1912 Ottoman coup d'état

The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) was a revolutionary group that instigated the Young Turk Revolution and the Second Constitutional Era.

The 31 March Incident (13 April 1909) was an attempt to dismantle the Second Constitutional Monarchy and to restore the Sultan-Caliph Abdul Hamid II his powers.

The countercoup was put down by a constitutionalist force which marched on the capital: the Action Army (Hareket Ordusu), and Abdul Hamid II was deposed for his half-brother Mehmed V. While the CUP was back in power and purged reactionaries from government, it was not fully in control, and elements in the country became alarmed at the manner in which the CUP was becoming increasingly authoritarian.

When Tripolitanian MPs proposed to put him on trial for failing to stop Italian occupation of the area, the CUP blocked the motion, increasing partisanship.

Said Pasha again introduced a constitutional amendment to the Chamber that would give the Sultan prerogative to dissolve parliament, and it was again blocked by Freedom and Accord.

However the CUP employed electoral fraud and violence at a massive scale, winning all but 15 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, to the point that it was known as the "election of clubs".

By June, Colonel Sadık and staff major Gelibolulu Kemal (later surnamed Şenkil) would form the Saviour Officers (Halâskâr Zâbitân) clique, and requested President of the Ottoman Assembly Halil Bey to disband the CUP dominated parliament.

[5][7] When the officers published a manifesto in the press and a message to the sultan, and ostensibly prepared to march on the capital, Said Pasha's finally resigned.

Gazi Ahmed Muhtar Pasha, a war hero, was finally selected, with the hope that his appointment would stop partisanship in the army.

[5] Muhtar Pasha's government, known as the "Great Cabinet", included prestigious statesmen, and they easily received a vote of confidence.

In January 1913, the leadership of the CUP staged a coup, forcing the Freedom and Accord government of Kâmil Pasha to resign at gunpoint.