The Young Turks and the Boycott Movement ― Nationalism, Protest and the Working Classes in the Formation of Modern Turkey

The first decade of the twentieth century was the Ottoman Empire's 'imperial twilight'. As the Empire fell away, the beginnings of a young and radical Turkish nationalism took root in Anatolia. The summer of 1908 saw the 'Young Turks' attempt to revitalize Turkey with a 'constitutional revolution' aimed at reducing the power of the Ottoman Sultan, Abdul Hamid II. Drawing on popular support for the defense of the Ottoman Empire's Balkan territories, the Young Turks promised to build a nation from the people up, rather than from the top down. Here, Dogan Cetinkaya analyses the history of the Boycott Movement, a series of nationwide public meetings and protests, which enshrined the Turkish democratic voice. The Young Turks and the Boycott Movement is the first history to show how this phenomenon laid the foundations for the modern Turkish state, and will be essential reading for students and scholars of the Ottoman Empire and of the History of Modern Turkey.

Dogan Cetinkaya is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Political Sciences at Istanbul University, Turkey.