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Young Turk Revolution, Flyer for the Constitution
This picture features a postcard from the period of the Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman empire. Written on it is the slogan "Long live the fatherland, long live the nation, long live liberty" in Ottoman, Turkish, and Greek. Also pictured is Enver Pasha, a military leader in the revolution. The Young Turks were a group of reform-minded young military officers who led an armed insurrection against the Ottoman Sultan in order to demand that he reinstate the Ottoman Constitution of 1876. The postcard celebrates the return of the Constitution, but is also notable for the fact that it is printed in multiple languages. The Young Turks were committed to the concept of Ottomanism when they first assumed power, a concept which stressed that government should be representative and include all subjects of the empire, regardless of religion or language. This stance was motivated in part by a desire to keep minority segments of the Ottoman empire from leaving. One such segment was the Greek-speaking population of the empire, which was courted by Greek nationalists who encouraged those Ottoman subjects that spoke Greek to leave the empire and join with other Greek-speaking peoples in a separate Greek state.
Name: Young Turk Revolution, Flyer for the constitution
Material: Photograph
Size: 797 x 513 pixels (410 KB)
Date: Unknown
Place of Origin: Unknown
Location: Wikimedia Commons
Source and Registration#: Link to resource
(accessed April 30, 2010) from Charles Roden Buxton’s "Turkey in Revolution." Published 1909 T. F. Unwin
A. Holly Shissler
Associate Professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish History, University of Chicago
Erin L. Glade
Ph.D. candidate, University of Chicago
