The Ottoman Assembly and its activities (1914-1918)

The activities of the Ottoman Parliament in the period of 1914-1918 are the basic topic of this study. At the end of a long period of two years, the Ottoman Parliament began its activities named as the Third Legislative Council. The Assembly was mainly composed of Turkish and Arab de puties. The Assembly's the most important function was legislation. It continued the activities for six legislative years which is the longest legislative period of Constitution. The time when the parliament was open also covered the period of World War I. For this reason the war affected the functioning of the parliament and caused it to have a war parliament appearance. For this reason, many laws were enacted during this period. Most of these laws were provisional ones. The parliamentary negotiations about such laws sometimes led to the extension of the legislative year work. The Assembly also had the duty to supervise the government outside the legislature. The Assembly made this task more effective following the end of World War I. Even the parliamentary inquiry was opened to the governments of the period on the grounds that they caused the war. The Assembly's attitude towards war was the same with the that of the government. The Assembly's acceptance of the invitation to the meeting after the decision to enter the war was considered as a confirmation of the war decision. As a result, the defeat in the war resulted in a multi-fronted opposition. Therefore, the Assembly had to terminate his work on 21 November 1918 due to the decision of termination of the government by the Sultan Vahdettin.