The epoch of the second Constitution ( Ottoman. ايکنش مشروتيت دورى ; Tour. İkinci Meşrûtiyyet Devri ) - a period in the history of the Ottoman Empire , marked by the Turkish-Turkish Revolution of 1908, under pressure of which Sultan Abdul-Hamid II was forced into the martial of Ottoman Turkish Revolution of 1908, under which the Sultan Abdul-Hamid II was forced by the Russian Revolution , forced by a Turkish maritime revolution in the Ottoman Empire , forced by the Turkish Revolution . and enact the first , adopted in 1876 , and thus form a constitutional monarchy. In 1878, Abdul Hamid II suspended the Constitution and the General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire. Since in the epoch of the first Constitution there was no opportunity to expand the activities of political parties, the Young Turks amended the basic law of the state, according to which the popularly elected given greater authority due to the removal of the latter from the non-elected and the Sultan, and for the first time in the history of the empire took part in the formation of , which entered.
During the elections held in the epoch of the second Constitution, power was gradually seized by the Committee on Unity and Progress , the influence of which increased significantly. In 1911, the outgoing politicians founded the second largest political party, Freedom and Consent , also known as the Liberal Union, or Liberal Consent, with which the first began the struggle for power. During this period, the reactionaries made a failed attempt to restore the monarchy. After the capitulation of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War and the entry of the Entente troops into Constantinople, the General Assembly decided to cooperate with the Turkish national movement , whose headquarters were in Ankara , and signed the , but in 1920 supported the , what caused the discontent of the allies who forced the Sultan to abolish it. The last meeting of the General Assembly was held on March 18, 1920 , after which the Allies received a letter of protest and the rostrum of parliament was covered with black cloth, which indicated the termination of the activities of its members.
Content
Introduction of the first constitution
As a result of the Young Turk Revolution , which broke out in the Balkan wilayas of the Ottoman Empire and immediately spread throughout its territory, Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, who suspended the General Assembly in 1878 and, thus, completed the era of the first Constitution, was forced to enact the Constitution adopted in 1876, and July 3, 1908 to convene a parliament.
The reason for the uprising at that point in time was the rather despotic political course of the Sultan (“ istibdad, ” according to contemporaries, many of whom believed his passion for despotism no longer popular with the constitutional monarchy) ( “Chafie”), in which the European powers carried out constant interventions, in connection with which there was a threat to the independence of the state.
In 1876, the basic law of the Ottoman Empire was adopted - the constitution, which marked the beginning of the corresponding era. After the Sultan declared the absence of any attempts at the state level to liquidate the parliament convened in 1876, its former members, 33 years later still in a state of readiness to continue work, expressing the interests of the people, took part in the restoration of the constitutional monarchy.
The composition of the newly formed General Assembly included, as in 1876, two chambers : the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, respectively. One member of the lower house, elected by the people, represented 50,000 males over 25 years old who paid taxes. On the other hand, only those older than 40 years could apply for the post of senators appointed by the Sultan himself; their number could not exceed the third part of the deputies of the lower house of parliament.
General elections were held every four years. The entire population did not directly elect a representative who expressed their interests in the General Assembly. In each of the 15 constituencies , 500–750 votes registered as voters were enough to select one delegate [1] . Thus, 3 delegates who were members of elected administrative councils had actual authority to elect people's representatives to the Chamber of Deputies [1] . In addition, the leadership of the territories was carried out by the delegates themselves who were members of the elected administrative councils. Consequently, these elected councils were not only electoral colleges, but also local governments and wilayahs and sandjaks .
The first meeting in parliament after the Young Turk Revolution was superficial and rather symbolic. It was the only decision taken on the organization of new elections. In the General Assembly of the era of the first Constitution, the post of chairman of the Chamber of Deputies was held by the native of Jerusalem Yusuf al-Khalidi .
General Election (1908)
As a result of the general elections of 1908, the newly formed General Assembly included 142 Turks , 60 Arabs , 25 Albanians , 23 Greeks , 12 Armenians , including 4 representatives of the Dashnaktsutyun party and 2 representatives of the Hnchak party , 5 Jews , 4 Bulgarians , 3 Serbs and 1 shafts [2] . Of these, only 60 deputies out of 275 [2] who formed the largest faction in parliament supported the Unity and Progress Committee. The committee, which was the main driving force of the revolution, managed to gain the upper hand over the Freedom and Consent party, which adhered to the ideas of liberalism and was heavily influenced by the British, and also enjoyed considerable confidence from the Sultan, who met at the Dolmabahce Palace .
On January 30, 1909, the Hussein Hilmi Pasha ascended the podium to answer a question posed by both Muslim and non-Muslim populations who lived, with the exception of one person, in the Balkans [3] . The question was: how will the government deal with deputies who do not comply with law enforcement measures, with terrorist acts and robberies and rampant banditry? Bursts of violence on national and religious grounds among various groups of the population cost them both lost lives and money spent. This fact was of great importance due to the passing of the first test by the new government, which was directly related to the organization of the General Assembly [3] . Representatives of various diplomatic missions were present in the hall. According to the restored Constitution, freedom of the press , safety of journalists and other invited persons who followed the course of meetings in parliament were ensured. The first part of the record of the protocol containing the speech of the Minister and the objections of the deputies was carried out. However, soon after the debate broke out among the deputies themselves, the propriety turned into the background and a verbal skirmish began, reflecting the interethnic contradictions not resolved in the empire. The change in the situation was accompanied by the among deputies who were not Muslims, as well as Ottomanism , which was a peculiar reaction to various types of worldview that took part in the struggle for influence [3] .
March 31 incident
The activities of opponents of the parliamentary monarchy soon intensified. Nine months after the convocation of the General Assembly, as a result of growing discontent and reactionary sentiments, an unconstitutional counter - revolution took place, resulting in the March 31 ( April 13 ), 1909 incident , during which the constitutionalists, with the assistance of the “ ”, managed to defend parliament which the reactionaries tried to master. Many aspects of this speech, affecting the mutiny of the army in Istanbul , are still to be analyzed.
After 2 days, the deputies organized a secret meeting of the lower house, during which they unanimously spoke in favor of the overthrow of Abdul-Hamid II. Sultan's post was taken by his younger brother Mehmed V. Hussein Hilmi-Pasha was again rewarded with the post of Grand Vizier , but already on December 5, 1909 Ibrahim Hakky-Pasha took his place.
Revision of the Constitution in August 1909
The “Union and Progress” Committee came to power again. Realizing that the Sultan had an ideological influence on the implementation of the counter-coup, who also took part in his organization and the disintegration of troops in order to restore the old regime, the Young Turks decided to put an end to his power. In the course of amending the Constitution, the authority of the Sultan, soon deposed, was severely curtailed. This decision contributed significantly to the further elimination of the negative effects of the counter-revolution by the General Assembly in the spirit of the Constitution.
Under current conditions, she imposed a ban on the activities of any secret societies. A recess was introduced in the meetings of the Parliament for a period of 3 months, until August 27, 1909, during which the Committee on Unity and Progress adopted its party charter at the Congress in Thessaloniki . He changed the format of the activity, abandoning the secret nature of the activity. In a reformed General Assembly, this step of the committee was regarded as an expression of trust that laid the foundation for meaningful financial and administrative reforms.
State policy
Skirmishes and friction between flared up in the Nazareth area. For the first time in the General Assembly, a Palestinian MP from Jaffa raised the issue of Zionism.
Once in power, the Unity and Progress Committee proposed a number of new initiatives aimed at promoting modernization in the Ottoman Empire, including advocating consistent reform with strong central authority, industrialization and administrative reforms, as well as minimizing [4] . The implementation of the latter in the provinces led to an increase in the level of centralization .
Despite the committee’s cooperation with the Liberal Union, its real goals differed significantly from the latter’s goals, which consisted primarily in the decentralization of power, the introduction of European participation in the implementation of reforms and, of course, industrialization. In addition, the committee implemented a strict separation of the legislative power from the executive branch, the issuance of subsidies to for education, and made changes to the organizational structure of state - controlled common primary schools. The General Assembly sought to improve the communications system and transport networks, while attempting to prevent them from being transferred to the ownership of European concerns and non-Muslim world bankers.
Under the control of the German Empire and Kingdom of Italy , the Ottoman railways were already insignificant in scale, including 5991 km of single-track railways that ran across the entire territory of the empire in 1914 [4] ; since 1881, the management of outstanding public debt was in the hands of Europeans. The Ottoman Empire actually turned into an appendage of the world economy [5] .
By the end of 1911, the Liberal Union took the place of the largest opposition party, whose activity was quite high. The holding in December of the same year, 20 days after the party was formed, by applied to only one electoral district, during which the deputy from the Liberal Union won, testified in favor of changing the political situation in the state, the consequences which had far-reaching significance. In 1912 - 1916, the authorities fully concentrated in their hands the “Unity and Progress” committee.
General Election (1912)
"Choice from the stick." Committee "Unity and Progress" in power
Rise of the redemption officers. The Freedom and Consent Party is in power
The 1913 coup. Committee "Unity and Progress" in power
State policy
General Election (1914)
General Election (1919)
Exemption from the powers of the Unity and Progress Committee (1919)
Implications of the committee’s activities (January 1920)
National Pact (February 1920)
Disintegration of the Ottoman Empire (March 1920)
See also
- Unity and progress
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Kayali, 1997 , The Second Constitutional Experiment, 1908-1909. The 1908 Elections .
- ↑ 1 2 Miller, 1997 , Chapter 3. Revolution and Counter-revolution .
- ↑ 1 2 3 Sencer, 2004 .
- ↑ 1 2 Fromkin, 2009 , p. 46.
- ↑ Fromkin, 2009 , p. 47
Literature
- Miller Geoffrey. Straits Trilogy. - University of Hull Press, 1997. - Vol. Ii. Straits: British policy towards the Ottoman Empire. - 604 p. - ISBN 0859586634 .
- Kayalı Hasan. Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1918 . - Berkeley , Los Angeles , London : University of California , 1997. - 266 p. - ISBN 0520204468 .
- Sencer Emre. Balkan Nationalisms in the Ottoman Parliament, 1909 (Eng.) // East European Quarterly. - Department of History, University of Colorado Boulder , 2004. - Vol. 38 , no. 1 .
- . It is a world of the Middle East. - 2nd reprint edition. - N. Y .: , 2009. - 688 p. - ISBN 0805088091 .