YOUNG OTTOMANS

Turkish Yeni Osmanlilar, secret Turkish nationalist organization formed in Istanbul in June 1865. A forerunner of other Turkish nationalist groups (see Young Turks), the Young Ottomans favoured converting the Turkish-dominated multinational Ottoman Empire into a more purely Turkish state and called for the creation of a constitutional government. By 1867 the Young Ottomans had expanded from the original 6 members to 245, including the noted poets Namik Kemal and Ziya Pasa; they were further supported financially and materially by the Egyptian prince Mustafa Fazil and had attracted the attention of the Ottoman princes Murad and Abdlhamid. Exiled for revolutionary activities by the grand vizier li Pasa in 1867, the society established itself in Paris; there it made European contacts and began publishing Hrriyet (Freedom), an inflammatory newspaper, subsequently smuggled into Turkey, calling on the Turkish people to demand a constitution. The return to Istanbul of Mustafa Fazil and Namik Kemal weakened the Young Ottomans, and in 187172, during the amnesty declared after the death of li Pasa, most of them returned to Turkey. The movement, however, had lost its impetus and, except for the isolated activity of such individuals as Namik Kemal, ceased to be a factor in national affairs.