A War of Telegrams: The Young Turk Revolution and the Anti-Notables Movement in Aleppo 1908-1913

Abstract

In the aftermath of the harsh winter of 1911, the Ottoman province of Aleppo witnessed an acrimonious confrontation in the form of a "war of telegrams" between the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) Vali Hüseyin Kâzım Bey and his supporters, on the one hand, and a large portion of the city's no-tables who were opposed to his policies, on the other, against the backdrop of accusations made by the Vali against those whom he called the “oppressive notables” (mütegalibe eşrâf) of persecution of the poorest segments of the population and evasion of the payment of agricultural taxes (‘aşâr), as well as obstruction of the work of the official tax collection functionaries. This paper argues that the Vali's attempt to weaken the power of local notables falls within the broader and more comprehensive framework of the “anti-notables move-ment,” launched by the CUP under the second constitutional era (meşrutiyet), targeting the notables of the ancien régime in Aleppo in particular, whose in-fluence, which the constitutional regime tried to reduce, had proved to be a stumbling block to the CUP's quest to restructure the local government. It also considers that the policy pursued by the CUP aimed at breaking the power of local notables, especially those under the umbrella of the Ottoman opposition party organizations, did not end with the recall of the Vali but rather continued later at an accelerating pace, in conjunction with the CUP's completion of their control of the State.