The young Turks and the Ottoman Nationalities

Abstract

This volume, short and rich in primary source material, focuses on the relationshipbetween the Ottoman central government (Istanbul) and the empire’svarious nationalities during the fateful 1908-18 period. Istanbul’s struggle toaddress enormous political and military challenges, European involvement,and the rise of nationalism and ethnic/religious resentments are duly covered.The book is well organized with a dedicated section for each nationality. Exceptfor the Greek and Armenian struggles through WWI, which is coveredin a single chapter, each nation’s history is covered in two periods: 1908-14and 1914-18 (except the Albanians). Ahmad impartially re-constructs thesenationalities’ history in order to detail all aspects of the challenges that theyfaced and posed to Ottoman governance.In the chapter on the Armenians, Ahmad discusses the political interactionsof such Armenian organizations as Dashnak with the Committee ofUnion and Progress (CUP) and their coalitions with various political groups.The Kurdish-Armenian “land question” tensions, which dated from the SultanAbdulhamid period, continued to rise. Ahmad’s portrayal also gives us aglimpse of British and French involvement in the Armenian community’s issues.Russia’s policy would change in 1912 from one of keeping good relationswith the CUP to supporting the Armenians and Greeks against Istanbul.The Balkan Wars and the Ottoman defeats revealed its vulnerabilities as wellas the weakness of the CUP’s centralization policies.Istanbul was aware of the problems in Anatolia, especially between theKurds and the Armenians, and understood the necessity of resolving the ...