Two modernist in turkish political life: A comparison of prince Sabahaddin and Ahmed Riza's political thoughts

Social changes framed around the internal dynamics and historical circumstances of the West are termed as modernity. The material power rising as a result of these changes has triggered the West to establish a hegemony over the rest of the societies around the world. One of the first societies to face the modern West is the Ottoman society. The Ottoman Empire started to technically fall behind the West as a result of the losses due to military defeats. Meanwhile, the infrastructural changes experienced by the Ottoman Empire, which were attached to the global economy, created other problems. All these problems impelled the Ottoman elites to interrogate the question/problem of "how to save the state". As a result, ideas put forward to solve the social problems which had emerged in the West were tried to be used by the elites for the problems of the Ottoman society / state. General narrative in Turkish political life states that two blocs emerged from the First Young Turk Congress in 1902; one of them is a wing led by the nationalist, positivist, and centralist Ahmed Rıza Bey and the other is a wing led by the liberal, cosmopolitan, and decentralized Prince Sabahaddin Bey. It is generally claimed that parties such as the Ahrar Party, the Democrat Party, and the Justice Party followed Sabahaddin Bey's ideas; while the Committee of Union and Progress and later on the Republican People's Party traced the position of Ahmed Rıza Bey. In this study, the primary sources referenced by the secondary sources were scanned in order to compare the ideas of these two political actors and to frame the scope around the main divergence points in the general narrative.