Committee of Union and Progress

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The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP, Ottoman Turkish: اتحاد و ترقى جمعيتی, romanized: İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti, Modern Turkish: Birlik ve İlerleme Derneği) was a political group that tried to reform and modernize the Ottoman Empire during the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. It was the main political expression of the Young Turks movement.[1]

Establishment[change | change source]

The reforms that had been supported by the Ottoman Empire since the late 1830s under the Tanzimat created a generation of Ottomans that advocated even greater modernization of the empire. In 1865, the İttifak-ı Hamiyet (Patriotism Alliance) was founded. It in 1867 was renamed Genç Türkiye Partisi (Young Turkey Party). Both organizations served as bases for the establishment of the CUP[2] in Paris in 1889 by a group of Ottoman intellectuals and military officers as the result of the authoritarian governance of Sultan Abdülhamid II.[3] Its central ideology was Ottomanism, which advocated the development of a patriotic feeling in all subjects of the empire,[4] a kind of "Ottoman nationalism."

Its goal of the CUP was the reformation of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of a modern, constitutional, and liberal state, which would be governed by the equality of its subjects in terms of gender, nationality, and religion. It strongly supported the dethronement of Abdülhamidn but preferred the establishment of a constitutional monarchy to a republic.[5] Ahmed Rıza was the main leader of the movement.[6] Mustafa Kemal was also among its early members.[7]

Young Turk Revolution and World War I[change | change source]

The CUP came to power between 1908 and 1918 after the Young Turk Revolution in July 1908. The outbreak of the revolution that took place in Ottoman Macedonia was caused by the disclosure of British and Russian plans to partition the region.[8] The CUP actions alarmed the sultan, who accepted their demands for the restoration of the constitution and other reforms. Abdülhamid's counter-revolution the following year also led to his dethronement.[9] The CUP also had the support of the non-Muslim communities of the Ottoman Empire, who had been inspired with the confidence that their constitution and political program would ensure their full equality and peaceful coexistence within the empire.[10][11]

However, the 1909 movement brought the political leadership of the CUP, which was politically dominant and had a reformist program, into conflict with the more conservative military leadership, as politicians were considered incapable of preserving the order and securing the new regime.[12] Despite their initial constitutionalist and inclusive agenda towards religious and national minorities, the CUP started showing a direction towards Turkish nationalism. Soon, the group's leadership saw itself identified with the interest of the Ottoman Empire.[13]

Although the CUP remained politically dominant, opposition by 1911 was growing, and a single political group was formed, Fredom and Accord Party Entente Libérale (Hürriyet ve İtilaf Fırkası). In 1912 and 1913, both Balkan Wars were fought. The Ottomans lost almost of their European territories in the First Balkan War. Although the Second Balkan War had the Ottomans on the winning side, the defeat led on July 12, 1913 to a coup d'état by a group of the CUP. From then to the end of World War I, the empire was ruled dictatorially by three CUP members: Mehmed Talaat Pasha, İsmail Enver Pasha and Ahmed Cemal Pasha.[14]

The triumvirate led the Ottoman Empire to World War I because of an alliance with the Central Powers. During the Young Turk Revolution, the pro-German factions of the army had come to power.[15] During the Gallipoli Campaign, which was victorious for the Ottomans, the CUP leadership managed to limit the power of Grand Vizier Said Halim Pasha and strengthened their own political position.[16] During the war, the triumvirate proceeded with a process of ethnic cleansing of populations that were considered hostile to the survival of the empire. The procedure took the form of a genocide of Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontic Greeks.[17] Ultimately, the defeat of the Central Powers and therefore the Ottoman Empire in the war led to the fall of the triumvirate and the decline of the CUP.

Aftermath[change | change source]

The three leaders of the CUP, which had essentially collapsed, were held responsible for the Ottoman defeat in the war. Most CUP members and were court-martialled by Sultan Mehmed VI and imprisoned. Talaat, Enver, and Cemal Pasha had already fled the country,[18] but all three were either murdered by Armenians or killed in revolutionary movements.

Despite the defeat in the war and the decline of the CUP, the remaining members had maintained conditions that allowed them continue their fight. Kemal, who since 1919 had been the central figure in the Turkish War of Independence, rallied many members around him but criticized the CUP for its lack of leadership and differentiated himself from it.[19] Finally, in 1923, after his definitive victory in the war, he emerged as the undisputed leader of the newly-founded Republic of Turkey.

After the success of the Kemalist movement, the few remaining CUP members offered Kemal its leadership in the spring of 1923, but he declined.[20] Eventually, the last members organized an opposition to his radicalism and authoritarianism. The remnants of the organization were eliminated from Turkey during the Izmir trials for plotting the assassination of Kemal in 1926.[21]

References[change | change source]

  1. ↑ Ahmad, Feroz (2018). The Young Turks: Struggle for the Ottoman Empire, 1914-1918. Istanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları. pp. 3–4. ISBN 6053995304.
  2. ↑ Gökbayır, Satılmış (2012). ""Gizli Bir Cemiyetten İktidara: Osmanlı İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti'nin 1908 Seçimleri Siyasi Programı"". Çankırı Karatekin Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi. 3 (1): 62.
  3. ↑ Ahmad, Feroz (2014). The Young Turks and the Ottoman Nationalities: Armenians, Greeks, Albanians, Jews, and Arabs, 1908–1918. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-60781-338-5.
  4. ↑ Findley, Carter Vaughn (2010). Turkey, Islam, Nationalism and Modernity. A History, 1789-2007. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 102.
  5. ↑ Gökbayır (2012). pp. 64-65.
  6. ↑ Lévy-Aksu, Noémi; Georgeon, François (2020). The Young Turk Revolution and the Ottoman Empire. The Aftermath of 1908. London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 7–8.
  7. ↑ Zürcher, Erik J. (2004). Turkey. A Modern History. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 142.
  8. ↑ Zürcher (2004). p. 90.
  9. ↑ Zürcher (2004). pp. 95-99.
  10. ↑ Ahmad, Feroz (2013). From Empire to Republic. Essays on the Late Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Vol. 2. Istanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Unıversıty Press. p. 163.
  11. ↑ Ahmad (2014). p. 42.
  12. ↑ Ahmad, Feroz (1969). The Young Turks. The Committee of Union and Progress in Turkish Politics, 1908-1914. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 50–52.
  13. ↑ Zürcher, Erik J. (2010). The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building. From the Ottoman Empire to Atatürk’s Turkey. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 69.
  14. ↑ Findley (2010). p. 198.
  15. ↑ Taner, Timur (2008). "Uluslaşma Süreci, İttihatçılık ve Devrim". In Akşin, Sina; Balcı, Sarp; Ünlü, Barış (eds.). 100. Yılında Jön Türk Devrimi. Istanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları. pp. 44–46.
  16. ↑ Seyhun, Ahmet (2021). Competing Ideologies in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish Republic Selected Writings of Islamist, Turkist, and Westernist Intellectuals. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 196. ISBN 075560220X.
  17. ↑ Shirinian, George N., ed. (2017). Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. New York: Berghahn.
  18. ↑ Lewis, Bernard (1968). The Emergence of Modern Turkey. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 240–241.
  19. ↑ Findley (2010). pp. 221-222.
  20. ↑ Zürcher (2004). p. 160.
  21. ↑ Zürcher (2004). p. 174.


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