Prince Sabahaddin's Efforts to Prevent the Ottoman State from Participating in the World War I with Germany

Abstract

Prince Sabahaddin Bey, together with his father Damad Mahmud Celaleddin, ran counter to his uncle Abdulhamid II. and played an important role in the foundation and progress of The Unity and Progress Commitee. However, after the declaration of the Second Constitutionalism he fell apart with the CUP administration and took his place in opposition rows. He was pointed out as the chief responsible for the 31 Mart Events and the assasination against Mahmud Sevket Pasa. Prince Sabahaddin, who did not approve the attitude of Said Hilim Pasha administration before The First World War, wrote three letters in total on the exact time when an alliance treaty was being signed with Germany; one letter to Sultan Mehmed Reshad and two letters to Interior Minister Talat Bey. In these letters he stresses that the neutrality must have been preserved at all events and must have not been trusted upon the news coming from Germany and they must have avoid entering the war insistently. A copy of letter written to Sultan Reshad V.is published in summary by Mehmet Alkan and Nezahat Nurettin Ege. However, the letters written to Talat Bey which are aforementioned have not been published. In this study, taking the Ottoman Language and English versions of aforementioned three letters in Basbakanhk Osmanh Arsiv, we are going to try to explain the activities of Prince Sabahaddin to avoid Ottoman State from participating The World War I.