TURKEY n6i 



less, it was fatal. Colonel Saadik Bey's subterranean propaganda had made immense 

 progress among the officers of the Constantinople garrison; he had relied upon the want 

 of preparation at Tripoli, on officers passed over, and appointments made 

 Counter f or political reasons by Mahmud Shevket Pasha. A " Society of Saviours 

 f their Country " counted many members among the officers of the first 

 division. In their eyes the Albanians, against whom they were sent by 

 the Government, were not insurgents but their own allies, and before June 1912 was 

 out news came that many, both officers and men, were deserting to the Albanians. 



Mahmud Shevket Pasha made desperate efforts to repress the movement. On 

 July ist a law was passed at his instance, severely punishing officers for meddling in 

 politics; then, seeing that his efforts were useless, he sacrificed himself to 

 calm the movement and resigned (July loth). Even that, it seemed, was 

 not enough. Said Pasha himself resigned on July i-jth and so brought 

 about a Cabinet crisis. The situation was so serious that the Sultan intervened in 

 person. On the ipth of July he issued a manifesto prohibiting officers from meddling 

 in politics and promising an impartial Cabinet. On July 22nd Ghazi Mukhtar Pasha 

 became grand vizier; Kiamil Pasha, President of the Council of State; Nazim Pasha, 

 minister of War; Hussein Hilmi Pasha, minister of State; and an Armenian, legal- 

 adviser of the Porte under Sultan Abdul Hamid, Gabriel Effendi Noradoughian, minis- 

 ter for Foreign Affairs. The next day it was decided at a cabinet council to stop the 

 fighting in Albania and to send a conciliation commission to treat. And 

 GhaziMukh- then the purely political nature of the movement was made manifest, for 



tar Pasha s 



ministry. even this was not enough. The Albanians, led by the excluded deputies, 

 clamoured for a dissolution and the arraignment of the Hakki Cabinet. 

 On July 2$th the military society of " Saviours of their Country " sent a threatening 

 letter to Halil Bey, President of the Chamber, calling upon the Chamber to dissolve. 

 Just then the Government plainly showed what line they meant to take, by issuing an 

 amnesty (Aug. ist) to all Abdul-Hamid's high officials, and all ringleaders of the mu- 

 tiny of April 13, 1909 exiled by the Young Turks. 



On August 5th the Ghazi Mukhtar Cabinet obtained from the Senate a decision 

 interpretative of the Constitution declaring that the task of the newly-elected Chamber 

 was now completed (this was represented to the Senate as the only way of 

 stopping the Albanian disturbances and keeping the Austrians out of the 

 movement. Sanjak of Novibazar); then, backed by a proclamation issued in the 

 Sultan's name, the grand vizier ignored a vote of want of confidence given 

 after a violent revolutionary speech from Djavid Bey, and closed both the Chamber 

 and the Senate. After this supreme concession made to them, the Albanian insurgents, 

 naturally, only grew bolder. More officers and officials were murdered at Ipek and 

 Mitrovitza (Aug. i8th). Then the Albanians marched on Uskiib, and some went on 

 to Salonica, demanding the restoration of Abdul-Hamid. Once again the Porte gave 

 way. Out of fourteen points raised by the Albanians twelve were conceded, among 

 them official recognition of their language, localised military service, appointment of 

 officials able to speak Albanian. Yet it was decided to send troops to stop the march 

 of the insurgents, now very near Salonica. The Albanian advance was 

 Massacres at stopped, but not the disturbances. The Government had lost all authority. 

 elsewhere. The Albanians took to plundering the depots for arms, and assassinations 

 continued. News of massacres came from Berana, Sienitza, and Epirus. 

 The Kurds in Asia Minor began to flatter themselves that the days of Abdul Hamid 

 had come back at last, and fell to massacring the luckless Armenians. 



There was great excitement in Europe and in the press. The tone of the Balkan 

 journals grew very hostile to Turkey; they spoke of autonomy in the Peninsula, perhaps 

 encouraged by a proposal made by Count Berchtold, Austrian Minister for Foreign Af- 

 fairs, who, naturally disposed to favour the Albanians, invited the cabinets of Europe 

 to urge the Turkish Government to decentralise their administrative system. The 

 Bulgarian press was particularly violent. The Ishtib massacres of the previous December, 



