Origins of Liberalism in Turkey

The historical-social process extending from the New Ottomans to the Young Turks was a "revolutionary movement", whether it ended in revolution or not. In this process, Turkish political thought was divided into two main veins. Positivism organized in the Committee of Union and Progress, and liberalism organized in the Tesebbüs-i Sahsî and Decentralization Association (later in Ahrar and the Hürriyet ve İtilaf Firkalari, from this tradition). The tensions of these parties with each other concentrated on whether the country's form of government should be centralist or decentralized. In response to the centralist approach of the ITC, Prince Sabahaddin put forward the concept of decentralization. This concept was thought by the Unionists to pose serious threats to the integrity of the country. Another reason for the discussions was that Prince Sabahaddin's organizational base included the Armenian Revolutionary Societies, the Catholic Church and the Greek Patriarchate, or especially imperial Western states such as England.

In this context, in the analysis, the II. In the process that would culminate in the declaration of the 19th century, liberal-revolutionary thought and movement were tried to be analyzed in the example of Prince Sabahaddin.



Number of Pages: 416

Year of Printing: 2008


Language: Turkish
Publisher: Imge Bookstore

First Printing Year: 2008

Number of Pages: 416

Language Turkish