THE YOUNG TURK* 
By Rear-Admiral Colby M. Chester, U. S. Navy 
DURING the better part of the 
past four years I have resided in 
Constantinople, making trips to 
the interior of Turkey, the islands of the 
^gean Sea, Egypt, and several of the 
lost colonies of the Empire. 
I have dined in the palace of that arch- 
fiend the recent noted ruler of the Turk- 
ish Empire, Abdul Hamid; also in some 
of the homes of prominent Turks, and I 
feel warranted, therefore, in speaking of 
them from the standpoint of one who has 
known them at close range. 
During the early part of the year 1908 
the growing discontent with the existing 
regime in the Ottoman Empire on the 
part of all the different races of this very 
cosmopolitan country — Turks, Greeks, 
Armenians, Bulgarians, and Arabs- 
aroused a cry of distress that was heard 
throughout all Christendom. From out- 
side the boundaries of Turkey, among 
the western nations of Europe, Christian 
people pressed their administrators for a 
declaration that should either put an end 
to the despotic rule of Abdul Hamid — 
the Nero of the age— or drive the Turk 
out of Europe. 
Suddenly from Saloniki, in the south 
of Macedonia, Enver Bey and Niazi Bey, 
two young Turkish army officers of 
never-dying fame, raised the standard of 
revolution, and a wave of reform was 
started from within the Empire itself that 
spread from border to border with light- 
ning rapidity. 
It was on July 4, 1908, the birthday of 
the United States of America and of 
republican government, that a new era 
was inaugurated in Turkey. It took a 
number of days to organize the rebel- 
lious subjects of the Sultan, after these 
young officers had lighted the fuse 
which was eventually to blow this des- 
potic ruler from his throne ; so that it 
was not until an ultimatum wired to 
Constantinople demanding the proclama- 
tion of the constitution was received and 
acted upon that it was finally granted to 
the people. 
On July 24, however, Abdul Hamid, 
learning that his last remaining support, 
the Albanian troops, whom he had for 
many years bribed to sustain his totter- 
ing power, had deserted him, and that 
the threat to march on Constantinople 
with 200,000 men was to be literally car- 
ried into efi^ect, submitted to the inevita- 
ble and signed the irade that was to make 
him a figure-head in governmental ad- 
ministration. 
WHO Am THE YOUNG TURKS? 
The term "Young Turk" is applied to 
that vast class of Moslem subjects who 
were disafi^ected by the growing burdens 
placed upon them by the despotic action 
of the ruling power. This term applies 
alike to young and old, male or female; 
those who lived in Turkey or were 
spread broadcast over the face of the 
earth by expatriation or the fear of death 
by residence in the fatherland. This so- 
called Young Turk party comprised 
Christians and Jews, as well as Turks, 
and embraced parts of all the various 
races which go to make up the nation. 
The "Committee of Union and Prog- 
ress" was a secret society organized 
within the kingdom, the ranks of which 
'were recruited from the Young Turk 
party. Meriibers were obliged to take a 
most sacred oath to devote their whole 
energies to the redemption of the coun- 
try, to obey every order given through 
the channels of the society, never to re- 
veal its secrets, and to kill any person, 
however near and dear to them, whom 
the committee might condemn to suffer 
death. The harshness of this creed was 
due to the necessity of fighting with fire 
the devil who ruled the nation, and who 
had organized the most diabolical espion- 
age system ever conceived — a system 
that created suspicion between man and 
wife, brother and sister, or even mother 
An address to the National Geographic Society, December 8, 191 1. 
