Military service and a deteriorating security situation in Macedonia affected individuals such as Niyazi who felt that the plight of local Muslims was little known and like other peoples in the region had experienced attacks due to guerilla activity. He was influenced by reforms implemented in the region by the empire under pressure from the Great Powers after the Ilinden revolt of 1903. Niyazi thought that European powers were pushing Ottoman Christians into uprisings against the state to defeat the empire and wanted to prevent the development of propaganda by the Russians and Austrians in Macedonia. He felt that Ottomans were viewed negatively in the West and that the Great Powers did not care about the majority Muslim population of Macedonia, as they wanted to partition the empire. Niyazi and his colleagues preferred to preserve the empire with all its multiethnic and multireligious population and denounced attacks by reactionary Muslims against Christians, yet they had limited knowledge of Ottoman politics.