Chapter Fifty-Six: Scandal and Conflict (1934-1937)
Sedad Hakkim Bey became one of the first modern 'celebrities' in the Ottoman Empire in 1934
Even as the Ottoman Empire had enjoyed its period of cultural bliss and rapidly increasing standards of living in the early 1930s, the seeds for its later troubles had been being sewn. And yet as 1934 began, absolutely none of this was apparent to the world, and the Porte was continuing to bask in the success of its archaeological excavations in Ethiopia, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Sedad Hakkim Bey, the leading archaeologist on the Tower of Babel excavation project, had achieved worldwide renown for his work, and with the Propaganda Ministry keen to cash in, Hakkim Bey soon became one of the first ‘celebrities’ in Ottoman history – with his weekly talks on Ottoman radio fascinating the nation, and the Ottoman press following him everywhere he went. Archaeology was all the rage in 1934, and it would take something dramatic to seize its mantle as the main news story. Of course, eventually that story would appear.
Sedad Hakkim Bey begins his weekly radio show that further catapults him into his position of global fame
Whilst not apparent at the time, Grand Vizier Mustafa Kemal Pasha’s humbling in the 1930 election had caused two long-term effects which together culminated in a severe shock for the Sublime Porte, political upheaval in the Ottoman Empire, and an international incident with tragic consequences. The first, and the more immediately noticeable, was that Mustafa Kemal himself had turned to alcohol more than ever as a clutch to his low moods. He had always been fond of a drink – and perhaps always a bit too much so – but after the 1930 election this had become an almost nightly occurrence. For the most part this was hidden from public view, but he became somewhat notorious in Cabinet for it, and this only helped to further erode his political authority. While the political situation was calm, no one was willing to rock the boat over it. But when the storm came, the Grand Vizier was not in the shape to respond that he once had been.
And yet still as the campaigning season for the 1934 Ottoman election had got underway, there was no sign of what was to come. Yes, Kazim Pasha’s leadership had seen the conservative Osmanli Demokrat Firkasi restored to something of a fighting force instead of the political joke it had become after its 1930 horror show. And yes, socialist leader Mustafa Ismet Pasha’s leadership of the opposition had won him much respect whilst successfully bringing the question of land reform to the forefront of Ottoman politics – so much so that Deputy Vizier & Sosyal Demokrat Firkasi leader Rauf Bey had shown signs of backing it himself – But the ruling Hürriyet ve Itilâf Firkasi were nonetheless expected to coast to another comfortable electoral victory in 1934. Why rock the boat during a period of such prosperity? Until, of course, the Census Affair broke.
Talaat Pasha, friend and loyalist of Murat Pasha, triggered national notoriety during the Census Affair
Murat Pasha had once been the chosen heir of former Grand Vizier Pertev Pasha. A military general with an exemplary reputation forged in the Third Great War, Pertev had chosen him to lead the Hürriyet ve Itilâf Firkasi when he planned to stand down. Murat’s lacklustre oratory performances and dull personality failed to connect with the public however, and poor results in the 1921 elections saw Mustafa Kemal Pasha snatch his chance at the top job. Murat had thereafter been relegated to a series of minor Cabinet roles and then the parliamentary backbenches, and was due to retire from politics entirely at the age of 68 in 1934. He had however always maintained a loyal cadre within the ruling party, and when Mustafa Kemal Pasha had been briefly threatened as leader after the 1930 election, Murat had been one of the suggested candidates who could have stepped in to steady the ship. This had eventually fizzled out as Mustafa Kemal clung on, but Murat's restoration to public attention did see his allies take over a number of minor committee positions – including the ministry in charge of the Ottoman Census.
Whether Murat himself was involved in what followed is a matter of historical debate, but in May 1934 an investigation by a leading Ottoman newspaper uncovered a trail of corruption relating to census data being misused to buy votes with government funds. The reports quickly led to the arrest of Talaat Pasha, the Murat loyalist in charge of the Census office, but further damaging reports linking ruling liberal party members to smuggling operations – including historical artefacts from the booming archaeological industry – led to a series of extremely damaging headlines throughout May and June of 1934. Other arrests followed, and the result was that Deputy Vizier Rauf Bey publicly broke with Mustafa Kemal Pasha and took his Sosyal Demokrat Firkasi out of the ruling coalition, decrying the Hürriyet ve Itilâf Firkasi as corrupt and publicly stating that the Grand Vizier was too drunk to notice what was going on in his own party.
The Census Affair is brought to national attention, severely damaging the reputation of the ruling party (May 12th 1934)
Had Mustafa Kemal Pasha not lost so much authority after 1930, perhaps the stain of corruption would never have seeped into his party. Equally, had Murat Pasha kept a closer eye on his associates, maybe he too could have prevented what occurred. But with both of the biggest names in the party being torn to shreds by the media in the month leading up to the 1934 election, the results were as predictable as they were devastating for the liberals. The Hürriyet ve Itilâf Firkasi had been the leading party of government for 34 straight years since the 1900 election that had broken the previous conservative dominance of Ottoman politics. For many younger people, the Freedom and Accord Party was the only ruling party they had ever known, and the modern democracy in the Ottoman Empire was intrinsically tied to them. But the Census Affair had destroyed trust in them, and when the country went to the polls, the ruling party was on the brink of disaster.
The results of the 1934 Ottoman election (July 1st 1934)
As it turned out, that residual respect kept them from total annihilation on Election Day. The Hürriyet ve Itilâf Firkasi still won a respectable 216 seats from the available 850; a loss of just 42, and enough to make them the joint second largest party. However, as the months after the election wore on and further allegations continued to come to light, this would actually prove the fact that the election came so soon after the Census Affair breaking was an advantage for them. And by the time the further allegations broke, the liberals were out of the Sublime Porte.
The big winners of the election were Rauf Bey’s Sosyal Demokrat Firkasi. His decision to turn on his coalition partners and seize control of the narrative against them stole the thunder from the opposition socialists and saw the Social Liberals make a significant gain of 27 seats for a total of 264; leaving them clearly the largest party. The socialist Osmanli Ahali Firkasi (Ottoman People’s Party) on the other hand had a disappointing election and gained just 3 seats for 216; equal second with the liberals. This disappointment was however tempered by the sweetness of a return to government: Rauf Bey’s burning of bridges with the liberals had made the socialists the only plausible coalition partner. Mustafa Ismet Pasha was able to take the Deputy Vizier position, and the socialists also found themselves in control of the Interior Ministry, the Housing Ministry, and both the Air and the Transport briefs. Rauf Bey also agreed to many of Mustafa Ismet’s land reform proposals as part of the coalition negotiations; and an agreement was soon signed between the two parties to form a government.
Sosyal Demokrat Firkasi leader Rauf Bey becomes the first social liberal Grand Vizier (July 3rd 1934)
Elsewhere in the opposition, the conservative Osmanli Demokrat Firkasi made significant gains of 33 seats for a total of 46: Their best result since the 1921 election, though still a long way short of their former dominance. They also failed to take the mantle of the largest party of the right from Young Turk affiliated Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti, who gained 9 seats for a total of 60 – another new record. The other big losers however were the libertarian Ahrar Firkasi (Freedom Party); which suffered greatly following the retirement of their popular and well-known leader Nurettin Ferruh Bey and failed to find a replacement with any recognition whatsoever. Their return of just 5 seats was a loss of 53 and saw them sink from fourth largest party in the Ottoman parliament down to the smallest of all represented parties.
The Islamist Teceddüt Firkasi (Renewal Party) also gained a single seat in the vilayet of Sudd in the Sudan (a full voting vilayet for the first time) for a total of 16, but the other big story was the long-feared (or long-awaited, depending your view) electoral breakthrough of the communist Ihtilalci Avam Firkasi (Revolutionary Commoners Party), who gained 22 seats for a total of 27: Their best ever results by some margin. The fact that the communists and the fascists had both scored record results was met with dismay by many moderates, but given the damaging allegations that had come to light it also surprised very few. The quick formation of the new government ensured both radical fringes were kept very much in the opposition; but the communist breakthrough also ensured that the new government would face challenging opposition from both flanks – and indeed much stronger opposition than was provided by the Hürriyet ve Itilâf Firkasi, which fell into a period of infighting and factional civil war following the resignation of Mustafa Kemal Pasha.
Mustafa Kemal Pasha's thirteen year tenure as Grand Vizier steered the Porte through a period of great change
Mustafa Kemal had been the longest serving Grand Vizier for centuries; and his achievements in abolishing the Millet System had reshaped the very foundations of the Ottoman state; but his premiership had ended under a cloud, and his legacy was damaged as a result – whilst still highly respected, he would not achieve the universal acclaim of his predecessor Pertev Pasha – something he may have managed to match had he stood down after the 1930 election. Mustafa Kemal was also in poor health by 1934, and while he retired to write his memoirs, he would not live to see the end of the decade – though he would live long enough to see the great era of peace he had presided over end, and the unleashing of the dogs of war once more.
As it was, newly promoted Grand Vizier Rauf Bey had fully intended to steer a foreign policy course which was uncontroversial and followed the same course as Mustafa Kemal had. The alliance with the Kingdom of France would remain the bedrock of Ottoman foreign policy; and while the alliance with China had undergone some challenges following the death of President Duan Qirui and his replacement by Chiang Kai-Shek of the Kuomintang Faction, it too remained strong. The socialists were heavily opposed to foreign adventuring in general, and it was anticipated that the new government would be focused entirely on domestic matters. Land reform was of course high on the agenda; although the most immediate legislation saw a tightening of Health and Safety regulations and a further expansion of the National Arts Endowment. But as 1935 approached, Mustafa Ismet Pasha’s land reform proposals were finally greenlit by Rauf Bey, and the program thus began.
Health and Safety Regulations are tightened swiftly after the new government takes power (July 23rd 1934)
The National Arts Endowment receives further expansion (July 22nd 1935)
The Land Reform program of Mustafa Ismet Pasha saw the Ottoman state take up huge swathes of private land; and by the end of 1935 almost 80% of land in the Empire was directly owned by the state. The great landowners of the aristocracy found their lands increasingly taken over by the nationalisations; though the Interior Ministry generally allowed former landowners to remain as tenants on low rents, and they resisted the policies of collectivisation touted by the communists. The massive expansion of state land most notably helped usher in a period of huge housing expansion; as families who were previously crowded together with multiple generations under the same roof were now able to move into their own properties under the social housing policy. Though they did not own the properties, the rents required by the state were far below the market average and helped ensure that the social housing was occupied not only by the working class but also by large portions of the middle classes too; avoiding the stigma that the previous forms of Social Housing had often carried. Economically, the new government took a much more interventionist approach than the laissez-faire approach touted by the liberals; with key military industries often receiving subsidies when going through difficult spells, and state funds also being used to expand fledgling industries with perceived high potential.
Unfortunately for the new government; the period of peace that had followed the end of the Third Great War was soon to end. While the Porte had fought in some minor engagements since then in Iraq and Africa; the Ottoman Empire had not been involved in a major conflict with another Great Power for almost 20 years prior to the Bushire Incident. The Sublime Porte had been pleased to see other social liberal parties win the elections in both Russia and Persia in recent years, and hopes of a general détente with the old enemies were shared by all three governments. So when the Ottoman military steamer the SS Istanbul exploded in Bushire Harbour in Persia on June 7th 1936, the Sublime Porte was initially slow to react while a military investigation took place.
The explosion and sinking of the SS Istanbul in Bushire Harbour triggers an international incident (June 7th 1936)
The Ottoman press, on the other hand, was quick to denounce the Persian government as having sabotaged the vessel in an act of blatant aggression. By the time the military investigation had concluded that an overheated boiler was most likely to blame, the damage was already done. The Ottoman populace; stirred up first by the press and then even more so by the Young Turks, was soon baying for blood. The conservatives and the liberals also capitalised on the crisis by pouring doubt on the official explanation, and by July the Sublime Porte was forced to bow to the opposition and issue a demand to the Persian government to allow an Ottoman investigation team with authority to interview any Persian citizen it deemed necessary entrance into Persia. The Persian government, backed by the Russians, refused to accept this insult to their sovereignty, and anti-Ottoman articles soon began to appear in the Persian and Russian presses too. As 1936 wore on, numerous border incidents occurred on both the Ottoman-Russian borders and on the Ottoman-Persian border too.
Whilst the Sublime Porte had initially sought a peaceful escape from the conflict, the ruling Sosyal Demokrat Firkasi were increasingly incensed by the Persian responses and provocations – so much so that by the start of 1937 the Grand Vizier himself was now in favour of war. The only thing preventing him was the opposition of his socialist coalition partners; but following a campaign of factory sabotage across the Empire that the factory owners had initially blamed upon militant socialist trade unionists, the socialists began to suspect that the Russians may be behind these, too. Worried that this would only drive workers who were blamed unfairly into the arms of the communists, the socialists began to signal that they too would accept a war. Rauf Bey signalled the Ottoman high command to begin preparations for war, and following further border incidents in the spring of 1937 he issued an ultimatum to the Persian government: Either they accepted the Ottoman investigation proposal within 24 hours, or the Sublime Porte would have no choice but to declare war. The 24 hour deadline came and passed without reply. War was upon us once again.
The Persian refusal of the Ottoman ultimatum forces the Sublime Porte to declare war (May 14th 1937)
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