31 March Incident
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31 March Incident (31 Mart Vakası) was a rebellion of the reactionaries in 1909 in İstanbul, who attempted to put an end to the nascent Second Constitutional Era in the Ottoman Empire and to the newly-established influence of the Committee of Union and Progress, in order to re-affirm the position of the sultan Abdulhamid II as absolute monarch. The incidents actually started, not on 31 March 1909 despite its name, but on 13 April 1909, that day corresponding to 31 March in the Rumi calendar in use at the time in Turkey.
The counter-revolution led by a certain Dervish Vahdeti (some sources also hint at a direct involvement by Said Nursi) reigned supreme in İstanbul for a few days but it was put down by Hareket Ordusu (The Army of Action) constituted in urgence with troops stationed in the Balkans and which rapidly departed from Selanik. Among the officers who entered the capital with Hareket Ordusu was a young captain named Mustafa Kemal.
It has been suggested that the counter-revolution constituted a breakdown between Britain's relations with Ottoman Empire marking the end of the one year old cooperation. It is also believed that it had unlimited British support behind it.
The incident led to a change of grand vizier, and Ahmed Tevfik Pasha, who later on was also going to be the last grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire brought into office. A few weeks after the re-establishment of the order, the sultan Abdulhamid II himself was deposed and sent to exile in Selanik, and replaced by his brother Mehmed V Reşad.
[edit] Sources
- Şeriatçı bir ayaklanma -A fundamentalist uprising by Sina Akşin with particular emphasis on British involvement.
