The Action Army ( tr, Ḥareket Ordusu), also translated as the Army of Action, was a force formed by elements of the

Ottoman Army The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. Army The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...

sympathetic to the

Committee of Union and Progress The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) ( ota, اتحاد و ترقى جمعيتی, translit=İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti, script=Arab), later the Union and Progress Party ( ota, اتحاد و ترقى فرقه‌سی, translit=İttihad ve Tera ...

(CUP) during the

31 March Incident The 31 March Incident ( tr, 31 Mart Vakası, , , or ) was a political crisis within the Ottoman Empire in April 1909, during the Second Constitutional Era. Occurring soon after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, in which the Committee of Union and Pr ...

, sometimes referred to as the 1909 countercoup. Mobilised in Selanik (modern

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

) by Mahmud Shevket Pasha, it occupied

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

and successfully suppressed the uprising in the

Background

The 1908

Young Turk Revolution The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore the Ottoman Consti ...

, led by the CUP, forced Sultan

Abdul Hamid II Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid II ( ota, عبد الحميد ثانی, Abd ül-Hamid-i Sani; tr, II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 10 February 1918) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 31 August 1876 to 27 April 1909, and the last sultan to ...

to restore a system of constitutional monarchy, ushering in the

Second Constitutional Era The Second Constitutional Era ( ota, ایكنجی مشروطیت دورى; tr, İkinci Meşrutiyet Devri) was the period of restored parliamentary rule in the Ottoman Empire between the 1908 Young Turk Revolution and the 1920 dissolution of the ...

. The 1909 countercoup was instigated by a mutiny of dissatisfied troops in Istanbul, who were joined by reactionary religious protestors demanding a return to autocracy under Abdul Hamid and Sharia. With the resignation of

Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha ( ota, حسین حلمی پاشا tr, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa, also spelled Hussein Hilmi Pasha) (1 April 1855 – 1922) was an Ottoman statesman and imperial administrator. He was twice the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empir ...

's cabinet the mutiny developed into a wider political crisis.

Composition

The Action Army was organised by Mahmud Shevket Pasha, commander of the Third Army based in Selanik. A number of staff officers opposed to the countercoup gathered in Selanik to join the force. It was also supported by divisions from the Second Army stationed in Adrianople (modern

Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...

The force numbered around 20,000–25,000 Ottoman soldiers and was supplemented by 15,000 volunteers, including 4,000 Bulgarians, 2,000 Greeks and 700 Jews.

Çerçiz Topulli Çerçiz Topulli (20 September 1880 – 17 July 1915) was an Albanian revolutionary and guerrilla fighter involved in the national movement operating in the mountainous areas of southern Albania. He was the younger brother of Bajo Topulli. He w ...

and

Bajram Curri Bajram Curri (16 January 1862 – 29 March 1925) was an Albanian chieftain, politician and activist who struggled for the independence of Albania, later struggling for Kosovo's incorporation into it following the 1913 Treaty of London. He w ...

brought 8,000 Albanians troops, while Major

Ahmed Niyazi Bey Ahmed Niyazi Bey (1873 – 1913) ( tr, Resneli Niyazi Bey, Ahmet Niyazi Bey; sq, Ahmet Njazi Bej Resnja; "Ahmet Niyazi Bey from Resen") was an Ottoman revolutionary, who was the bey of the Resne (now Resen, North Macedonia) area in the late 1 ...

arrived with 1,800 men from Resne.

References

1909 in the Ottoman Empire {{Ottoman-stub