Book Review

Middle East and Northern Africa

The Young Turk revolution of 1908 is considered a crucial benchmark in the history of the later Ottoman Empire and in the modern evolution of the Balkans and the Arab Middle East over which the empire ruled. The revolution was, in its essence, an "Ottoman Constitutionalist revolution" whose immediate aims were the destruction of the absolutist, autocratic rule of Abdülhamid II and the restoration of a constitutional, parliamentary government for the empire. One of its major legacies was the impetus it gave to the emergence and formation of Turkish nationalism and, in a more indirect way, to Arab nationalism and to nationalist movements in the Balkans. From many perspectives, the revolution strengthened ethnic elements within Turkish-speaking populations and triggered reactionary, non-Turkish counterforces that would come to demand either autonomy or separatism. Even its parliamentary constitutionalism was rapidly replaced by the authoritarian regime.	1
English, Turkish, and Arabic-language literature on the revolution underline its importance for the reconstitution of the empire in its final stages and for the emergence of the ideologies and political forces that would form the modern Middle East. But M. ükrü Haniolu's book is undoubtedly the most comprehensive, original, and updated study of the subject. Through the use of documents, private papers and diaries produced by the Young Turks themselves, which the author diligently collected from dozens of archives and libraries in and outside of Turkey, Haniolu is able to shed new light on events, processes, and protagonists that fomented the revolution. His book is a sequel, both chronologically and thematically, to The Young Turks in Opposition (1995), which traced the Young Turk movement in its formative era, 1889–1902. Together, the books constitute the most thorough and important study to date of the Young Turk revolution, its origins, and its impact on the Ottoman Empire.	2
A significant innovation in Haniolu's work is its comprehensive story of "the preparation for the revolution": an extremely detailed and accurate portrait of the ideological, operational, organizational, and diplomatic origins of the Young Turk opposition forces between 1902 and 1908. Indeed, the major part of the book is comprised of description and analysis of the stages of formation of the revolutionary process, with a particular emphasis on the leading role played by the Committee of Progress and Union (CPU)/Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). Haniolu has composed a rich, multidimensional historical picture of the persons, bodies, organizations, associations, committees, divisions, coalitions, and processes—some underground and others more manifest—of the revolutionary forces. He traces the emergence of revolutionary motivations, identifies the agents and agencies that held them, and analyzes how and where they were translated into revolutionary action. He also discusses the initial rebellions that erupted in the empire between 1905 and 1907, particularly in eastern Anatolia.	. . .