ABSTRACT
For the Young Turks of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), whose movement started in Macedonia in 1906, 1 the situation in that rich but unruly region of the empire 2 in 1910–11 was all but reassuring. Although the constitutional revolution of July 1908 caused a wave of rejoicing and reconciliation between the ethnic communities in Macedonia, this had proved short-lived and agitation and small-scale guerrilla warfare by Serb, Bulgarian and Greek bands recommenced. More worrying from the point of view of the CUP was the attitude of the Albanians. After all, the Committee had originally been an organization of Ottoman Muslims 3 who aimed to strengthen the Ottoman state and the position of the Muslims within it. Most Albanians were Muslims and Albanians, such as the famous Niyazi Bey of Resne [Resen/Resnja] 4 played leading roles both in the revolution of 1908 and in the suppression (by military units from Macedonia which had stayed loyal to the CUP) of the counterrevolution of April 1909 in Istanbul.
