The four principles featured on the emblem and pennant of the Committee of Union and Progress were liberty, justice, equality and fraternity. These principles were envisaged for all Ottoman citizens; the Young Turks had also invited the Armenian Taşnaksutyun Committee to the Ottoman Opposition Congress they held in Paris on 27-29 December 1907. However, after turning the 31 March Incident into an opportunity and establishing a government against Sultan Abdülhamid’s despotism, the committee created another despotism based on terror.
Mustafa Kemal received the support of religious scholars at the beginning of the National Struggle. At the opening of the Erzurum Congress on 23 July 1919, he recited a prayer containing religious expressions for the protection of the homeland, the nation, and the offices of the sultanate and caliphate. In a circular dated 21 April 336 (1920), issued before the opening of the TBMM, it was announced that the Assembly would open on 23 April after Friday prayers; prayers would be performed at Hacı Bayram-ı Veli Cami-i Şerifi; the Sakal-ı Şerif and the Holy Banner would be carried; sacrifices would be made; complete Quran recitations and Buharî-i Şerif would be recited in the provinces; and prayers would be offered for the sultan.
Why it matters
The text makes visible, within the same historical framework, the tension between the principles of universal citizenship set out in İttihat ve Terakki’s political program and its practice of power. This comparison raises the question of how the values proclaimed by a movement were reflected in its approach to governance. Documents concerning the National Struggle period, meanwhile, show that religious symbols and institutions were among the elements used in the era’s search for political legitimacy. Thus, the subject is not limited solely to the positions of İttihat ve Terakki or Mustafa Kemal; it also concerns those seeking to understand how the relationship between power, public support, and legitimacy was established in the process extending from the Ottoman Empire to the National Struggle. However, these documents alone do not answer the question of how this approach changed in subsequent periods.