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The Revolution in Turkey

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 13, 1908

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 33.

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The Revolution in Turkey

By C. M. S.

EVENTS are moving rapidly in the sultan's dominions just now, and what scarcely any one expected has come to pass in a day. The great change in Turkey, so unexpected and unheralded, should prepare us to expect great things from God in completing the work of warning the world and ushering in his kingdom.
Just one hundred years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence in America, a constitution was proclaimed for Turkey; but before it could be carried into effect, the Russo-Turkish war broke out, so disrupting plans and impoverishing the country as to give the sultan a plausible excuse for keeping the entire control of the government in his own hands.
From 1876 to the present time, a considerable portion of the people have been persistently agitating for the restoration of the constitution. They have carried on their work in secret, and yet thousands of them have been exiled for their activity in this matter. It is estimated that two hundred thousand exiled members of the Young Turk party are in the United States at the present time.
The encroachments of the European powers have added fuel to the flames of discontent among the Turkish people. The international control of certain regions in Turkey has humiliated the Young Turks, and the excessive taxation of the people to support a government of which they did not approve, has served from year to year to widen the breach between the sultan and his subjects.
This disaffection has been carried into the army itself, honeycombing that organization with disloyalty to the throne, until even the Albanian legions, in whom the sultan placed his principal reliance, were found to be uncertain, having taken oath to favor the constitution's establishment. Two of the sultan's trusted generals were assassinated, a provincial governor was kidnapped, and three provinces were in open mutiny. Then the leader of the Young Turk party sent to the sultan their demands for administrative reforms coupled with a threat of revolution if he did not take favorable action within eleven days. One despatch states that the leader of the Young Turks threatened to move on Constantinople with three hundred thousand troops at the expiration of the time allowed.
The sultan chose to yield rather than attempt to put down the revolution with an army upon which he knew he could not depend. So on July 24, he issued an irade, establishing a constitution for Turkey similar to that of 1876; and orders were sent to all Turkish officials to prepare for the election of representatives to the new parliament. The constitution of 1876 provided for the indivisibility of the empire; the irresponsibility of the sultan; the equality of all citizens before the law, irrespective of creed or race; freedom of worship, of education, and of the press; reform of taxes; inviolability of domicile; and a parliament of two houses, the upper one appointive, the lower elective.
Because of the withdrawal of the constitution in 1876, the revolutionary party did not have implicit faith that the sultan would keep his promises, or that he would go any farther after the restoration of the constitution than he pledged himself to go under the present pressure. Therefore they made another demand to the effect that he recall all who had been banished for political offenses. He yielded in this also. Then he and the grand vizier swore allegiance to the constitution, and Turkey had passed from an unlimited monarchy to a constitutional government, guaranteeing freedom of the press, freedom of education, and freedom of worship to all within the realm, of whatever race or religious persuasion.
Many fear that the sultan is insincere, and that he will seek the first opportunity to annul the new constitution. However, he has dismissed the grand vizier, who has supported the policy against which the Young Turks rebelled, and has appointed one who is said to be fairly acceptable to the revolutionists.
Just what bearing this new movement may have upon the solution of the Eastern Question we can not foresee, but we shall wait with interest to note the effect of this great political change and its significance in its relation to the fulfilment of prophecy.
What means it that nations which for centuries have been under the control of autocratic rulers are just now proclaiming constitutional governments, and withdrawing those age-old restrictions against freedom of speech, of education, of the press, and of worship? There is but one answer: The last solemn message of God to this world is due, and God is breaking down the barriers. A few years ago Russia scouted representative government, and seemed to seek a nullification of it after it was instituted; but that form of government is now established within that realm; and where a few years ago the propagation of any religion other than the orthodox was punished with extraordinary severity, religious liberty has been proclaimed, and the “sects” are free. Persia has a constitution; and in spite of the fact that the shah has been bombarding parliament, and a kind of civil war is in progress, we may expect the nation to settle down to its parliamentary order with probably as good grace as Russia has done. God will yet work greater wonders in the lands that have been closed against his work; and while we see his hand so shaping events that “this gospel of the kingdom” may go into all the earth, let his servants seek earnestly that preparation of heart which will enable him to use them in bringing that mighty work to its culmination.
C. M. S.