THE STRUGGLE WITH YOUNG-TURKEY.
The Sultan's opponents--His manner of dealing with
them--The 'humanity' of Europe--Attempts on the
Sultan's life--Lack of organisation in Young-Turkey--
refuge for the reformers in England--The short-lived
Parliament suppressed by the Sultan--Opposition of
English Russophiles to Turkish schemes of reform--What
Young-Turkey wanted--Persecution of Young-Turks--A long
tale of victims--The possibility of a revival.
IN spite of all the measures taken by the Sultan to preserve his
personal rule, he has met at times with serious opposition from a
section of his Turkish subjects, the only people in Turkey who see the
state of affairs clearly and can read the signs of their country's
decadence. They understand that, among the peoples of the Ottoman
empire, the Turkish race, in whose name the misrule of a cosmopolitan
Palace faction is maintained, suffer most from the existing tyranny.
These men compose what is commonly known in Europe as 'the Young
Turkish Party.' By them attempts have been made now and then to rid
the throne of Abd-ul-Hamid, and for this reason there has been a
constant struggle between them and the Sultan. He is aware that the
Turks, unlike his non-Mohammedan subjects, would not allow themselves
to be tools for the political designs of any European Power, and
therefore would never be likely to receive foreign help against his
tyranny. Consequently he feels at liberty to deal with them in a much
more absolute fashion than with any of his other subjects. And so,
with a relentless determination, he does all he can to crush any of
the Turks who may attempt to check him. If they escape from his hands
and fly to other countries, he will make almost any sacrifice to get
hold of them again. It is said that he connived at the French designs
on Tunis in order to get Midhat Pasha from the French consulate at
Smyrna, when the latter took refuge there. Quite recently an Italian
consul in Switzerland called on the late Mahmud Pasha, the Sultan's
brother-in-law and enemy, who was staying at Lucerne, and requested
him not to go to Italy, because the Government of that country wished
to be on good terms with the Sultan; and this was at a time when Italy
was making an intimidating naval show in the Albanian and Tripolitan
waters. It is an open secret that the Sultan's representatives have
often approached some European Foreign Offices with the promise of
concessions to be granted on condition that the Turkish refugees in
their territories were handed over to the Sultan, or at any rate
expelled across the frontiers.
Yet, in spite of his uniform success in the struggle with his Turkish
subjects, the Sultan has more than once been face to face with imminent
danger owing to the efforts of this party. The most daring of these
attempts was made by a certain Suavi Effendi, whose name I mentioned
before, who was a very cultured as well as courageous member of the
_Ulema_ class, and was one of the organisers of the once powerful
Young-Turkish movement Suavi Effendi was in London about thirty-five
years ago, finding it safer to print here the political literature
of the movement to be smuggled into Turkey, but before the fall of
the late Sultan he went back to Constantinople, and was engaged
in educational and journalistic work. Soon after the accession of
Abd-ul-Hamid, Suavi collected a band of some hundreds of desperate
refugees, who had flocked into the capital from the provinces which
were lost as the consequence of the Russo-Turkish War, and with them
he attacked the Sultan's palace. Before, however, they could release
the ex-Sultan Murad from his captivity, to be reinstated in his place,
they were overtaken by the guards in the palace garden, and, after a
fearful struggle, Suavi and most of his followers perished. The mere
rustic private who is credited with having cut Suavi Effendi himself
down is now the all-powerful Hassan Pasha, the present head of the
police guarding those quarters of the capital which border on Yildiz
Kiosk. He is a man of great physical strength and ferocity. Most men
who are denounced as being Young-Turkish adherents are handed over to
him before being sent into exile, and terrible tales are related about
his beating the prisoners. The Sultan not long ago conferred on him the
rank of a Field-Marshal for his loyal service, though Hassan is so
ignorant that he cannot even write his own name.
Another attempt to depose the Sultan was made some twenty years ago by
a Circassian cavalry regiment which was quartered near Yildiz Kiosk.
The men of the Circassian regiment, who evidently had lady friends in
the harem of the palace, laid a plot against Abd-ul-Hamid. They also
failed at the last moment in their attempt, and the regiment speedily
and mysteriously disappeared. The last projected attempt of a serious
nature was reported to have been nearly carried out during the Armenian
troubles. At that time the door of the Sultan's room was guarded by
two Kurds, and these men were the disciples of a religious order which
prescribes to its followers a self-sacrificing devotion towards their
sheikhs or chiefs. The sheikh of this order, who was won over by the
adherents of the Reform Party, explained to his two Kurdish followers
the true character of the man who occupied the office of the caliphate,
and, according to the same report, they both bound themselves by an
oath to get rid of him when their turn came to guard his room. Fate
was, however, again on the side of Abd-ul-Hamid, and the plot failed
in due course.
About the progressive element which has inspired and maintained so
obstinate an opposition to the Sultan, much has been heard in England,
but little is really known. I will therefore touch upon its history,
aims, and present position.
The common name for this element, the 'Young-Turkish Party,' though
widely used, is inaccurate, and I do not propose to use it myself in
connection with these advocates of the progressive reform. There is no
organised body such as could properly be called a 'party,' though on
various occasions different societies have been formed by agitators
for reform, whose chief aims and aspirations have been identical;
namely, to check the Sultanic absolutism, to secure a representative
mode of government, and introduce necessary reforms. The growth of the
revolutionising element in Turkey cannot be traced to the influence of
the French Revolution; it was due to the introduction, for the first
time, of English ideas of liberty, and the spread of information about
the English system of constitutional government It is perhaps known to
few that the first Ottoman reformer was a member of the first Ottoman
diplomatic mission to the Court of St James's. Agah Effendi, the
first Turkish Ambassador who was accredited in England, some hundred
years ago, was accompanied by a young man named Ra-if Mahmud Effendi,
who acted as his private secretary. This young secretary remained in
England many years and devoted himself to the study of scientific
subjects, more especially geography, and afterwards published a
translation of an English atlas into Turkish, the first ever prepared
in that language. While in England, Mahmud Effendi used to send
reports to the Sublime Porte on the forms of administration and system
of government in this country. When Sultan Mahmud II. came to the
throne, the young diplomatist was invited to Constantinople to assist
in the work of reorganising the administration; but during one of the
fanatical outbursts which preceded the extermination of the Janissary
corps, this first modernised statesman of Turkey was accused of being a
man of 'broad views,' and killed in a _mélée_. The seeds of reform sown
by him, however, were not entirely destroyed; and it was chiefly owing
to the work of the later Turkish statesmen, who followed his example
in reorganising the system of their country, that the famous Hatt-i
Sherif, or first reform charter of the Ottoman empire, was drawn up,
and, with the assistance of the friendly Powers, proclaimed.
As I said before, it is not correct to call the Ottoman empire a part
of the 'unchanging East'; Turkey has seen many essential changes during
the last century, though not always for the better. Shortly after
his accession to the throne, the late Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz attempted
to disregard the newly established statutes of the empire, and to
rule in a most unconstitutional fashion. Instead of following the
constitutional methods of the country which had previously contributed
to the consolidation of his empire, he adopted the absolutism of
the Russian autocracy, and a Palace Party was formed to combat the
then growing national liberalism. The young reformers of that period
ventured to criticise vehemently the arbitrary conduct of the Sultan
and his advisers. But the country was not sufficiently educated to give
them support, so their remonstrances were severely punished by the
Government. Some of the leaders were imprisoned in different citadels
throughout the empire, but others managed to escape to Europe. Some of
these fugitives settled in London. It is now more than thirty years
since an active movement for reform was started by the 'Young-Turks,'
as they were then first styled. The reformers published pamphlets and
journals in England, and sent them out to Turkey by means unknown
to the Sultan Aziz's officials. Being men of letters of recognised
ability, they contributed considerably by their writings to the
enlightenment of public opinion in their country, and did a good deal
for the cause of education among their countrymen. The effects of
their agitation began to be felt by the Palace Party and the corrupt
officials of the old school in the Sublime Porte.
About the beginning of the unfortunate reign of the present Sultan, the
reformers found so many adherents among the educated classes of the
people, as well as in the army, that Abd-ul-Hamid thought it imperative
to promise to Midhat Pasha, the chief reformer, that immediately after
his coronation he would proclaim constitutional law, and sanction
an assembly of the representatives of the various communities of the
empire. He did as he said, but he was only waiting for an opportunity
of making away with the leaders of the constitutional movement and of
re-establishing the personal rule of the sovereign. The war with Russia
in 1877 gave him his opportunity; as the Turkish people were suffering
from the terrible results of the war, they were not in a position to
forestall the evil designs of Yildiz Kiosk, and to make the friends of
Turkey in Western Europe understand that the only way of preserving
the integrity of the empire was through the formation of a responsible
constitutional government. The short-lived Ottoman constitution, which
Abd-ul-Hamid destroyed, was therefore the work of the Young-Turkish
Party, who aimed at the regeneration of their country by founding a
"reasonable representative Government," to quote a phrase of the late
Mr Gladstone, and was not merely a ruse on the part of the Sultan
whereby "he might throw dust into the eyes of the Western Powers," as
the irreconcilable enemies of the Ottoman empire interpreted it Mr
Gladstone and his political friends, however, never really sympathised
with the attempts to establish such a government in Turkey. The late
Duke of Argyll said, in one of his books on Eastern matters, "We in
England laughed at their constitution." As a matter of fact, these
politicians of England wanted reforms only for the Christian subjects
of the empire.
Thus, after the Russo-Turkish war, the country was not able to give
material support to the Reform 4 Party,' while, on the other hand,
this party received no effective support from the well-wishers of
the Ottoman empire in England. The Yildiz junta took full advantage
of this, made the constitution a dead letter, got rid of the most
powerful and most honest reformers by sending them as governors or
mere exiles to distant provinces, and established a bureaucratic
authority of the most intolerably oppressive kind, the misrule of
which has caused the Ottoman empire irreparable harm. In the hope of
preventing the formation of an opposition party, Abd-ul-Hamid began to
stir up the old religious and racial hatreds, which were then almost
dead, among the various nationalities of the empire, and to crush
every sort of industrial energy and collective enterprise of the
people. He further threatened private property, more especially of the
reform adherents, with confiscation on the slightest excuse. In spite,
however, of fiendish and systematic persecution of the reformers and
their followers, the Sultan has never succeeded in entirely stamping
out the reform movement He was too late in his attempt to suppress
education, and the spread of Western learning among the Turkish people
has brought about the dissemination of the ideas of Western Europe
as to the legitimate liberty of the people and the responsibility of
the government; hence, discontent among the more thoughtful of the
community has steadily gone on increasing.
About the beginning of the Armenian revolt there was an energetic
revival of the reform agitation. The would-be reformers earnestly tried
to upset the misrule of the Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid. They wanted a brave
Sultan to rule over a brave people; they wanted an honest sovereign,
not an intriguer, clever enough when his personal safety is concerned,
but otherwise a lunatic, who has shut himself up in his fortified
palace for the last six-and-twenty years; they wanted a worthy Caliph,
who would impress the Mohammedan world with the fact that as a
Mohammedan power Turkey had a respectable position among the civilised
powers of Europe; they wanted a responsible Turkish Ministry, not a
cosmopolitan clique of adventurers, whose misrule brought the very name
of the Turkish nation into contempt. Persecution of some twenty-five
thousand Young-Turkish adherents did not prove sufficient to suppress
this movement. Therefore the Sultan had to devise further ingenious
means for bringing it to naught Many of his spies fled to Europe as
though they were Young-Turks, and joined the different Young-Turkish
committees; they reported secretly everything they discovered
concerning them to the Sultan, and tried to sow discord among the
members. As most of the fugitives depended for their livelihood on
their resources in Turkey, the Sultan succeeded in driving them into
the utmost destitution by cutting off these resources. Meanwhile his
emissaries came forward with large sums of money and with promises
of appointments in Government offices, to induce the refugees to
return to Turkey. Some of them accepted the pecuniary assistance of
his benevolent Majesty, and therefore lost the sympathy of the Turkish
people. Certain office-seekers and concession-hunters, some of whom
were not Turks at all, pretending to be Turkish reformers, published
seditious papers in London and elsewhere in order to blackmail
the Sultan, and in this way brought shame upon the honour of the
Young-Turks.
Thus the Young-Turkish movement is disorganised, but it has not been
wholly suppressed. It may reorganise its forces, and continue its
campaign against the Yildiz monsters, though in a pacific manner;
because an armed uprising against the tyranny of Abd-ul-Hamid by the
Turks alone would be represented in Europe as prelude to a 'massacre
of the Christians.' Moreover, such a revolution would be a bloody one,
for Yildiz Kiosk is guarded by armed men of different races, hostile
to one another. Besides, in case of an extreme danger to his person,
the Sultan would open the gates of the capital to the forces of the
traditional enemy of Turkey, as he has on more than one occasion
hinted.