Martyrs' Day (Lebanon and Syria)
The movement resulted in an unlikely union of reform-minded pluralists, Turkish nationalists, Western-oriented secularists and indeed anyone else who accorded the Sultan political blame for the harried state of the empire.
The movement grew and resulted in the Young Turk Revolution, which began on 3 July 1908 and quickly spread throughout the empire.
It was the binding alliance that ultimately led the Ottoman Empire to enter the First World War in August 1914 on the side of the Central Powers (composed of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria) in battling the Triple Entente or the Allied Forces of Britain, France and Russia later joined by the United States.
The Ottoman government abolished Lebanon's semi-autonomous status and appointed Jamal Pasha, then minister of the navy, as the commander in chief of the Turkish forces in Greater Syria, with discretionary powers.
Indeed, in February 1915, frustrated by his unsuccessful attack on the British forces protecting the Suez Canal, Jamal Pasha initiated a blockade of the entire eastern Mediterranean coast to prevent supplies from reaching his enemies.
Because of the growing dissent against Jamal Pasha and the Ottoman Empire, there was a movement on behalf of the Arab nationalists in Greater Syria for an alliance with France and Britain.
The Arab nationalists in Greater Syria, thus, started secretly corresponding with the French Consul in Beirut and explicitly asked the Allies for support.
The French Consul in accordance with the British authorities promised support, ammunition, and future sovereignty to the Arab nationalists, provided they revolt.
A secret agreement was struck between the governments of the United Kingdom and France where they agreed to subdivide the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire (excluding the Arabian peninsula) into areas of future British and French control or influence.
If the allies won the war, the Arab nationalists would never let them divide their lands and rule over them since the promise was to help them gain autonomy.
On May 6, 1916, Jamal Pasha publicly executed seven Arabs in Damascus and fourteen in Beirut simultaneously for alleged anti-Turkish activities.
Martyrs' Square in Beirut has become an even more pivotal landmark for the Lebanese people as it held the famous 2005 Cedar Revolution following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
It is impossible to say what directions the proposed Arab Nationalistic reforms of 1913 would have taken if the war, the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Balfour Declaration had not happened.
The different form of Arab nationalism that came about after World War II is attributable to other factors such as the decline of colonial influence, rather than the constructive hopes of reforms which were debated back in 1913.
