page_title: 1913 Ottoman coup d'état
section_title: Government of Kâmil Pasha and lead-up to the coup
hierarchical_section_title: 1913 Ottoman coup d'état / Background / Government of Kâmil Pasha and lead-up to the coup
caption_attribution_description: English: On 13 March 1870, Mehmed Kâmil Bey, known by the nickname “Mahşer Midillisi” (literally, meaning, pony of the apocalypse), signed a deed of endowment stipulating that there should be a prayer recitation at the Kasımpaşa Mevlevi Dervish Lodge for the soul of his late wife. In return for their prayers, the endowment would meet the candle and coffee needs of the dervishes. What made the endowment rather interesting was that it was not offered in cash but in bonds to the amount of £260, the yearly return of which would be delivered to the lodge. Since these bonds were to be deposited at the Ottoman Bank, the sheiks became bank customers. Thus was born an interesting link between tradition and modernity, which would continue until 1925, when a new law banned all dervish lodges in Turkey. bit.ly/1sPz4AP SALT Research, Ottoman Bank Archive “Mahşer Midillisi” lakabıyla bilinen Mehmed Kâmil Bey, kaybetmiş olduğu eşinin ruhuna dua okunması için 13 Mart 1870 tarihli bir senetle Kasımpaşa Mevlevihanesi’ne bir vakıfta bulundu. Mevlevihanedeki tarikat mensuplarının kandil ve kahve ihtiyaçlarını karşılayacak bu vakfın en ilginç tarafı, vakfedilenin 260 sterlin değerinde tahviller olmasıydı. Üstelik, bu tahvillerin Osmanlı Bankası’na emanet edilmesiyle Mevlevihane şeyhleri dolaylı olarak banka müşterisi konumuna gelmişti. Gelenekle modern dünyayı bir araya getiren bu ilginç ilişki, 1925’te tekkelerin kapatılmasına dair kanunun çıkarılmasıyla sona erdi. bit.ly/1sPyQtw SALT Araştırma, Osmanlı Bankası Arşivi
context_page_description: The 1913 Ottoman coup d'état, also known as the Raid on the Sublime Porte, was a coup d'état carried out in the Ottoman Empire by a number of Committee of Union and Progress members led by Ismail Enver Bey and Muhammad Talaat Bey, in which the group made a surprise raid on the central Ottoman government buildings, the Sublime Porte. During the coup, the Minister of the Navy Nazım Pasha was assassinated and the Grand Vizier, Kâmil Pasha, was forced to resign. After the coup, the government fell into the hands of the CUP, now under the leadership of the triumvirate known as the "Three Pashas", made up of Enver, Talaat, and Djemal Pasha.
  In 1911, the Freedom and Accord Party, Kâmil Pasha's party, was formed in opposition to the CUP and almost immediately won the by-elections in Constantinople. Alarmed, the CUP rigged the general elections of 1912 with electoral fraud and violence against Freedom and Accord, earning them the nickname "Election of Clubs". In response, the Savior Officers of the army, partisans of Freedom and Accord determined to see the CUP fall, rose up in anger and caused the fall of the CUP's post-election Muhammad Said Pasha government.
context_section_description: Although the foreign crisis in the Balkans put a temporary halt to domestic politics, it did not stop them. Unlike his predecessor Ahmed Muhtar Pasha, who had been non-partisan, Kâmil Pasha was a passionate Freedom and Accord Party member and was determined to use his premiership to destroy the CUP.
  Using his friendly relations with the British, Kâmil Pasha also sat down to end the ongoing First Balkan War diplomatically. However, the heavy Ottoman military upsets during the war continued to sap morale, as rumors that the capital would have to be moved from Constantinople to inland Anatolia spread. The Bulgarian Army had soon advanced as far as Çatalca, a western district of modern Istanbul. At this point, Kâmil Pasha's government signed an armistice with Bulgaria in December 1912 and sat down to draw up a treaty for the end of the war at the London Peace Conference.
  The Great Powers–the British Empire, France, Italy, and Russia–had begun to engage in the relationship of Bulgaria with the Ottoman Empire, citing the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. The Great Powers gave a note to the Sublime Porte (the Ottoman government) that they wanted the Ottoman Empire to cede Adrianople (Edirne) to Bulgaria and the Aegean islands under its control, most of which by that time had been captured by the Greek Navy, to the Great Powers themselves. Because of the losses experienced by the army so far in the war, the Kâmil Pasha government was inclined to accept the "Midye-Enez Line" as a border to the west and, while not outright giving Edirne to Bulgaria, favored transferring control of it to an international commission.
  After the capture of Salonica (Thessaloniki), the birthplace of many progressive political leaders and movements of the era, by Greece in November 1912, many CUP members were arrested by Greek forces and exiled to Anatolia. At the same time, Freedom and Accord found itself on the brink of dissolution after inter-party conflicts.
  Left with little political power and flexibility, the CUP began to plan a coup against Kâmil Pasha's Freedom and Accord government. In addition, an animosity had already been brewing between Kâmil Pasha and the CUP since the 1908 Young Turk Revolution that had started the Second Constitutional Era. During the more than four years since, Kâmil Pasha had made a series of efforts to keep CUP members far from government and keep the army, which had many CUP members among its ranks, out of politics. By January 1913, the CUP was thoroughly frustrated with Kâmil Pasha and Freedom and Accord. Although the coup was to be a surprise attack, the CUP had made definitive decisions to carry it out far in advance.
  Although he was killed during the coup, both the CUP and Freedom and Accord claimed that they had been planning to give Minister of the Navy Nazım Pasha a position in their next cabinet. The CUP's Talaat Bey went as far as to say some time after the coup that the CUP had previously offered Nazım Pasha the position of Grand Vizier and the leadership its cabinet.
caption: The pro-Freedom and Accord and anti-CUP Grand Vizier Kâmil Pasha, who led the government until his forced resignation in the coup.
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