To Save an Empire by Allan R. Gall

Author:Allan R. Gall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allan R. Gall
Published: 2018-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SEVEN

Mithat Pasha’s agitation grew daily. Announcing the constitution had had no effect on the Constantinople Conference. The culmination of months of work, the signature reform in a life dedicated to changing his country, had been ignored by the Powers.

And Abdülhamit had been a bystander. If Abdülhamit had demanded to meet with the participants and expressed strong personal support for the egalitarian principles of the constitution, the British and the French could not have ignored him. He could have appealed for time to demonstrate his sincerity and the effectiveness of the constitution. But Abdülhamit sat in the palace, read reports, smoked, and drank coffee.

Mithat puzzled over Abdülhamit. He approved change but was unwilling to use it to his advantage. If Abdülhamit did not carry through on the constitution’s provisions, it could only appear to have been a ruse to trick the Europeans.

And there were other priorities, as well, including the empire’s finances. Mithat sent a message to Abdülhamit requesting that the finance minister be dismissed and that he, Mithat, be given permission to examine the ministry’s management and the empire’s financial structure. He promised a plan to get the empire out of debt. The Europeans could always dispute what represented fair treatment of Christians, but the language of economics was not subject to interpretation.

Education was another priority. A democracy needed an educated populace. Without education, the people could not even be proper Muslims or Christians. The religions, as the people practiced and professed them, were rife with centuries of superstition, myth, misapplied rules, prejudice, misinformation, and propaganda. But a sultan who was suspicious of democracy was unlikely to be persuaded by an argument that posited the need for educated, informed voters—much less the need for educated practitioners of their faiths.

Mithat had proposed to Abdülhamit that the first meeting of parliament occur under the eyes of the Constantinople Conference delegates—a bold statement that the conference was an affront to the sovereignty of the Ottoman nation and its people. But days passed without a response from Abdülhamit to this proposal, to several other of his suggested actions, and even to his request for a meeting to discuss these matters. Mithat grew impatient and wrote an uncharacteristically sharp memo to the sultan on January 29, 1877. He reminded Abdülhamit that one purpose of the constitution was to “abolish absolutism.” He noted that Abdülhamit had not responded to his request of nine days earlier for authority to proceed with laws he had proposed. Perhaps, Mithat suggested, the sultan might want to entrust the position of grand vizier to someone else.

In his response, Abdülhamit requested that Mithat come to the palace. The orders authorizing his requests were being prepared, and Abdülhamit desired to give the documents to him personally. He would expect him just after the Sunset Prayer on February 5.

Mithat sent a quick message to his journalist friend, Namık Kemal. “Prepare, my friend. We are about to change our country.”

On the morning of February 5, Mithat went to his office in the grand vizierate. He was preparing for the authorities the sultan had promised.

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