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The Ottoman revolution of 1908 is a study in contradictions—a positive manifestation of modernity intended to reinstate constitutional rule, yet ultimately a negative event that shook the fundamental structures of the empire, opening up ethnic, religious, and political conflicts. Shattered Dreams of Revolution considers this revolutionary event to tell the stories of three important groups: Arabs, Armenians, and Jews. The revolution raised these groups' expectations for new opportunities of inclusion and citizenship. But as post-revolutionary festivities ended, these euphoric feelings soon turned to pessimism and a dramatic rise in ethnic tensions.
The undoing of the revolutionary dreams could be found in the very foundations of the revolution itself. Inherent ambiguities and contradictions in the revolution's goals and the reluctance of both the authors of the revolution and the empire's ethnic groups to come to a compromise regarding the new political framework of the empire ultimately proved untenable. The revolutionaries had never been wholeheartedly committed to constitutionalism, thus constitutionalism failed to create a new understanding of Ottoman citizenship, grant equal rights to all citizens, and bring them under one roof in a legislative assembly. Today as the Middle East experiences another set of revolutions, these early lessons of the Ottoman Empire, of unfulfilled expectations and ensuing discontent, still provide important insights into the contradictions of hope and disillusion seemingly inherent in revolution.
— Dr. Yuval Ben-Bassat
"Der Matossian's Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire, stands out among the plethora of volumes on the events surrounding the Young Turk Revolution, as it looks at the revolution through the lenses of three nondominant groups in the empire - Armenians, Jews, and Arabs. Drawing upon a rich body of sources in at least five languages (Ottoman Turkish, Armenian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Ladino), the author provides the reader with a much richer understanding of the dynamics that brought about the revolution of 1908, as well as the postrevolutionary, counterrevolutionary, and subsequent dynamics than many other studies that have taken the Committee of Union and Progress as their primary lens of analysis."
— Janet Klein
"Bedross Der Matossian brings a valuable contribution to our understanding of both modern revolutions and late Ottoman history . . . The real value of Shattered dreams of revolution lies in providing a new perspective on the contemporary drama of the Middle East, by grounding its roots firmly in the region's history, revolutionary process promising freedom and equality but eventually leading to inter-community violence, a situation which strongly echoes the current state of affairs in the region."
— Vicken Cheterian
"In Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire, historian Bedross Der Matossian addresses the fraught ethnic relations that played a significant role in the failure of the Ottoman constitutional experiment . . . Der Matossian has sought out primary sources—including newspapers, political communications, speeches, and religious sermons—which help to paint a picture of late Ottoman society unavailable in official repositories like the Ottoman Archives . . . Der Matossian's ambitious project breaks sharply from the 'microhistorical' approach employed by many scholars of the period . . . These parallels make Shattered Dreams of Revolution essential to a sober and honest understanding of the Middle East in the 20th century—and in the 21st."
— Sam Taylor
"This richly textured narrative addresses the alliances of convenience brokered between mutually opposing Armenian political parties out of exigency...Shattered Dreams of Revolution is an indispensable reference work for historians of the late Ottoman Empire. The precise, accessible language makes it suitable for adoption in undergraduate curricula."
"[N]o historian has approached the subject of non-dominant ethnic groups in such a comprehensive and multilingual manner as Der Matossian has done in this volume. His study of Ottoman Armenians, Arabs, and Jews in the immediate aftermath of the revolution outlines the complex nature of post-revolutionary politics and the lack of homogeneity within each of these groups . . . Highly recommended."
— R.W. Zens
"The sad fate of revolutions, from moments of euphoria and hope through the descent into authoritarianism, has seldom been told as persuasively as in this unique book. Bedross Der Matossian offers the stories of three peoples—Armenians, Arabs, and Jews—who greeted the 1908 Young Turk revolution with joy and optimism, only to find their expectations of liberation and modernity quickly turn into disillusion and brutal bloodletting."
— Ronald Grigor Suny
"[A] recent work by Bedross Der Matossian is valuable, for it proposes a different analogy to the Arab spring and thus casts new light on the present. Shattered Dreams of Revolution" From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire is above all a work of historical scholarship, but it also makes a compelling case for looking at the Arab spring in light of the Young Turk revolution - which began with a military cou d'etat - in the Ottoman empire in 1908."
— Vicken Cheterian
"Bedross Der Matossian explains with new historical evidence why and how the Young Turk revolution ultimately failed to attract Armenians, Jews, and Arabs to its cause. He makes a genuine contribution to our understanding of ethno-religious conflict and nationalism, suggesting interesting parallels with the failings of today's Middle East revolutions."
— Philip S. Khoury
"Bedross Der Matossian's research is a model for those interested in a multivocal treatment of the principal historiographical issues of the late Ottoman period. This is is a readable work written in a style accessible to casual readers and students, and with its detailed and extensive use of evocative quotations, Shattered Dreams of Revolution should prove a fascinating read for specialists as well."
— Chris Gratien
"Shattered Dreams of Revolution is a timely book and a meticulously researched work. It locates itself in the growing field of the history of Ottoman ethnic and religious minorities, or as Der Matossian rightly prefers to refer to them, the non-dominant groups, in the nineteenth and early twentieth century . . . Shattered Dreams is a grappling book, an academic work of extremely high standard, which boasts impeccable and meticulous archival research in a number of languages. It is a book that sheds light on the very complicated last crucial years of the pre-war Ottoman Empire."
— Stefano Taglia
"Shattered Dreams of Revolution is a compelling work on the Ottoman revolution of 1908 and its shortcomings . . . [T]his work must be commended for presenting a fresh picture of the revolution as a key event that needs to be more fully studied for its repercussions on the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. This is a work that cannot be ignored by those studying late Ottoman history and in particular how nationalism impacted the empire's subjects."
— Roberto Mazza
"Taking a macro-historical approach, Matossian's work includes various regions of the Ottoman Empire . . . Matossian argues that the ideal of creating an Ottoman identity which would unite the diversity of ethnic groups under one banner is paradoxical . . . [Shattered Dreams of Revolution has a] valuable contribution to the literature of Second Constitutional Period as they shed light on the very first constitutional experience of the Middle Eastern communities."
— Fikriye Karaman
"Der Matossian's work is an important and in many ways path-breaking contribution that moves our understanding of the political history of the non-Muslim and non-Turkish speaking populations of the Ottoman Empire forward beyond the tried and tired tropes of the rise of separatist nationalisms and the meddling of the Great Powers . . . In the span of less than three hundred pages, Der Matossian provides an expansive snapshot of the multiplicity of actors and of the interplay of competing interests that sometimes—but by no means always—crossed over lines of religion and ethnicity to shape politics in the empire's waning years."
— David Gutman
"In this well-researched, tightly argued, and sophisticated book, Bedross Der Matossian maintains that the enormous chasm between the Weltanschauungen of the Ottom Committee of Union and Progress and of the major Armenian, Jewish, and Arab political organizations and intellectuals made any agreement on the basic tenets of the new constitutional regime impossible . . . [S]tudents of Ottoman, Armenian, Arab, and modern Jewish history will be indebted to Der Matosian for his extremely valuable contribution to the field."
— M. Şükrü Hanioğlu
Shattered Dreams of Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire
Author(s): Bedross Der Matossian
The introduction deals with the historiography of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 and the novelty that the project brings to the field. It situates the Revolution in the larger context of Global wave of revolutions that took place at the time. Through a macro-historical approach that includes different regions of the Empire, ranging from central to peripheral areas, the book elucidates the complexities of the 1908 Revolution. What is unique about the book is its comparative, inter and intra-communal, and cross-cultural analysis. In order to understand the impact of the Revolution on these three ethnic groups, the second half of the chapter provides a brief historical background of the major transformations that these groups experienced in the nineteenth century.
Chapter one examines one of the most important outcomes of the Young Turk Revolution: the creation of multiple, competing public spheres. It utilizes the concept of cultural history in order to demonstrate how ethnic groups expressed themselves primarily through revolutionary rituals. Thus, applying a subaltern approach, the chapter examines the political culture of the ethnic groups, with a specific focus on symbolic presentation. By using symbolism, space, language, speeches, and revolutionary figures in revolutionary rituals, it provides a new understanding of the national sentiments of the ethnic groups during the beginning of the Second Constitutional Period.
Chapter two examines the printed forms of communication in the political public spheres of the postrevolutionary period. The political discourse in the postrevolutionary period created its own rationale, and defined the new era by rejecting the established political beliefs of the ancien régime. Understanding the printed forms of communication provides us with a better understanding of the role of the press in shaping and molding the political discourse among the different ethnic groups. The issues that were debated among the ethnic groups after the postrevolutionary period were essential in determining their policy, identity, and space in the Ottoman Empire. In keeping with the French influence, freedom, equality, and fraternity; the ancien régime; and the desired political system were the main contested themes in the political discourse.
Chapter three examines the impact of the revolution on the three nondominant groups in the Ottoman Empire. The struggles that were waged within these communities under the rubric of revolution and constitutionalism were shared features with the regional and the global model of revolutions. This chapter illustrates how the Revolution of 1908 became the ultimate opportunity for the empire's different ethnic groups to reform their communal structures and to initiate their own microrevolutions. This was especially evident among the Armenians, Christian Arabs, and the Jews. In the case of the Muslim Arabs, it led to the erosion of the political and social stability due to serious changes in the dynamics of power within the Arab provinces.
Chapter four discusses another marginalized topic within the historiography, namely, the ethnic representation in the 1908 elections. Through political participation, mobilization, and lobbying, ethnic groups struggled internally and competed with one another in legitimizing the new political body, the Parliament. The chapter discusses in-depth the phase prior to the balloting, during which intensive negotiations took place among and between the ethnic groups that defined the course of the elections. It analyzes the 1908 elections from the perspective of the expectations of the ethnic groups and their reaction to the outcomes of the elections. Administrative decentralization, ethno-religious privileges, national education, and proportional representation became the key factors in the negotiation processes between the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and the Armenians, Greeks, and to a certain extent, Jews and Arabs.
Chapter five of the book discusses ethnic politics in the Ottoman Parliament by analyzing the parliamentary debates. The analysis is based on the official transcripts of the fifty-four parliamentary sessions published in Takvim-i Vekayi. The chapter demonstrates that the major issues that became factors in the deterioration of inter-ethnic relationships were at the center of discussions in the parliamentary debates. It analyses in-depth four main issues that preoccupied the ethnic groups in Parliament: the Macedonian Question, concessions to foreign countries, reform in the Anatolian provinces, and restrictions on the right to assembly.
The last chapter of the book re-examines the Counterrevolution from the perspective of the nondominant groups and analyses the reaction of the ethnic press. It also discusses the participation of the ethnic groups in quelling the Counter-revolution. After examining the impact of the revolution on the different provinces, it concentrates on the region of Adana where the Counterrevolution led to the massacre of more than twenty thousand Armenians. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the reaction of the ethnic groups to the policies of the CUP that resulted in the Counterrevolution.
The book concludes with the argument that the revolutionary dreams of the Empire's nondominant groups were shattered not only by the CUP's authoritarian tendencies, but also by the contradictory dynamics that highlighted the revolutionary and postrevolutionary political processes. The incompatibility of their dreams with those of the CUP and the asymmetries of power that defined their relationship with the Young Turks ensured these disappointments. From their weak position as nondominant groups, they attempted to pressure the CUP into implementing long-awaited reforms and pushed for decentralization. Once they realized that the democratic process and their political visions had been aborted, these groups resorted to mobilizing international powers to exert pressure on the Ottoman government, a kind of interference that the CUP had despised from the day of its inception.