ABSTRACT
On July 24, 1908, Sultan Abdul Hamid was compelled by the defection of his army to yield to the demand of the Young Turks to resuscitate the constitution of 1876, which had been in abeyance for more than thirty years. In their movement for constitutional government the Young Turks worked against insuperable odds until they were able to win over to their cause high officials, civilian and military, by demonstrating that the continuance of despotic and irresponsible government would entail the speedy disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. From the first day of the revolution the Young Turks announced their intention of doing away with the agreements and decrees by which outlying provinces had been granted autonomy or were temporarily administered by other powers. The Young Turk movement resulted in the alienation of territories to win back which it was launched, and it led to hopeless antagonism instead of harmonious cooperation between the Turkish and non-Turkish elements of the empire.
