The 31 March incident (Turkish: 31 Mart Vakası) was an uprising in the Ottoman Empire in April 1909, during the Second Constitutional Era. The incident broke out during the night of 30–31 Mart 1325 in Rumi calendar (GC 12–13 April 1909), thus named after 31 March where March is the equivalent to Rumi month Mart. Occurring soon after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, in which the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) had successfully restored the Constitution and ended the absolute rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (r. 1876–1909), it is sometimes referred to as an attempted countercoup or counterrevolution. It consisted of a general uprising against the CUP within Constantinople, largely led by reactionary groups, particularly Islamists opposed to the secularising influence of the CUP and supporters of absolutism, although liberal opponents of the CUP within the Liberty Party also played a lesser role. Eleven days later the uprising was suppressed and the former government restored when elements of the Ottoman Army sympathetic to the CUP formed an impromptu military force known as the Action Army (Hareket Ordusu). Upon entering Constantinople on 24 April Sultan Abdul Hamid II, accused by the CUP of complicity in the uprising, was deposed and the Ottoman National Assembly elevated his half-brother, Mehmed V, to the throne. Mahmud Shevket Pasha, the military general who had organised and led the Action Army, became the most influential figure in the restored constitutional system until his assassination in 1913.
The precise nature of events is uncertain; differing interpretations have been offered by historians, ranging from a spontaneous revolt of discontents to a secretly planned and coordinated counter-revolution against the CUP. Most modern studies disregard claims the sultan was actively involved in plotting the uprising, emphasising the CUP's mismanagement of troops in the build up to the mutiny and the role of conservative religious groups. The crisis was an important early moment in the empire's process of disintegration, setting a pattern of political instability which continued with military coups in 1912 and 1913. The temporary loss of power led to radicalisation within the CUP, resulting in an increasing willingness among Unionists to utilise violence. Some scholars have argued that the deterioration of ethnic relations and erosion of public institutions during 1908–1909 precipitated the Armenian genocide. The crisis also represented the demise of the Sultanate's power in the Ottoman Empire, as a series of constitutional amendments confined its function in government to the confirmation of parliamentary decisions, conversely cementing parliament's supremacy in a significant step of republicanism in Turkish political history.
Background
The educational reforms during Abdul Hamid II's reign (1876–1909) had led to an increased diffusion of liberal political thought from Western Europe among young Ottoman professionals and military officers. A loosely organised underground movement of reformists known as the Young Turks emerged to press for the restoration of a constitutional monarchy and political reform. These demands were partly inspired by the Young Ottomans, a secret society of intellectuals which had forced Abdul Hamid to enact a liberal constitution during the brief First Constitutional Era (1876–1878).
In July 1908, a secret revolutionary organisation called the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) led an insurrection in the empire's Balkan provinces which compelled the sultan to restore the constitution of 1876, in what became known as the Young Turk Revolution. The CUP, internally divided and lacking an agreed political program, did not take over government; instead it chose to influence the unsteady parliamentary regime from a distance and its Central Committee remained based in Salonika. The CUP cautiously undertook to restrict the sultan's powers and by early August 1908 it had overseen the transfer of navy and army ministerial appointments away from the sultan to the office of the grand vizier. The sultan's palace staff were reduced and replaced with CUP members who monitored Abdul Hamid's official correspondence. Meanwhile, the interim government of Kâmil Pasha carried out a series of democratic and administrative reforms, abolishing the secret police and rescinding press censorship powers, permitting free political campaigning ahead of a general election held during November and December. Abdul Hamid opened the new parliamentary session on 17 December.
Throughout 1908, as events continued to unfold in Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire lost large portions of its European territory. This was due to both encroachments by foreign powers and the activity of the empire's ethnic minorities: Austria annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria declared independence, and Greece seized Crete. These losses dampened the popular elation that had followed the re-establishment of parliament, while open political debate brought existing cleavages to the surface. Muslims saw the new government as impotent in the face of pressure from European powers, while government promises to reclaim the lost territories upset minorities who hoped for greater autonomy or independence. One of the greatest threats came from supporters of Islamism, who agitated against the secular nature of the new constitution and equality for non-Muslims, arguing that the adoption of Western technology did not need to be accompanied by a move away from Islamic law. This view was widely held throughout Ottoman society and Islamists may have enjoyed the private support of Abdul Hamid, despite his proclamations in favour of the new constitution.
Military revolt
Prelude
In October 1908, the Committee of Union and Progress arranged for the transfer of three seasoned sharpshooter (Avcı) battalions of the Third Army Corps from Salonika to Constantinople in response to increased political tension in the city and concerns over the loyalty of its regular garrison, the First Army Corps. The Third Army's mektepli officers – graduates of the prestigious Ottoman Military College trained in modern military techniques – had played an instrumental role in the 1908 revolution. Upon their arrival in Constantinople, the well-connected mektepli officers began to play an important role within the capital's political and social scene, attending CUP political functions, banquets and theatrical performances. With their officers increasingly absent, discipline within the sharpshooter battalions began to break down. A generational divide exacerbated the poor relationship between the officers and their men, as opponents of the CUP within the military expressed unhappiness with entrusting the empire's leadership to "yesterday's school children", the young CUP officers recently graduated from military academies, at the expense of more experienced officers who had climbed the ranks. The situation worsened when the newly elected parliament announced its intention to retire a significant part of the officer corps, with cuts disproportionately affecting non-commissioned officers.
In late October, authorities arranged for the transfer of Albanian troops seen as hostile to the new regime out of Constantinople. Many of these soldiers were soon due to be discharged, and upon receiving orders for deployment to Yemen a portion refused and demonstrated for the immediate termination of their contracts. Troops from the fourth Avcı battalion were sent to suppress the protests by force and a second riot among Albanian troops in March was again put down by Avcı troops, who fired into the riotous crowd of Albanians with machine guns. These events severely damaged morale among the sharpshooters. In February 1909, Grand Vizier Kâmil Pasha moved to weaken the CUP's grip on power by appointing his own candidates as Ministers of War and Navy. In response, the CUP orchestrated a confidence vote against his cabinet, forcing him to resign. On 14 February 1909, the CUP's preferred candidate, Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha, was appointed the new grand vizier. Rumours spread within the city that the CUP would use the Avcı troops to depose Abdul Hamid, or that Kâmil Pasha had attempted to order them back to Macedonia. As a consequence of these machinations, the battalions became increasingly politicised and, to the frustration of ordinary soldiers, seen as a tool of the CUP.
Discontent among the soldiers was further stirred up by Muslim fundamentalists. Islamists in Constantinople were led by a charismatic mystic from Cyprus called Hafiz Derviş Vahdeti, who may have belonged to the Bektashi Order. Vahdeti established the Society for Islamic Unity, also known as the Mohammedan Union Party, and set up a newspaper called Volkan (Volcano in English) in November 1908 to spread anti-secularist rhetoric and campaign against the government. Religious conservatives portrayed the restored 1876 constitution as sacrificing Islamic traditions in order to curry favour with Western states and attacked the new general assembly for giving minorities and Christians within the empire greater influence, issues which resonated with soldiers who had recently been fighting separatists in the Balkans. Attempts by the CUP to introduce new mektepli officers and training regimen into the First Army Corps resulted in less time for soldiers to undertake ablution and prayer, allowing Islamists to present the CUP and its officers as irreligious, even atheistic, free masons from Macedonia. Although Abdul Hamid refused to provide financial support for the movement and newspaper, figures connected with the palace purportedly supported Vahdeti and one of the sultan's sons, Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin, was a member of the Mohammedan Union. The society held its first mass rally on 3 April at the Hagia Sophia; its agitation for the restoration of Sharia gained widespread support, including from soldiers stationed in the city.
On 7 April, Hasan Fehmi, a prominent opposition journalist, was shot and killed as he crossed Galata Bridge in Constantinople. The assassination went unsolved but many in the city speculated that the CUP had been responsible. Protests by Islamic conservatives and seminary students over the killings led to unrest among soldiers in the city's main barracks.
Mutiny
Early on the morning of 13 April, troops of the fourth Avcı regiment based at the Taşkışla barracks mutinied, locking up their officers and marching onto the streets to call for the reinstatement of Sharia and for the CUP to be disbanded. Religious students joined the mutinying soldiers outside the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, before marching to the parliamentary building. Hilmi Pasha's government was in a state of confusion, and fearful of the repercussions of ordering remaining loyal troops against the protestors, it sent the Chief of Police instead to hear the crowd's requests. Six demands were prepared by the spokesmen of the mutineering soldiers: the return of Sharia law, the banishment of some CUP parliamentarians from Constantinople, the replacement of Ahmed Rıza (the CUP President of the Chamber of Deputies), the replacement of some CUP officers and the removal of the Grand Vizier along with the Ministers of War and Navy. By the afternoon the government's authority in the capital had collapsed, and faced with this ultimatum Hilmi Pasha and his cabinet resigned. The Sultan swiftly appointed Ahmet Tevfik Pasha as grand vizier. During five days of unrest, CUP members were actively hunted in Istanbul. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), which also supported the constitutional regime and opposed the reactionary uprising, sheltered several Unionists; Talaat and d Dr Nazim, were among those who took refuge in the homes of politically prominent Armenians.
Marshal Ethem Pasha, the War Minister of the new cabinet went to see the troops at Meydanı, gave them praise and told them that their requests would be fulfilled. The victory was celebrated by the soldiers and religious students. During the revolt, the CUP was targeted in a pogrom with protestors killing 20 people, mainly army officers. Latakia deputy Emir Arslan Bey was lynched for being mistaken for Hüseyin Cahit (Yalçin), the editor of the CUP newspaper Tanin. Justice Minister Nazım Pasha (no relation to the War Minister Nazım Pasha) met a similar fate, for being mistaken for Ahmet Rıza. Protestors also burned a few CUP offices such as those belonging to Tanin and Şura-yı Ümmet.
Political crisis
After the failed countercoup, members of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) either went into hiding or fled Constantinople. As a result, the Chamber of Deputies lacked enough members for a parliamentary session. Ismail Kemal, a Liberty Party deputy, managed to gather some parliamentarians and officially announced that the constitution and Sharia law would be preserved, responding to the requests of the troops. Kemal briefly became President of the Ottoman National Assembly and led it to recognize a new government by Abdul Hamid II. He urged his constituency in Vlorë to acknowledge the new government, and Albanians from his hometown supported him, even raiding the arms depot to back the sultan with weapons if needed. Albanian clubs also expressed support for quelling the uprising, while Prenk Bib Doda, leader of the Mirdita, offered assistance from his tribe, driven by fears that the Hamidian regime could return, rather than being loyal to the CUP. During the countercoup, Isa Boletini and several Kosovo Albanian chieftains offered military assistance to the sultan. In response, the Sultan promised to bring back the rule of religion if he were to be reinstated. The situation in Constantinople remained under the control of Dervish Vahdeti for 11 days.
After being driven out of the capital, Mehmed Talaat, an Edirne deputy and CUP leader, escaped with 100 deputies to Ayastefanos (Yeşilköy) and established a counter government, declaring the new government in Constantinople as illegal. Within Constantinople, the leadership of the Liberal Party attempted unsuccessfully to maintain control of events and prevent the rebellion from taking an anti-constitutionalist course in support of Abdul Hamid. Conflicts arose within the Islamic clergy, with higher-ranking ulama united in the Society of the Islamic Scholarly Profession opposing the uprising, while some imams (hocas) supported it. From 16 April onward, the ulama publicly denounced the revolt.