Bey's influence that having moved to Yeşilköy in order to declare their support for the Operation Army, members of the Parliament and Upper House had taken the secret decision to depose the Sultan, though they published a declaration saying their purpose was to save him. [^186]

[^186]:Y. Bahadıroğlu, Osmanlı Padişahları Ansiklopedisi, iii, 747.

It is worth mentioning briefly that the 31st of March Incident should also be seen in the broader perspective of the Great Powers and their rivalry and ambitions concerning the Ottoman Empire. Particularly as far as the British were concerned, Abdulhamid and his Caliphate policy and successful diplomatic maneuvering formed one of the greatest barriers to their designs on the area, including the establishment of a Jewish state. Also, among the CUP were Masons and those representing interests opposed to the Empire, although the great majority of their supporters in the Parliament were patriotic and well disposed towards Islam, if uncertain as to what its role should be. When answering questions on this subject put to him by the tribes in eastern Anatolia the following year, Bediuzzaman said:

I observed a situation similar to this in the 31st of March Incident. For Islam's constitutionalism-cherishing and patriotic devotees were suggesting ways of applying certain details in order to adapt to the Shari'a the divine bounty of constitutionalism, which they knew to be the very essence of life, and direct those involved in government towards the qibla in the prayer of justice, to uphold the sacred Shari'a with the strength of constitutionalism, and perpetuate constitutionalism with the strength of the Shari'a, and to impute all the former evils to opposition to the Shari'a. Then supposing, God forbid, the Shari'a to be conducive to despotism, those who could not distinguish right from left started saying: 'We want the Shari'a!' like parrots and in that situation the real purpose could not be understood. In any case, the plans had been laid. So then a number of villains who had donned masks of false patriotism attacked the sacred name [the Shari' a]. [^187]

[^187]:Nursi, Münâzarat, 35-6.

That is to say, Bediuzzaman is saying that plans had been laid to incite just such a revolt, and when the 31st of March Incident broke out, it was exploited to the full in order to attack the Shari'a, and reduce the power of Islam within the State. Indeed, the historian Cemal Kutay described the military courts set up afterwards as "a cleansing operation", and their purpose, not to carry out justice, but "to eliminate a mentality and a system." [^188]

[^188]:Cemal Kutay, in Şahiner, Aydınlar Konuşuyor, 345.