Early reactions to second constitut : October 1908 events

The political and military actions of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) paved the way for imposing the constitution declared in 1876 by the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II. In the early days, the constitution was hailed by the people joyously and enthusiastically. However, following losses of territory and some practices imposed by the government were to be evaluated as secular actions by some part of the society and it created reactions towards the CUP. The October 1908 was the beginning of these reactions and events and that's why this thesis try to examine the period chronologically. The public's reactions turned into a propaganda of the idea that the actions of the CUP were against the religion. The first incidents happened that in this context such as "Kör Ali Incident" and "Karagöz Incident" "Beşiktaş Incident" and "The Arrest of Ahmet Hamdi". The last rebellion in the October was the riot of soldiers of Taşkışla Barracks who rejected going to Yemen. The annexations of Bosnia by Austria-Hungary Empire, the events in Crete and the declaration of independence by Bulgaria was responded by the Ottoman Empire with the public support and within the short period of a boycott was launched by the society against these states. According to the public opinion the government was the responsible for the international crisis but crowds gave positive support to the government policies. This thesis aims to shed some lights on the events in the first year of the Second Constitutional Era. During the period, riots and the reactions against the CUP caused social problems and for this reasons the study attempts to make contribution to the perception of incidents like 31 March.