The road not taken: Socialism a l’Ottoman, 1908-1912

Following July 23, 1908, with the termination of the three decades of the despotic rule of Sultan Abdülhamit II and the restoration of the constitution as a result of the Young Turk Revolution, Ottomanism, defined as all Ottoman residents living in equal terms irrespective of ethno-religious differences and under a single political rule, was revived as the official policy of the new constitutional government. The restoration of the constitution and the revival of the Ottomanist policy put forth an intriguing picture for the socialists from different ethnic communities, who had been fighting against the Ottoman monarchical government for decades, and some of whom pursued the national independence of their “people.” Despite this former discord, with the emergence of a democratizing regime, many of these socialists in the realm decided to strive for the unity of the multiethnic empire instead of its dissolution. This dissertation, following the political trajectories of activists from different ethnic origins (with a specific focus on Macedo-Bulgarian, Jewish, Rum and Turkish activists) in the Balkans and Anatolia who envisaged the prospect of reforming the Ottoman Empire, analyzes the Ottoman socialists’ instrumentalisation of Ottomanism to defy separatist ethnic nationalism and to unite the multiethnic proletariat of the realm during the first term of the Second Constitutional Era (1908-1912). My study of Ottomanist socialism revolves around the activities and publications of the People’s Federative Party (PFP), the Workers’ Federation of Salonica (WFS) and the Socialist Center of Turkey (SCT), three organizations that were formed in Salonica and Istanbul in the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution. In addition to utilizing the Bureau of Socialist International and Ottoman archives, I draw on a rich and previously unexplored corpus of documents and newspapers issued by these three organizations, as well as on memoirs and articles written by socialists from multiple ethnic backgrounds. Examining this uncommon socialist nexus, I illustrate how this multiethnic socialist project challenged the peaking nationalist propaganda of conflicting political groups, through their unconventional endorsement of the democratic yet imperial project of Ottomanism. In doing so, I not only reconstruct a fin-de-siècle world in which exclusionary ethnic nationalism was not a predestined path, but also delineate the flourishing labor scene in Salonica, Istanbul, Izmir, and Bursa, the industrial centers of the realm. Consequently, I argue that Ottomanist socialism was a burgeoning movement which pursued to unite workers from diverse ethnic backgrounds under the class umbrella and simultaneously defend the unity of the empire even under the increasingly authoritarian rule of the Committee of Union and Progress.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Tiglay, Fatma Pelin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Todorova, Maria
• Avrutin, Eugene
• Steinberg, Mark
• Phillips Cohen, Julia

• Socialism
• Ottoman Empire
• Nationalism
• Ottomanism
• Class
• Labor History

Statement dc:rights

• © 2023 Fatma Pelin Tığlay

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/122167

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F122167