Kemal used the theater to foster political mobilization against the Ottoman government, an attempt which was rigorously suppressed.

Within a week of the debut of Vatan Yahut Silistre, Kemal and some of his comrades of the Young Turk movement were arrested and exiled to Ottoman Cyprus.

When Vatan Yahut Silistre was first staged, the Tiyatro-i Osmani was headed by the Ottoman-Armenian actor and director Hagop Vartovyan (also known as Güllü Agop; 1840–1902).

[4] Ayşan Sönmez narrates:[4]A product of the tanzimat (restructuring) and the constitutional age within which particular, new rights were offered to all peoples of the empire, it is ironic that Vatan Yahut Silistre – staged in the theater directed by Hagop Vartovyan, with a cast of mostly Armenians – seems to have created a kind of patriotic enthusiasm that many suggest triggered the processes of Ottomanization, and eventually Turkification, of Istanbul’s modern theater scene.Vatan Yahut Silistre was printed more than ten times between 1873 and 1972, and was presented on many occasions since its performance up to the present day.

The play received heavy criticism by Murad Bey; however, it was significant for being "the first stage-play having as its subject the Ottoman national virtues".