ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

The Ottoman Military Coup of 1913, also known as the Raid on the Sublime Porte, was a coup d'état carried out by a group of members of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) led by Ismail Enver Bey and Mehmed Talat Bey in the Ottoman Empire. On January 23, 1913, this group launched a surprise attack on the central government buildings (Sublime Porte). During the coup attempt, Minister of War Nazim Pasha was assassinated, and Grand Vizier Kamil Pasha was forced to resign.

After the coup, the CUP took control of the government with the "Three Pashas" triumvirate consisting of Enver, Talat, and Djemal Pasha. In 1911, the Liberal Union Party (also known as the Liberal Pact) was formed by Kamil Pasha against the CUP. It won the subsequent by-elections in Constantinople (now Istanbul). The CUP members were outraged by this and began to rig elections in 1912 and use violence against the Liberal Union Party, earning these elections the nickname "Sword Elections". In response, officers who had been saved from the army (Halâskâr Zâbitân) rose up in anger, leading to the fall of the government led by Muhammad Said Pasha. A new government was formed under Ahmed Mukhtar Pasha but it collapsed a few months later in October 1912 after the Ottoman defeat in the First Balkan War.

After obtaining permission from Sultan Mehmed V to form a new government in late October 1912, Kamil Pasha, leader of the Liberal Union Party, held diplomatic talks with Bulgaria. However, as Bulgarian demands for the return of Adrianople (now Edirne) intensified, public anger and CUP leadership grew. The CUP members carried out their successful coup on January 23, 1913. They formed a new government under Grand Vizier Mahmud Shevket Pasha, who withdrew from the London Peace Conference with the support of the CUP and resumed war against the Balkan states to recover Adrianople and Rumelia, but without success.

Mahmud Shevket Pasha was assassinated on June 11, 1913 as revenge for the assassination of Nazim Pasha. Despite his leniency towards opposition from the Liberal Union Party after the coup, he was succeeded by Said Halim Pasha. The CUP then dominated all aspects of the sultanate and suppressed the Liberal Union Party and other opposition parties, forcing many of their leaders (such as Prince Sabahaddin) to flee to Europe.

The Ottoman victory in the Second Balkan War led to the recovery of Adrianople. To counter pressure from the Entente Powers, the CUP began to align with Germany before World War I.

Immediate Cause

The immediate reason for the coup was the CUP's decision to organize a coup to regain power from the Liberal Union Party. The direct opportunity arose when the CUP members feared that the government would surrender Adrianople (a former Ottoman capital between 1365-1453) to Bulgaria after the disastrous results of the First Balkan War on the Ottoman Empire.

Beginning

April 1912 Elections and Aftermath

The Committee of Union and Progress won approximately 60 seats out of a total of 288 in the Chamber of Deputies (Chamber of Representatives) in the Ottoman Parliament elections in 1908. However, it was not the largest party in the chamber.

The Liberal Union Party (Liberal Pact) was founded on November 21, 1911 by opponents of the CUP, attracting 70 deputies to its ranks immediately after. After 20 days