Although Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, and Bulgaria gained their independence or autonomy in 1878, the Congress of Berlin left the newly independent states dissatisfied and hungry for more territory. The Romanians were angry because they were forced to cede the rich and productive Bessarabia in return for gaining the poor and less productive Dobrudja. The Bulgarians were outraged because they lost the greater Bulgarian state, which had been created by the Treaty of San Stefano. Serbia gained limited territory, but it did not satisfy the voracious appetite of Serbian nationalists, who dreamed of a greater Serbia with access to the sea. Montenegro received a port on the Adriatic, but as in the case of Serbia, it did not acquire the towns and the districts it had demanded. Of all the participants in the Congress, Russia was perhaps the most frustrated. In return for its massive human and financial investment in the war against the Ottoman Empire, it had received only southern Bessarabia, while the Austrians, who had opportunistically sat on the sidelines, had been awarded Bosnia-Herzegovina. These frustrated dreams turned the Balkans into a ticking bomb. By carving the Ottoman Empire into small and hungry independent states, the European powers laid the foundation for intense rivalries. Thirty-six years after the conclusion of the Congress of Berlin, the Balkan tinderbox exploded on June 28, 1914, when a Serbian nationalist assassinated the Austrian crown prince, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo, igniting World War I.
Despite the defeat at the hands of the Russians and the territorial losses imposed by the Congress of Berlin, the new sultan, Abdülhamid II (r. 1876–1909), remained committed to the reforms introduced during the Tanzimat period. Indeed, it was during his reign that a new and Western-educated officer corps emerged. Ironically, the same officers would play an important role in deposing the sultan in April 1909. In addition to emphasizing military training, the sultan expanded elementary and secondary education (including the opening of a new school for girls in 1884), introduced a modern medical school, and established the University of Istanbul. To create a modern communication system for the empire, he developed telegraph services and the Ottoman railway system, connecting Istanbul to the heartland of the Arab world as far south as the holy city of Medina in Hijaz (Zürcher: 77). The Hijaz railroad, which was completed in July 1908, enabled the sultan to dispatch his troops to the Arab provinces in case of a rebellion. As with the reforms introduced by the men of Tanzimat, the principal objective of Abdülhamid’s modernization schemes was to establish a strong central government capable of maintaining the territorial integrity of the empire. In practical terms this meant suppressing uprisings among the sultan’s subjects and defending the state against the expansionist policies of European powers. Despite the sultan’s best efforts, however, the empire continued to lose territory.
Building on its occupation of Algeria in 1830, France imposed its rule on Tunisia in May 1881. A year later the British invaded and occupied Egypt. In addition to these losses, the Ottoman Empire also continued to lose territory in the Balkans. After the Congress of Berlin, the only area left under Ottoman rule was a relatively narrow corridor south of the Balkan Mountains that stretched from the Black Sea in the east to the Adriatic in the west, incorporating Thrace, Thessaly, Macedonia, and Albania (Shaw: 2:195). Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria coveted the remaining territory of the dying Ottoman Empire. In accordance with the promises made at the Congress of Berlin, the Ottomans handed much of Thessaly and a district in Epirus to Greece in July 1881. Despite these gains, Greece continued to push for additional territorial concessions, including the island of Crete, where several uprisings, encouraged by Athens, forced the sultan in 1898 to agree to the creation of an autonomous Cretan state under Ottoman suzerainty. The island finally became part of Greece in December 1913.
Aside from the military disasters and territorial losses that the empire suffered, the reign of Abdülhamid proved to be a period of significant social, economic, and cultural transformation. The autocratic sultan continued with the reforms that had been introduced by the men of Tanzimat. There was, however, a fundamental difference. The statesmen of the Tanzimat had begun their governmental careers as translators and diplomats attached to Ottoman embassies in Europe and thus wished to emulate European customs and institutions. Abdülhamid, in contrast, may have been a modernizer, but he believed strongly in preserving and promoting the Islamic identity of the Ottoman state. With the loss of his European provinces, the number of Christian subjects of the sultan decreased, and Muslims began to emerge as the empire’s majority population. The Muslim population was not only loyal to the sultan, but also felt a deep anger toward the sultan’s Christian subjects for allying themselves with the imperial powers of Europe in order to gain their independence. Abdülhamid understood the new mood among his Muslim subjects and countered European imperial designs by appealing to pan-Islamism, or the unity of all Muslims, under his leadership as the caliph or the religious and spiritual leader of the Islamic world.
Military defeats suffered at the hands of European powers, the loss of territory, and the decline of political and economic power and prestige led to a new sense of Ottoman patriotism in the last decade of the Tanzimat period. The first to advocate Islamic unity were the Young Ottomans, a group of Muslim intellectuals who believed that the modernization of the Ottoman state was the principal means through which the empire’s independence and territorial integrity could be preserved. Concerned with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, humiliated by the inability of the state to defend itself against foreign aggression, and inspired by the unification of Germany and Italy, the Young Ottomans believed that it was necessary to modernize the political, military, and economic institutions of the empire. At the same time, they agreed on the need to retain their society’s basic Islamic characteristics.
THE YOUNG TURKS AND THE COLLAPSE OF
THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Despite his best efforts to preserve the territorial integrity of the empire and to modernize Ottoman society, Abdülhamid II failed to neutralize the opposition of the young, educated, and secular-minded elements to his autocratic rule. As early as 1889 small groups of students, civil servants, and army officers had organized secret societies. Princes of the royal family, government officials, teachers, artists, and army officers educated and trained in modern schools and military academies had concluded that the restoration of the 1876 constitution and the establishment of a new government based on a parliament were the only means through which the Ottoman Empire could be saved from further disintegration. As the police began to crack down on the opposition, some chose exile over imprisonment and settled in European capitals, where they published newspapers that denounced the autocratic policies of the sultan. Others recruited young cadets and organized secret cells among army units stationed in the Balkans. This diverse group of antigovernment Ottoman intellectuals and activists, who were known in Europe as Jeunes Turcs, or the Young Turks, organized themselves as the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP).
Revolution came, unexpectedly, from Macedonia, in July 1908, when army officers loyal to CUP revolted and demanded the restoration of the 1876 constitution (Shaw: 2:266–267). After a faint effort to suppress the rebellion, Abdülhamid concluded that resistance was futile. On July 23 he restored constitutional rule and ordered parliamentary elections throughout the empire (Ahmad: 12; Mango: 77–78). As the news of the revolution spread, massive celebrations erupted, particularly in Istanbul, where Turks, Jews, Armenians, and Arabs joined hands and embraced in the streets of the capital (Shaw: 2:273). Among the deputies to the new parliament, which opened on December 17, were 142 Turks, 60 Arabs, 25 Albanians, 23 Greeks, 12 Armenians, 5 Jews, 4 Bulgarians, 3 Serbs, and 1 Romanian (Mango: 85).
The Young Turks had convinced themselves that the restoration of the parliamentary system of government would secure the support of European powers for the preservation of the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire (Mango: 85). They were mistaken. Shortly after the victory of the revolution, the Austro-Hungarian
Empire formally annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, while Greece seized the island of Crete, and Bulgaria unified with Eastern Rumelia, which had remained an autonomous province under the nominal rule of the Ottoman sultan (Zürcher: 104). In April 1909 an attempted coup by supporters of Abdülhamid provided an excuse for the two chambers of parliament to depose the sultan and replace him with his younger brother, who ascended the throne as Mehmed V (r. 1909–1918) (Zürcher: 98). The center of power had shifted once again, this time from the palace to the army and the parliament. The Ottoman central government, however, continued to be plagued by internal factionalism and growing opposition from both conservative and liberal groups and parties. The weakness of the government was demonstrated by its failure to respond effectively to the unrest in Albania, the uprising of Imam Yahya in Yemen, and the Italian invasion of Tripoli and Benghazi in Libya (Zürcher: 105–106). The Italian attack on the Dardanelles and the occupation of the Dodecanese Islands in May 1912 forced the Ottoman government to accept the loss of Libya and sue for peace (Zürcher: 105–106).
The Italian victory emboldened the neighboring Balkan states, which had been waiting for an opportunity to invade and occupy the remaining provinces of the Ottoman Empire in Europe. After a series of negotiations, Serbia and Bulgaria formed an alliance in March 1912 (Jelavich: 216–217). Shortly afterward, in May, Bulgaria signed a similar agreement with Greece (Zürcher: 106). Finally, in October, Serbia and Montenegro formed an alliance (Zürcher: 106). Shortly after that the Balkan states declared war on the Ottoman Empire. The Bulgarians defeated the Ottoman armies at the battles of Kirklareli/Kirkkilise (October 22–24) and Lüleburgaz (October 22–November 2), followed by a Serbian victory at the battle of Kumanovo (October 23–24) (Zürcher: 107). The Greeks captured Salonika on November 8, 1912.
In the absence of a unified command, the Ottomans were forced either to retreat or to take defensive positions. The major urban centers of the empire in Europe were surrounded by the invading Balkan armies. In December the Ottoman government sued for peace. As the discussions dragged on in London, Bulgaria demanded the city of Edirne. This was too much for a group of young officers in Istanbul, who staged a military coup on January 23, 1913, killing the minister of war and forcing the government to resign. When the news of the coup in Istanbul reached London, the Balkan states resumed their military campaigns. Despite a promise to take the offensive, the new government in Istanbul failed to repulse the Bulgarian forces, which captured Edirne on March 28, or the Serbs, who seized Shkodër on April 22. On May 30 the Ottoman government was forced to sign the Treaty of London, which resulted in the loss of much of its territory in Europe, including the city of Edirne.
Fortunately for the Ottomans, rivalries among the Balkan states erupted shortly after the signing of the Treaty of London. Romania, which had not participated in the war, demanded territory from Bulgaria. The Greeks and Serbs also expressed dissatisfaction with the division of territory in Macedonia. As the negotiations for the creation of an anti-Bulgarian alliance began, Bulgaria attacked Serbia, igniting a second Balkan war between the victors of the first. On July 22, 1913, Ottoman forces under the command of Enver Pasha recaptured Edirne, which had been seized by Bulgaria in the First Balkan War. The victory over the Bulgarians elevated Enver to the status of a national hero. The Ottomans forced Bulgaria to sign the Treaty of Istanbul in September 1913 (Zürcher: 108).
A military coup on January 1913 brought the Ottoman government under the control of CUP. As CUP began to consolidate its power over the organs of the state, a triumvirate of Cemal (Jemal) Pasha, Enver Pasha, and Talat Pasha began to rule the empire with the support of an inner circle that represented the various factions within CUP. With the clouds of war gathering over Europe, the beleaguered Ottoman government appraised its various options, none of which looked very promising given the predatory nature of European powers. The decision to enter the war on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire brought the Ottoman state into open military confrontation with France, Russia, and Great Britain. In the Constantinople Agreement of 1915, these three Entente powers agreed to the complete partition of the Ottoman Empire after the end of the war (Hurewitz: 2:7–11).
The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia on October 29, 1914. Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire on November 1, 1914, followed by Britain and France on November 5, 1914. The Allied expectation that the Ottoman Empire, which they had dubbed the “sick man of Europe,” would be destroyed quickly at the onset of World War I proved to be wishful thinking. The British decision to force the Ottoman Empire out of the war by capturing its capital, Istanbul, in one blow called for a massive landing of Allied troops at the foothills of Gallipoli on the European shores of the Dardanelles in February 1915. After establishing a beachhead in April 1915, the Allied troops planned to climb the hills and destroy the Ottoman forces that defended the heights. For the Ottomans, the defense of Gallipoli was a matter of life and death. The Ottoman commander, Colonel Mustafa Kemal (the future Atatürk), reportedly told his troops: “I do not order you to attack, I order you to die. In the time which passes until we die other troops and commanders can take our places” (Rogan: 145). Indeed, to the dismay of the British, the Ottomans, supported by German officers, fought back heroically, inflicting an impressive defeat on the enemy, who retreated with heavy casualties in January 1916. Roughly “800,000 men” fought at Gallipoli and as many as 140,000 died: “86,500 Turks, 42,000 British and dominion troops, and 14,000 French and imperial soldiers” (Rogan: 214).
In late 1914 the British launched an offensive in southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). The invasion of Mesopotamia and the siege of Kut in eastern Iraq proved to be a disastrous defeat for the British. With their military efforts coming to a sudden halt, the British resorted to the strategy of fomenting an internal rebellion among the sultan’s Arab subjects. They cast their lot with Sharif Hussein of Mecca and his sons, who were promised an independent and united Arab kingdom if they led a revolt against the Ottoman Empire. With financial and military support from the British, Sharif Hussein staged his uprising in June 1916.
Unbeknownst to Sharif Hussein, the British were also negotiating about the fate of the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire with their principal ally in Europe, the French. In negotiations between Mark Sykes, who represented the British government, and his French counterpart, Georges Picot, the two European powers carved the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire into British and French zones of influence. According to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, concluded on May 16, 1916, the British government promised Greater Syria, which included the present-day country of Lebanon, and the Ottoman province of Mosul in present-day northern Iraq, to France. In return, the British gained control over the provinces of Baghdad and Basra, with an adjacent territory that stretched to the Mediterranean towns of Acre and Jaffa, including the imprecisely defined Holy Land, or Palestine (Zürcher: 143).
In November 1917 the British government made a third critical promise that would have a long-lasting impact on the Middle East. In a letter addressed to Lord Rothschild, one of the leaders of the Zionist movement in Europe, Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary, expressed the support of his government for the Zionist movement’s aim to establish a Jewish National Home in Palestine. This declaration would prove to be one of the most significant steppingstones toward the establishment of the state of Israel, which came into existence on May 14, 1948. The map of the Middle East would be redrawn as the British government attempted to fulfill the conflicting promises it had made to the Arabs, the French, and the Zionist movement in the aftermath of World War I.
In eastern Anatolia beginning in April 1915, the Young Turk leadership ordered the deportation of the entire Armenian population from its ancient homeland. This eviction order was justified on the grounds that many Armenian officers and soldiers serving in the Ottoman army had defected, joining the invading Russians. These defections were followed by an uprising in the city of Van in April 1915.
The forced-relocation campaign caused the deaths of more than one million Armenians.
For the Ottomans, World War I came to an end when British troops supported by Arab fighters under the leadership of Emir Faisal, a son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, entered Damascus in August 1918. The Ottoman Empire sued for peace in October 1918. After a week of negotiations, the terms of the Armistice of Mudros were presented to the Ottoman government on October 31 (Hurewitz: 2:36–37). They included Allied occupation of Istanbul and the forts on the Bosphorus and Dardanelles. Two days later the three Young Turk leaders, Enver Pasha, Talat Pasha, and Cemal Pasha, fled the country for Berlin. On May 15, 1919, with support from the British, the French, and the Americans, the Greek government, which had joined the Allies at the end of World War I, landed troops in Izmir (Mango: 217).
In the midst of this chaos and humiliation, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (1881–1938), the hero of Gallipoli, was appointed Inspector General of Ottoman forces in northern and northeastern Anatolia and dispatched by the sultan to disarm and disband the remaining Ottoman army units and pacify the local population (McCarthy: 377). Having enrolled in the Ottoman military academy, Mustafa Kemal had joined the Young Turks before the 1908 revolution but had refused to assume political office. An Ottoman army officer who had fought with distinction at Gallipoli (1915), the Caucasus (1916), and Palestine (1917), Mustafa Kemal had emerged as a hero of World War I and was considered to be the ideal officer capable of diffusing a rebellion against the sultan and the Allies.
By the time Mustafa Kemal arrived in Samsun on the northern coast of Anatolia on May 19, he had already decided to disobey his orders and to organize a national resistance movement (Mango: 218–221). Support came from other Ottoman commanders and officers who shared his determination to remove all foreign forces from Anatolia. After creating a national congress and launching a series of successful military campaigns against the newly established Armenian state in eastern Anatolia and the Greek forces in western Anatolia, the Turkish nationalists forced foreign troops to evacuate the “Turkish homeland” in the summer of 1922.
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