Young Turk Revolution of 1908

Young Turk Revolution

Declaration of the Young Turk Revolution by the leaders of the Ottoman millets in 1908

Date	1908
Location	Ottoman Empire
Result	Young Turks victory Second Constitutional Era begins Reinstatement of the parliament Reinstatement of the 1876 constitution

Belligerents

Ottoman government

Commanders and leaders

The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908) of the Ottoman Empire was when the Young Turks movement restored the Ottoman constitution of 1876 and ushered in multi-party politics in a two stage electoral system (electoral law) under the Ottoman parliament. More than three decades earlier, in 1876, constitutional monarchy had been established under Sultan Abdul Hamid II during a period of time known as the First Constitutional Era, which only lasted for two years before Abdul Hamid suspended it and restored autocratic powers to himself. On 24 July 1908, Abdul Hamid capitulated and announced the restoration of Constitution, which established the Second Constitutional Era. After an attempted monarchist counterrevolution in favor of Abdul Hamid the following year, he was deposed and his brother Mehmed V ascended the throne.

Once underground, organizations (named committee, group, etc.) established (declared) their parties. Among them "Committee of Union and Progress" (CUP), and "Freedom and Accord Party" also known as the Liberal Union or Liberal Entente (LU) were major parties. There were smaller parties such as Ottoman Socialist Party. On the other end of the spectrum were the ethnic parties which included; People's Federative Party (Bulgarian Section), Bulgarian Constitutional Clubs, Jewish Social Democratic Labour Party in Palestine (Poale Zion), Al-Fatat, and Armenians organized under Armenakan, Hunchakian and Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). ARF, previously outlawed, became the main representative of the Armenian community in the Ottoman Empire, replacing the pre-1908 Armenian elite, which had been composed of merchants, artisans, and clerics who had seen their future in obtaining more privileges within the boundaries of the state's version of Ottomanism.