The Freedom and Accord Party ( ota, حریت و ایتلاف فرقهسی, Hürriyet ve İtilaf Fırkası, script=Arab), also known as the Liberal Union or the Liberal Entente, was a liberal
Ottoman political party active between 1911 and 1913, during 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 ...
. It was the most significant opposition to
Union and Progress in the
Chamber of Deputies. The political programme of the party advocated for
Ottomanism
Ottomanism or ''Osmanlılık'' (, tr, Osmanlıcılık) was a concept which developed prior to the 1876–1878 First Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire. Its proponents believed that it could create the social cohesion needed to keep mille ...
, government decentralisation, the rights of ethnic minorities, and close relations with
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
.
In the post-1918 Ottoman Empire, the party became known for its attempts to
suppress and prosecute the CUP.
Name
The Freedom and Accord Party ( tr, Hürriyet ve İtilâf Fırkası) is sometimes conflated with its predecessor, the
Liberty Party, and the two organizations are often known collectively as the Liberal Union or the Liberal Entente. In the Ottoman Empire, its members were known as ''İtilâfçılar'' or Itilafists, who were opposed to members of the rival
Union and Progress Party
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 ...
''İttihadcılar'' or Ittihadists (literally Unionists).
Base and members
Albanians from the Ottoman Empire played a prominent role in the party, such as Basri Bey Dukagjini from Debre (modern
Debar
Debar ( mk, Дебaр ; Albanian: ''Dibër''/''Dibra'' or ''Dibra e Madhe;'' ) is a city in the western part of North Macedonia, near the border with Albania, off the road from Struga to Gostivar. It is the seat of Debar Municipality. Debar has ...
),
Hasan Prishtina
Hasan bey Prishtina ( tr, Priştineli Hasan Bey, Hasan Bey Priştine and ''Vulçitrnli Hasan Bey''), originally known as Hasan Berisha (27 September 1873 – 13 August 1933), was an Ottoman, later Albanian politician, who served as the 8th Prim ...
and
Midhat Frashëri
Midhat (also spelled Medhat, Mitat, or Mithat) (Arabic مدحت Romanized: Midḥat) is a masculine given name of Arabic origin. Particularly, in Pakistan Midhat is used as a girl name. The name means 'Praise' or 'Eulogy'.
Persons with the given ...
(the son of
Abdyl Frashëri, who served as a deputy representative for the
Yanya Vilayet in the
Ottoman Parliament
The General Assembly ( tr, Meclis-i Umumî (French romanization: "Medjliss Oumoumi" ) or ''Genel Parlamento''; french: Assemblée Générale) was the first attempt at representative democracy by the imperial government of the Ottoman Empire. Als ...
) who were among its eleven founders.
Notable members included
Prince Sabahaddin
Prince Sabahaddin de Neuchâtel (born Sultanzade Mehmed Sabâhaddin Bey; 13 February 1879 – 30 June 1948) was an Ottoman sociologist and thinker. Because of his threat to the ruling House of Osman (the Ottoman dynasty), of which he was a m ...
,
Kâmil Pasha
Mehmed Kâmil Pasha ( ota, محمد كامل پاشا مصري زاده; tr, Kıbrıslı Mehmet Kâmil Paşa, "Mehmed Kamil Pasha the Cypriot"), also spelled as Kiamil Pasha (1833 – 14 November 1913), was an Ottoman statesman and liberal poli ...
,
Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı
Rıza Tevfik Bey (Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı after the Turkish Surname Law of 1934; 1869 – 31 December 1949) was an Ottoman and later Turkish philosopher, poet, politician of liberal signature and a community leader (for some members among the ...
,
Ali Kemal
Ali Kemal Bey (; 7 September 1869 – 6 November 1922) was a Turkish journalist, newspaper editor, poet, liberal-leaning politician, and government official who was for some three months Minister of the Interior in the government of Damat Feri ...
,
Refik Halit Karay
Refik Halit Karay (15 March 1888 – 18 July 1965) was a Turkish educator, writer and journalist.
Biography
He was born in Beylerbeyi, İstanbul, on 14 March 1888. His parents were Mehmed Halid Bey and Nefise Ruhsar Hanım. After studying at Ga ...
,
Rıza Nur
Rıza Nur (30 August 1879 in Sinop – 8 September 1942 in Istanbul) was a Turkish surgeon, politician and writer. He was prominent in the years immediately after the First World War, where he served as a cabinet minister but was subsequently ma ...
,
Mehmed Hâdî Pasha
Mehmed Hâdî Pasha ( tr, Bağdatlı Mehmet Hâdî Paşa; 1861 – 1932) was an Ottoman general, statesman, and a member of the Liberal Union. He is most remembered in Turkey for being one of the four Ottoman signatories of the Treaty of Sèv ...
,
Damat Ferid Pasha
Damat Mehmed Adil Ferid Pasha ( ota, محمد عادل فريد پاشا tr, Damat Ferit Paşa; 1853 – 6 October 1923), known simply as Damat Ferid Pasha, was an Ottoman liberal statesman, who held the office of Grand Vizier, the ' ...
,
Mehmed Rauf Pasha
Mehmed Rauf Pasha (1838 – 1923) was an Ottoman senator and liberal politician during the Second Constitutional Era
The Second Constitutional Era ( ota, ایكنجی مشروطیت دورى; tr, İkinci Meşrutiyet Devri) was the period of r ...
,
Mizancı Murat
Mizancı Murat (1853–1912) was an Ottoman monarchist, democrat, historian and politician, who was renowned for his work on reviving the concept of Ottomanism during the Second Constitutional Era.
Biography
Mizancı Murat was born in Tbilisi in ...
,
Gümülcineli İsmail
Gümülcineli İsmail Hakkı Bey (1877 – 1942) was a liberal politician in the late Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτ ...
,
Reşat Halis, and
Lütfi Fikri.
Origins
Prince Sabahattin's , which advocated for administrative decentralization, eventually organized itself into the
Liberty Party to participate in the
1908 election, proving to be 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 ...
's (CUP) main opponent. It was suppressed and eventually disbanded following 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 ...
. Various smaller parties existed between 1910 and 1911 that proved to be ineffective as opposition to the CUP.
History
1911–1913
In mid-October, many of the parliament's most esteemed politicians: Unionists
Hakkı Pasha,
Mehmed Talat
Mehmed Talaat (1 September 187415 March 1921), commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha,; tr, Talat Paşa, links=no was an Ottoman politician and convicted war criminal of the late Ottoman Empire who served as its leader from 1913 t ...
,
Mehmet Cavid,
Halil Menteşe
Halil Menteşe (1874–1948) was a Turkish government minister and politician, who was a well known official of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). He was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the President of the Chamber of Deputies in th ...
and oppositionists
Krikor Zohrab
Krikor Zohrab ( hy, Գրիգոր Զոհրապ; 26 June 1861 – 1915) was an influential Armenian writer, politician, and lawyer from Constantinople (now Istanbul). At the onset of the Armenian genocide he was arrested by the Turkish government an ...
,
Vartkes Serengülian
Vartkes Serengülian ( hy, Վարդգէս Սէրէնկիւլեան; also known as Hovhannes hy, Յովհաննէս or Gisak) (1871, Erzurum – 1915, Urfa), was an Ottoman Armenian political and social activist, and a member of Ottoman Parl ...
, and
Karekin Pastermajian met, where the main discussion was the CUP's commitment to the
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princ ...
and more cooperation between the CUP and the opposition rather than incessant intervention by the CUP in government. When this proposal was rejected by the Committee, the opposition coalesced around into the Freedom and Accord Party. It declared itself a party on November 21 1911 and immediately attracted 70 deputies to its ranks.
Only 20 days after its formation, Freedom and Accord won a significant by-election in
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
by one vote. It was the main challenger to the CUP during the
April 1912 elections, which the Committee rigged in favor of itself, giving Freedom and Accord only 6 seats of 275 total. The rigged election caused uprisings in many provinces, until pro-Itilafist officers known as the
Savior Officers
Savior or Saviour may refer to:
*A person who helps people achieve salvation, or saves them from something
Religion
* Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will rule for seven, nine or nineteen years
* Maitreya
* Messiah, a saviour or li ...
issued a memorandum to the pro-CUP Grand Vizier
Mehmed Said Pasha
Mehmed Said Pasha ( ota, محمد سعيد پاشا ; 1838–1914), also known as Küçük Said Pasha ("Said Pasha the Younger") or Şapur Çelebi or in his youth as Mabeyn Başkatibi Said Bey, was an Ottoman monarchist, senator, statesman ...
, who was forced to resign.
Ahmed Muhtar Pasha
Ahmed Muhtar Pasha ( ota, احمد مختار پاشا; 1 November 1839 – 21 January 1919) was a prominent Ottoman field marshal and Grand Vizier, who served in the Crimean and Russo-Turkish wars. Ahmed Muhtar Pasha was appointed as ...
's suprapartisan Great Cabinet followed, which was supported by the Savior Officers and Freedom and Accord. Catastrophe in the
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...
lead to the collapse of this government, and
Kâmil Pasha
Mehmed Kâmil Pasha ( ota, محمد كامل پاشا مصري زاده; tr, Kıbrıslı Mehmet Kâmil Paşa, "Mehmed Kamil Pasha the Cypriot"), also spelled as Kiamil Pasha (1833 – 14 November 1913), was an Ottoman statesman and liberal poli ...
, who was an ardent anti-Unionist, returned to the premiership with the hope to sign a more favorable
peace settlement in London to end the war, and also to ban the CUP. However the CUP undertook a
coup d'état in January 1913, and
İsmail Enver forced Kâmil Pasha to resign the premiership at gun point. The
Three Pashas
The Three Pashas also known as the Young Turk triumvirate or CUP triumvirate consisted of Mehmed Talaat Pasha (1874–1921), the Grand Vizier (prime minister) and Minister of the Interior; Ismail Enver Pasha (1881–1922), the Minister of War ...
(
Talat,
Cemal Cemal is the Turkish spelling of the Arabic masculine given name Jamal (Arabic: جَمَال jamāl) which means "beauty, charm".
People named Cemal include:
First name
* Cemal Erçman (1896–?), Turkish weightlifter
* Cemal Nalga (born 1987) ...
, and Enver), gained ''de facto'' control of the Empire.
At the end of March a plot was discovered by an associate of Prince Sabahaddin, forcing Sabahaddin and Dr. Nihat Reşat (Belger) to flee abroad. The CUP took advantage of Grand Vizier
Mahmut Şevket Pasha's assassination on 11 June 1913 to crush all opposition completely. Most Itilafists were sentenced to death in absentia. 322 people (601 people according to Burhan Felek), who were known anti-Unionists were exiled to
Sinop Sinop can refer to:
* Sinop, Turkey, a city on the Black Sea
** Sinop Nuclear Power Plant, was planned in 2013, but cancelled in 2018
** Battle of Sinop, 1853 naval battle in the Sinop port
*** Russian ship ''Sinop'', Russian ships named after the ...
.
For 5 years the party was practically defunct, until it was re-established in the aftermath of
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
1918–1919
With the Ottoman Empire losing on all fronts in by the end of WWI,
Talat Pasha
Mehmed Talaat (1 September 187415 March 1921), commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha,; tr, Talat Paşa, links=no was an Ottoman politician and convicted war criminal of the late Ottoman Empire who served as its leader from 1913 t ...
's government fell. A general amnesty was declared and exiles from Sinop and abroad began to return to Constantinople.
On November 17, 1918,
Mustafa Sabri Efendi a former deputy of
Tokat
Tokat is the capital city of Tokat Province of Turkey in the mid-Black Sea region of Anatolia. It is located at the confluence of the Tokat River (Tokat Suyu) with the Yeşilırmak. In the 2018 census, the city of Tokat had a population of 155,00 ...
, declared the reorganization of the Freedom and Accord Party. In the following days, news emerged that Freedom and Accord branches were opened in various parts of the country. In a meeting held on January 10, 1919, the Freedom and Accord Party was officially re-established. The new board of directors consisted mostly of elderly and retired state officials close to the palace. Former chairman
Damat Ferit Pasha
Damat Mehmed Adil Ferid Pasha ( ota, محمد عادل فريد پاشا tr, Damat Ferit Paşa; 1853 – 6 October 1923), known simply as Damat Ferid Pasha, was an Ottoman liberal statesman, who held the office of Grand Vizier, the ...
did not join the party. Mustafa Sabri,
Ali Kemal
Ali Kemal Bey (; 7 September 1869 – 6 November 1922) was a Turkish journalist, newspaper editor, poet, liberal-leaning politician, and government official who was for some three months Minister of the Interior in the government of Damat Feri ...
,
Rıza Tevfik, and
Refik Halit (Karay), former and active members of the party, took part in its management. The most important spokespersons of the party in the press were Ali Kemal and
Refi Cevat (Ulunay).
The first cabinet of Damat Ferit Pasha, which was established on March 3, 1919, was generally regarded as the "Government of Freedom and Accord". In reality, the party had no real share in power, except by contributing one or two members to the government. According to
Refik Halit (Karay), Ferit Pasha "used the party like a winter cardigan." On June 25, Freedom and Accord's central committee declared that there was no relationship between the government and the party. After this date, the party split into several factions. On July 21, the central committee declared the government of Damat Ferit illegitimate and demanded his immediate resignation. That same day, a wing of the party split off called the
Conservatives Party.
[A.g.e. sf. 448.]
In the last
Ottoman parliamentary elections held in November 1919, Freedom and Accord and the groups that split from it boycotted the election. The election resulted in a decisive victory of the pro-
Association for the Defense of National Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia party known as .
The most notable newspaper known as the media organ of the party is
Mes'ûliyet (27 August-15 September 1919), which was only published nineteen issues by Balalı Şehsüvarzâde Hacı Osman Bey, the treasurer of the party.
[TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi C.18 Sh.509]
Elections
References
Notes
Sources
*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Freedom and Accord Party
1911 establishments in the Ottoman Empire
Non-governmental organizations involved in the Turkish War of Independence
Political parties in the Ottoman Empire
Turkish nationalist organizations
Young Turks