The reform debates in Ottoman Syria and the Syrian policy of Committee of Union and Progress before the First World War

Beginning from the re-declaration of constitutional regime in 1908, multi-directional and variable relations have been developed between the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which was practically in power, and the Syrian Arabs. The principal element that characterized these relations, especially between 1909-1913, was the confrontation of CUP's centralist program with the demands of decentralist Syrians, as well as the integration of Syrian opposition with Ottoman decentralist opposition. This PhD thesis deals with these relationships with reference to historical, institutional and ideological backgrounds. In the same time, it examines the divergences observed in the relations between the Unionists and the Syrians at the level of periods, regions and actors, and it tries to read all these processes principally from Istanbul's point of view. Keywords: Second Constitutional Ottoman Monarchy, Committee of Union and Progress, Arabs, Arabic, Syria, reform, modernization, modern state, the Enlightenment, positivism, nationalism, politics of notables, Hüseyin Cahid, Cemal Paşa, Tanin, Ottoman Parliament, Lā-Markaziyyah, Beirut Reform Society, The Arab Congress of 1913, Abdalhamid al-Zahrāwi, Selim Ali Salām, Aziz Ali al-Masri.