#### The Revolt

The Revolt

The revolt broke out among one of the Light Infantry battalions which only a few weeks previously had been brought to Istanbul from Salonica as the Defenders of Freedom. It started in the middle of the night of 12-13 April. Locking their officers in their rooms, the soldiers took control of the barracks and poured out into the streets. There, as they made their way to Aya Sophia and the parliament building, the throng increased in magnitude as they were joined by other soldiers, madrasah students, and members of the public. The shout was for the Shari'a. It was daytime by the time they reached Aya Sophia. They surrounded the Parliament and presented their demands. These included the dismissal of the Grand Vizier, the War Minister, and Commander of the Imperial Guards, the removal of Ahmed Rıza who had acted as Speaker of the Parliament since the Proclamation of the Constitution, the application in full of the Shari'a, the reinstatement of their expelled officers, and a guarantee that the soldiers who had taken part in the rebellion would not be punished.

In the meantime, the rebels had murdered one of the deputies on the mistaken supposition it was the leading CUP journalist Hüseyin Cahid, together with the Justice Minister supposing him to be the Grand Vizier.

The government resigned, and the Sultan appointed a new Grand Vizier and Minister of War. The rebellion continued; there was looting and some bloodshed. The offices of the CUP and their main press organs were sacked. Rather than attempting to quell the disturbance — it was not supported by anyone of authority either military or civil — the CUP chose to send for forces from Salonica.

News of the uprising provoked a strong reaction in Salonica, which was still the centre of the CUP. Spreading the news that Freedom itself was threatened, the CUP had no difficulty in forming a force of volunteers consisting largely of bands of Serbs, Bulgars, Greeks, Macedonians, and Albanians. Regular units were in a small minority in this Operation Army. They were armed, and entrained for Istanbul. The force gathered at Yeşilköy several kilometers outside the city, where Mahmud Şevket Pasha took command of it. On 24 April, they took possession of the city, and the following day proclaimed martial law. On the 27th, Sultan Abdulhamid was deposed. It was Tal'at Bey who with great insistence managed to obtain the fatwa authorizing the dethronement from two religious notables — having failed to extract it from the Şeyhü'l-İslam, [^185] just as it was due to Tal'at

[^185]:M. Müftüoğlu, Her Yönüyle Sultan İkinci Abdülhamid, Istanbul 1985, 340-1, 350-1.