[20] During his time training at the Istanbul War Academy, a fellow Ottoman officer Ismail Enver Bey initiated Niyazi into the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) movement.

[26][11] Niyazi became committed to the ideas of Ahmed Rıza, a CUP member who advocated for constitutional restoration through revolution and was against foreign intervention in the empire or reforms for a specific community based on preferential treatment.

[27] Military service and a deteriorating security situation in Macedonia affected individuals such as Niyazi who felt that the plight of local Muslims was little known and like other peoples in the region had experienced attacks due to guerilla activity.

[11] Niyazi thought that European powers were pushing Ottoman Christians into uprisings against the state to defeat the empire and wanted to prevent the development of propaganda by the Russians and Austrians in Macedonia.

[11] Niyazi and his colleagues preferred to preserve the empire with all its multiethnic and multireligious population and denounced attacks by reactionary Muslims against Christians, yet they had limited knowledge of Ottoman politics.

[35] CUP publications calling for action against the sultan and prevention of foreign occupation like Şura-yı Ümmet, Mechveret Supplement Français and Ahmed Rıza's pamphlet on the army influenced junior officers such as Niyazi who described their "extraordinary impact in illuminating minds".

[36] Following a meeting in Reval between Tsar Nicholas II and Edward VII (9-12 June 1908) rumors of a partition of Macedonia through imminent Russo-British intervention spread and were accelerated by the CUP, whereas Niyazi took it as a signal to act immediately.

[37] At the time Niyazi heard rumors regarding the Reval meeting and experienced three sleepless nights that left him "flushed with anxiety and excitement" which shaped his conviction that he "found salvation in sacrifice and death".

[41] Cemal Efendi, as the mayor of Resen, a spiritual leader (Sufi cleric) and a member of the Young Turks had traveled to Monastir for talks with its CUP branch about the details of action to be taken and had obtained approval.

[41][51][52] All escaped from Resne into the nearby mountains from where Niyazi initiated the Young Turk Revolution and issued a proclamation that called for the restoration of the constitution of 1876 without specifically mentioning the CUP.

[57] To gain the support of Muslim villagers, officers focused on local issues of discontent with government, lack of services such as schools and roads, heavy taxation and protection from roaming armed bands as opposed to invoking the constitution.

[59] The well developed imperial telegraph network was used by Niyazi and on behalf of his band he sent proclamations to provincial and local officials along with the palace that demanded injustices and inequality be combated and the constitution restored.

[64] Niyazi's reasons for going against the sultan was to defend liberty, initiate reforms for both Muslims and Christians and was of the view that "Rather than live basely, i have preferred to die... either death or the salvation of the fatherland".

[66] He described the palace position on events and accused Niyazi of organising bands made up of deserters, subversives and other people influenced by such individuals and instructed them to inform foreign governments and the press.

[67] Amidst these events an appeal was issued by Niyazi to local Bulgarians that outsiders would not be allowed to rule the region and placed blame on the government and its "corrupt officials" for "causing bad things to happen".

[67] He promised justice and equality for Bulgarians while warning that people disobeying those "orders" would be hung, a punishment extended to notables of a settlement if a band entered a town or village and CUP authorities were not informed.

[75][73] Hyrsev also contacted Hysen Baba, an Albanian Bektashi sheikh from the Melçan tekke who acted as mediator between Niyazi and Topulli that influenced the latter along with other brigand leaders to support the CUP cause.

[82] Topulli's guerilla band gave important support to Niyazi and his forces during their capture of the Resne garrison and the event was a small military victory in the campaign to oust the Hamidian regime.

[90][91] On 23 July Niyazi returned to Resne and met with guerilla leaders Topulli and Mihal Grameno where he expressed his gratitude and viewed the declaration of the CUP constitution as advantageous for the Albanian nation.

[34][91] The worsening situation in the Ottoman Balkan provinces and lack of government control along with army desertions motivated the sultan to issue an imperial decree restoring the 1876 constitution on 24 July 1908.

[92][93][94] In the aftermath of the revolution Niyazi and Enver remained in the political background due to their youth and junior military ranks with both agreeing that photographs of them would not be disturbed to the general public, yet this decision was rarely observed.

[97][98] During the revolution the Manakis brothers had photographed Niyazi and their pictures reconstructed him as an ordinary man of the people with his prominent dust covered mustache giving an appearance of a recent arrival from the hills commanding rebels.

[72] In one iconic photograph showing Niyazi and his famous deer they are portrayed as the materialisation of freedom with him and his rifle depicting a military figure of power represented by his surrounding soldiers and bandits.

[108] Niyazi's memoirs are full of information about the Lake Prespa region, the towns of Resne and Ohri and he highlighted the contributions of Albanians during the revolution for its success and his efforts to gain their support.

[111] In the aftermath of the revolution, CUP unity gave way to personal rivalries which by March 1909, rumor had it that Niyazi had fallen out with the main views of the Young Turks and began to have a liberal outlook regarding the situation in Macedonia.

[114] A group of mainly Albanian soldiers stationed in Istanbul mutinied after CUP authorities planned to replace them with other army units from Macedonia and they attempted a countercoup in 1909 to undo the 1908 revolution.

[7][119][120] Together in military operations that were directed by a fellow Albanian Ali Pasha Kolonja they retook Istanbul (23 April) with little resistance from the mutineers and deposed sultan Abdul Hamid II.

[124] Due to his Albanian ethnicity, role as hero of the revolution and being a revered yet politically marginal CUP member Niyazi became a central figure in the royal tour of Macedonia.

[127][128] The reenactment by Niyazi also involved Eyüp Sabri where both men wore their old clothes, rode horses accompanied by a gun carriage with the event recorded on camera by the Manakis brothers.

[132] The Resnelioğlu family unsuccessfully lobbied the Turkish government in the 1980s-1990s for assistance to have the body of Niyazi exhumed from Vlorë, Albania and reburied in Turkey at the Hill of Eternal Freedom (Hürriyet-i Ebediye Tepesi).