Young Turks

The Young Turks (Turkish: Jön Türkler, from French: Les Jeunes Turcs, or Turkish: Genç Türkler) were a Turkish nationalist reform party in the early 20th century, favoring reformation of the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman Empire. Officially known as the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP; Turkish: Ýttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti), their leaders led a rebellion against the absolute rule of Sultan Abdulhamid II in the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. With this revolution, the Young Turks helped to establish the Second Constitutional Era in 1908, and the Committee of Union and Progress, based on the ideas of the Young Turks, ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1908 until the end of World War I in November 1918.

Like other revolutionary societies, the Young Turks had their origins in secret societies of "progressive medical university students and military cadets", namely the Young Ottomans, driven underground along with all political dissent after the Ottoman constitution of 1876 was abolished and the First Constitutional Era brought to a close by Abdulhamid II in 1878 after only two years. The Committee of Union and Progress favored a re-installation of the short-lived constitution of 1876, written by the progressive Midhat Pasha.

In 1913, the top leadership of the Committee of Union and Progress seized personal power in the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état. The CUP-led government was headed by Minister of the Interior and Grand Vizier, Talaat Pasha (1874–1921). Working with him were Minister of War, Enver Pasha (1881–1922), and Minister of the Navy, Djemal Pasha (1872–1922). Until German archives were opened, historians treated the Three Pashas' government as a "dictatorial triumvirate". Recently, it has been found that the party was rent by internal disagreements and loosely headed by a large number of the party's central committee. During World War I, the CUP leadership was responsible for the Armenian Genocide, which consisted of deportation and death marches into the Syrian Desert along with massacres of 1.5 million ethnic Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire.

The term "Young Turks" has come to signify progressive, revolutionary, or rebellious members of an organization, especially ones agitating for radical reform.