page_title: Committee of Union and Progress
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Committee of Union and Progress / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Şerafettin Mağmumi, member of the CUP.
context_page_description: The Committee of Union and Progress, later the Party of Union and Progress, began as a secret society established as the Committee of the Ottoman Union in Istanbul on 6 February 1889 by medical students Ibrahim Temo, Mehmed Reshid, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti, Ali Hüseyinzade, Kerim Sebatî, Mekkeli Sabri Bey, Nazım Bey, Şerafettin Mağmumi, Cevdet Osman and Giritli Şefik. It was transformed into a political organisation by Behaeddin Shakir, aligning itself with the Young Turks in 1906 during the period of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. In the West, members of the CUP were usually called Young Turks while in the Ottoman Empire its members were known as Unionists.
  Begun as a liberal reform movement in the Ottoman Empire, the organization was persecuted by the Ottoman imperial government for its calls for democratisation and reform in the empire. A major influence on the committee was Meiji-era Japan, a backward state that successfully modernised itself without sacrificing its identity. The CUP intended to copy the Japanese example and modernise the Ottoman Empire to end its status as the perpetual "sick man of Europe".
context_section_description: In 1902, there occurred a party congress in Paris, in which two factions clashed. One led by Prince Sabahaddin favoured a policy of Ottomanism, where all the people of the multi-ethnic, multi-religious empire would be united by a common loyalty to the empire regardless of one's ethnicity or religion, and where power would be devolved down to the provinces.  Prince Saabahaddin believed that the only reason why separatist movements existed amongst such peoples as the Armenians was due to the oppressive policies of Abdulhamid II, and if only the empire would treat its Armenian minority better, then the Armenians would become loyal Ottomans.  Another faction, which proved to be the dominant one, was led by Ahmet Rıza, who while not being opposed to Ottomanism outright insisted upon a very centralised, unitary state in which Turks would be the dominant group, arguing that devolving power down to the groups like the Armenians would be only the first step towards the establishment of an Armenian state. Ultimately, Prince Sabahaddin and his followers ended leaving the CUP over disagreements over what sort of state the empire should be after the planned revolution against Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and founded the liberal Freedom and Accord Party.
   The CUP built an extensive organisation, having a presence in towns, in the capital, and throughout Europe. Under this umbrella name, one could find ethnic Albanians, Bulgarians, Arabs, Serbians, Jews, Greeks, Turks, Kurds, and Armenians united by the common goal of changing the Ottoman absolute monarchical regime. The CUP professed to be fighting for the restoration of the 1876 constitution, but its internal organisation and methods were intensely authoritarian, with its cadres expected simply to follow orders from the Central Committee.
  Joining the CUP was by invitation only, and those who did join had to keep their membership secret.  Those who joined the CUP had to swear a sacred oath with the Koran in the right hand and a sword or dagger in the left hand to unconditionally obey all orders from the CUP Central Committee; to never reveal the CUP's secrets and to keep their own membership secret; to be willing to die for the fatherland and Islam at all times; and to follow orders from the Central Committee to kill anyone whom the Central Committee wanted to see killed, including one's own friends and family.  The penalty for disobeying orders from the Central Committee or attempting to leave the CUP was death. To enforce its policy, the Unionists had a select group of especially devoted party members known as the fedâiin, whose job was to assassinate those CUP members who disobeyed orders, disclosed its secrets, or were suspected of being police informers.  Operating as an underground revolutionary group led the CUP to adopt a paranoid mindset with almost everyone outside of the CUP being seen as an enemy.
caption: Şerafettin Mağmumi
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