Occurring soon after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, in which the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) had successfully restored the Constitution and ended the absolute rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (r. 1876–1909), it is sometimes referred to as an attempted countercoup or counterrevolution.

Upon entering Istanbul on 24 April Sultan Abdul Hamid II, accused by the CUP of complicity in the uprising, was deposed and the Ottoman National Assembly elevated his half-brother, Mehmed V, to the throne.

Mahmud Shevket Pasha, the military general who had organised and led the Action Army, became the most influential figure in the restored constitutional system until his assassination in 1913.

[1] These events triggered the Adana massacre, a month-long series of anti-Armenian pogroms organised by local officials and Islamic clerics in which 20,000 to 25,000 Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians were killed.

The precise nature of events is uncertain; differing interpretations have been offered by historians, ranging from a spontaneous revolt of discontents to a secretly planned and coordinated counter-revolution against the CUP.

Most modern studies disregard claims the sultan was actively involved in plotting the uprising,[2] emphasising the CUP's mismanagement of troops in the build up to the mutiny and the role of conservative religious groups.

[5] The crisis also represented the demise of the Sultanate's power in the Ottoman Empire, as a series of constitutional amendments confined its function in government to the confirmation of parliamentary decisions, conversely cementing parliament's supremacy in a significant step of republicanism in Turkish political history.

[6] The educational reforms during Abdul Hamid II's reign (1876–1909) had led to an increased diffusion of liberal political thought from Western Europe among young Ottoman professionals and military officers.

[8] In July 1908, a secret revolutionary organisation called the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) led an insurrection in the empire's Balkan provinces which compelled the sultan to restore the constitution of 1876, in what became known as the Young Turk Revolution.

[9][10] The CUP, internally divided and lacking an agreed political program, did not take over government; instead it chose to influence the unsteady parliamentary regime from a distance and its Central Committee remained based in Salonika.

[13] Meanwhile, the interim government of Kâmil Pasha carried out a series of democratic and administrative reforms, abolishing the secret police and rescinding press censorship powers, permitting free political campaigning ahead of a general election held during November and December.

This was due to both encroachments by foreign powers and the activity of the empire's ethnic minorities: Austria annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria declared independence, and Greece seized Crete.

[20] In February 1909, Grand Vizier Kâmil Pasha moved to weaken the CUP's grip on power by appointing his own candidates as Ministers of War and Navy.

[22] Vahdeti established the Society for Islamic Unity [tr], also known as the Mohammedan Union Party, and set up a newspaper called Volkan (Volcano in English) in November 1908 to spread anti-secularist rhetoric and campaign against the government.

[23][24] Religious conservatives portrayed the restored 1876 constitution as sacrificing Islamic traditions in order to curry favour with Western states and attacked the new general assembly for giving minorities and Christians within the empire greater influence, issues which resonated with soldiers who had recently been fighting separatists in the Balkans.

[22] The society held its first mass rally on 3 April at the Hagia Sophia; its agitation for the restoration of Sharia gained widespread support, including from soldiers stationed in the city.

[28] Early on the morning of 13 April, troops of the fourth Avci regiment based at the Tashkishla barracks mutinied, locking up their officers and marching onto the streets to call for the reinstatement of Sharia and for the CUP to be disbanded.

[22] Hilmi Pasha's government was in a state of confusion, and fearful of the repercussions of ordering remaining loyal troops against the protestors, it sent the Chief of Police instead to hear the crowd's requests.

[30] Ismail Kemal, a Liberty Party deputy, managed to gather some parliamentarians and officially announced that the constitution and Sharia law would be preserved, responding to the requests of the troops.

[33][34] He urged his constituency in Vlorë to acknowledge the new government, and Albanians from his hometown supported him, even raiding the arms depot to back the sultan with weapons if needed.

[34] Albanian clubs also expressed support for quelling the uprising, while Prenk Bib Doda, leader of the Mirdita, offered assistance from his tribe, driven by fears that the Hamidian regime could return, rather than being loyal to the CUP.

Within Istanbul, the leadership of the Liberal Party attempted unsuccessfully to maintain control of events and prevent the rebellion from taking an anti-constitutionalist course in support of Abdul Hamid.

They organized public demonstrations in towns across the provinces and sent numerous telegrams to the palace and parliament, successfully convincing a significant portion of the population in Macedonia that the constitution was in danger.

[37] The historian Erik-Jan Zürcher has commented that the CUP was largely successful in its propaganda, and was able to convince a significant portion of the population of Macedonia that the constitution was in peril.

[37] The eleventh Reserve (Redif) Division based in Selanik composed the advance guard of the Action Army and the chief of staff was Mustafa Kemal Pasha.

[38][39][verification needed] In short time CUP members Fethi Okyar, Hafız Hakkı and Enver Bey returned from their international posts at Ottoman embassies and joined Mahmud Shevket and his military staff prior to reaching Istanbul.

The Sultan remained in the Yildiz and had frequent conferences with Grand Vizier Tevfik Pasha who announced: His Sublime Majesty awaits benevolently the arrival of the so called constitutional army.

[31][43][44] Four CUP members composed of one Armenian, one Jew and two Muslim Albanians went to inform the sultan of his dethronement, with Essad Pasha Toptani being the main messenger saying "the nation has deposed you".

Abdul Hamid was replaced by his younger brother, who took the name Mehmed V.[31] The sultan directed his anger toward Essad Toptani, whom he considered a traitor due to his family's ties to royal patronage, such as his gains in privileges and key positions in the Ottoman government.

[50] The Monument of Liberty (Ottoman Turkish: Abide-i Hürriyet) was erected in 1911 in Şişli district of Istanbul as a memorial to the 74 soldiers killed in action during this event.