ittihadists or Unionists. The most ideologically committed party in the entire movement, the CUP espoused a form of Turkish nationalism which was xenophobic and exclusionary in its thinking. Its policies threatened to undo the tattered fabric of a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society. Taking advantage of the political confusion reigning in the aftermath of the First Balkan War which the Ottoman Empire lost in 1912 to its former subject states, the CUP seized power in a coup d'etat in January 1913. As it led the empire to a partial recovery in the Second Balkan War, the CUP monopolized political power domestically by bringing the Parliament completely under its influence. It also began to steer away from the long-held Ottoman foreign policy of alliances with Great Britain and France, and forged a stronger military cooperation with Germany. Moreover, the CUP compensated for the Ottoman retreat in the Balkans by promoting Pan-Turkism, an expansionist program designed to challenge Russia in its southern tier. By the time World War I broke out in August 1914, the CUP constituted a chauvinistic band which had subordinated the Ottoman state to its Turkist ideology. It also propelled the country into war against its better interests by entering into a secret accord with Germany.

To consolidate Turkish rule in the remaining territories of the Ottoman Empire and to expand the state into the so-called Turanian lands in the east, most held by Iran and Russia, the CUP devised in secret a program for the extermination of the Armenian population. From the viewpoint of Ittihadist ideology and its new and ambitious foreign policy, the Armenians represented a completely vulnerable population straddling an area of major strategic value for its Pan-Turanian goals. Ottoman misrule had made the Armenians, a prosperous minority despite its political disadvantages, sympathetic to Russia. To the Ittihadists, the global crisis of 1914 represented a rare opportunity to change the fortunes of the Ottoman state and to use the cover of war to embark upon a policy of both internal and external social engineering the likes of which had not been attempted or imagined. Once again they gambled on the element of surprise, subterfuge, and radical daring, this time against a civilian minority population.

Even though the initial advance of Ottoman forces in 1914 into Russia and Iran did not result in a permanent expansion, on the whole the Ottoman armies held Allied forces in check until 1916 and did not capitulate until 1918. The main thrust of the Armenian Genocide, however, was implemented within the first year of the war, years ahead of any imminent collapse. While the mass deportations of the civilian Armenian population was carried out in the spring and summer of 1915 and were completed by the fall, the systematic slaughter of the Armenians had started earlier with the murder of the able-bodied males already drafted into the Ottoman armed forces. By expropriating the movable and immovable wealth of the Armenians, the CUP also looked upon its policy of genocide as a means for enriching its coffers and rewarding its cohorts. The elimination of a commercially viable minority fulfilled part of the nationalist program to concentrate financial power in the hands of the state and promote greater Turkish control over the domestic economy.

Enver, Talaat, and Jemal, who were responsible for these policies formed the governing triumvirate which had concentrated power its hands with the January 1913 coup. The triumvirs divided the governance of the Ottoman Empire among themselves.

A young military hero who married into the Ottoman dynasty, Enver provided the most public face of the CUP. As Minister of War he coordinated the buildup of the Turkish armed forces with German financial, logistical, and planning support. In an ill-conceived plan of attack, he precipitated land warfare against Russia in the Caucasus in the dead of winter. His December 1914 campaign cost an entire army lost in a period of four weeks. In his capacity as the Deputy Commander-in-Chief (the honorary command being reserved for the sovereign), Enver exercised ultimate control over the Ottoman armies which carried out major atrocities, first in 1915 and then with renewed vigor when Turkish forces broke the Russian line in 1918 and invaded the Caucasus. The forces under the command of his brother, Nuri, and uncle, Halil, spread devastation through Russian Armenia and carried out massacres of Armenians all the way to Baku. Talaat as Minister of the Interior in Istanbul ran the government for a figurehead grand vizier. He was the mastermind of the Armenian Genocide and coordinated the various agencies of the Ottoman government required for the deportation, expropriation, and extermination of the Armenians. Jemal who was Minister of the Navy controlled the southern part of the Ottoman Empire as virtual viceroy from his seat in Damascus and was responsible for checking the British line in Egypt. As commander of Syria, the concentration camps and extermination sites fell within his jurisdiction. Beyond the government ministries, the CUP also operated secret groups for the purpose of infiltrating enemy territory and for promoting Pan-Turkism in neighboring countries. The most infamous of its operations was the Teshkilâti Mahsusa, Special Organization, composed of outlaws especially recruited to carry out the CUP secret agenda. The high purpose of their mission was evidenced by their disposition at the command of two major CUP ideologues, Dr. Nazim and Dr. Behaeddin Shakir, both of them medical professionals, the prime organizers of the on-site implementation of the Armenian Genocide. Lastly, the CUP entrusted local command of the genocidal process to the provincial valis, or governors-general, who were made responsible for the execution of Talaat's and Enver's orders.

With the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I the denouement of the CUP became a drawn out matter pursued by all their opponents. Fully cognizant of the Allied threat to hold them responsible for war crimes, the CUP cabinet ministers resigned from the government with the signing of the Armistice of Mudros in October 1918. The key Ittihadist leaders fled Turkey, while the rank and file went underground. The post-war Ottoman government convened tribunals in 1919 to hear testimony on the conduct of the war and the implementation of the Armenian Genocide. While many second rank figures were prosecuted individually, the party as a whole was indicted for the crimes of conspiracy and massacre. The verdicts found the accused guilty of capital crimes, but the principal culprits were only tried in absentia. To bring them to justice, a clandestine group was formed by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnak Party) to seek out and execute the Ittihadists in hiding in Germany and Italy. Vowing vengeance they tracked down Talaat in Berlin where he was assassinated in 1921. Behaeddin Shakir was also killed in Berlin in 1922, and Jemal in Tbilisi in 1922. Enver in a last adventure met his end in 1922 in Central Asia leading a cavalry charge against an advancing Red Army unit. Though most of the CUP chieftains had taken refuge in Germany, Jemal and Enver had established contact with the Bolsheviks offering their services in the cause of one more revolution. In the meantime, as he led the Turkish Nationalist movement, Mustafa Kemal distanced himself from the Ittihadists but absorbed into his forces former CUP members prepared to switch allegiance. In 1926 Kemal himself stamped out the remaining cells of the CUP when they were accused of plotting his assassination and sent Dr. Nazim and others to the gallows.

--Rouben Paul Adalian

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By the 1890s, the once massive and dominant Ottoman Empire was racked by internal unrest. Many groups, including Armenians and Turks, called for change. One group to emerge was a faction within the reformist Committee of Union and Progress Party, or CUP. This faction was known as the Young Turks.

On July 24, 1908, the Young Turks and the CUP successfully overthrew the Sultan and took control of the Ottoman government. Many Armenians supported this shift, because the Young Turks promised equality for all groups within the empire, including Armenians.

Reforms meant, very simple, participation of Armenians in the administration, in the police, in the security forces, and allowing Armenians free in the education. And then, total equality. For example, acceptance Armenian testimonies in Islam, Muslim courts also, and so on and so forth.

And Armenians, through their revolutionary organization, Armenian Revolutionary Federation, ARF, they were part of Ottoman government also. So they were in a strategic alliance with Union and Progress Party.

Both party, for example, beginning of 1909, established a joint committee and the task of this committee was to implement reforms. And this committee went to Eastern Anatolia, prepared the report on what the reforms should be and so on and so forth. But these reforms never realized.

The Young Turks came to power with a promise of equality for all. However, tensions continued within the empire, as former supporters of the Sultan rebelled in a violent backlash against Armenian equality. Problems continued with a series of conflicts in the Balkans that resulted in the Ottoman Empire losing its non-Turkish, non-Muslim populations in the region, as well as much of its territory. These conflicts came to a head in the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913.

Balkan War 1913 was a really important turning point. Ottomans lost, within one week, approximately 80% of their European population and maybe more than 60% of their European landholding. It was a big shock for them to lose these territories within one week.

And another important information to understand the shock that it created, they actually—the ruling elite of Union and Progress Party—they actually lost their birthplaces. They were all coming from Balkan.

And this was really very difficult to digest. And I think—I say, I think, because we don't know any evidence that they decided, you know what? This is it. We cannot live with these Christians in this country together.

In 1913, Young Turks Mehmed Talaat, Ahmed Djemal, and Ismail Enver organized a military coup and formed a coalition of ultranationalists who believed that the only way to hold on to the empire was to embrace a radical ideology of ethnic resettlement, deportation, and eventually, genocide.

It was the end of the policy of unity of the subject people within the empire. So then, they openly declared their Turk-ism. Turkish nationalism became official party policy. And then, they started to develop certain plans for Anatolia.

They started implementing a policy, which I call homogenization of Anatolia. The purpose was to get rid of the Christians out of Anatolia.

During that time, there were approximately two and a half million or three million Greeks and around 1.8 million Armenians. And according to these plans, first, they targeted Greek population on the Aegean coast.

The outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914 provided the Young Turks with the perfect cover to carry out their murderous plans.

Ottoman government established a secret organization within Defense Ministry. And this special organization attacked the Greek villages on the coastal area. But the main purpose was not extermination. To create fear and to empty the Greek religious and to push the Greek people on the shores, so that they should leave Anatolia. And Ottoman government's official policy was, we don't have anything to do with it.

And it stopped 1st November 1914, emptying of the Greek villages. The reason was Germany. German government asked Turkey to stop this forcible expulsion policy. Because they were hoping to get Greece on their side during the First World War. And Ottomans obeyed the German demand. And 1st November 1914, deportation of Greeks stopped.

Then, Armenians started, also, asking reforms, encouraged by Balkan countries. Ottomans never wanted to implement this reform. This is the reason why they entered the World War I. This was the reason why they canceled, immediately, this reform agreement when they entered the war, November 1914.

During the war, the Ottomans' greatest fear was losing the mostly Armenian region of Eastern Anatolia to the Russians, who would, they feared, invariably support Armenian reforms.

When Russia invades this area, they would implement the reform plan. We will lose these territories. Instead of losing this territory, let's get rid of the Armenians and we can secure this land. This is what happened.

They emptied the entire territory of Armenians. They destroyed the Armenian communities, exterminated them. And this is one of the central reasons why Turkey denies today the Armenian Genocide, because we basically built our nation-state on that genocide.

Genocide was not only as a response to the war, or was not only a plan to destroy the Armenian communities.

Their main goal was to create a country that consists of Muslim Turkic majority. And how you get Muslim Turkic majority? You can develop these on two ways. Number one, you get rid of the Christians, by massacres or expelling. The second way of homogenization is assimilation. You can assimilate them. But you can assimilate people and groups only if they come a certain level.

The ruling elite of Union and Progress Party developed a plan, saying that Christians and non-Turkish elements should not exceed, in certain areas, 10% of the population. This is their governability threshold.

So throughout this period, the genocidal period, they implement both policy—physical examination and assimilation, hand in hand. And their purpose was to reduce the Armenian numbers as much as possible so that they should never raise their demands again.

The Muslim population of the area, the resettlement area, with a very generous estimate, were around 1.8 to 2 million. And the total number of Armenians that had to be deported were around 1.3 million. And you have to make 1.3 million 10% of 2 million. So this means, you have to really find a way that reduce Armenian number from 1.3 million all the way down to 1.8 or 200,000. And this is really, at the end, the number of surviving Armenians.