ABSTRACT
Hardly twenty years had passed after the Tanzimat reform, and the men who instituted it were still in power, still struggling painfully to carry it out, when a younger generation of writers and thinkers went a step further and demanded a constitution. An absolute monarchy with a mere royal edict to guarantee the personal rights of citizens did not satisfy them any more. They demanded representation; they wanted a national assembly. The political ideals of the Reshid Pasha trio appeared old; these men were influenced by the fresher ideals of the French revolutionaries. Under the leadership of Mehemed Bey, Namik Kemal and Noury (whom I have already mentioned), with some other young thinkers of note, they formed a secret society called the Young Ottomans. Their meeting at Sancta Sophia was found out by the government, and they escaped to Paris to avoid punishment. All the Ottoman students in Paris as well as the French youth who were opposed to Napoleon III joined them, and they were favorably received in French circles. The name of Young Turks was given to the Young Ottomans at this period. The leader and representative of the Young Turks in politics, the man who was to carry out their ideals in politics, was Midhat Pasha.
