Ottomanism – the Young Turks Committee of Union and Progress (CUP)

The Young Turks Committee of Union and Progress was more commonly known as CUP. The Union was filled with young Turkish captains and officers who had rapidly taken over the government and monarchist rule that existed within the Ottoman Empire near its decline. The military supported such a move since the Young Turks had aimed at changing the current military and political systems that were practiced. Moreover, the Young Turks were more adamant on changing the central justice system, known as the Sharia and changed the Islamic state order to a more democratic and Western styled order. Moreover, the Young Turks committee of Union and Progress also progressed in allowing equal rights for all religions and races as well as ethnic groups and minorities that lived within the Ottoman Empire. They did this so as to maintain the Empire from further declining and losing grip over its regions and territories. They faced losses in the Balkan wars, which led minorities within the Ottoman Empire seeking independence. Such a situation caused Pan-Turkism, referring to all Turkic people, as well as Turkism, referring to the Anatolian core of the Ottoman Empire. The Young Turks dismantled and displaced many Arab noble families that had been established in the Ottoman Empire for a long time. Such actions saw Arabism take place as numerous Arabs started to feel like the Ottoman Empire was centralizing the government and they wanted it decentralized so that their cultures and traditions could be maintained within their own lands, even though they still preferred the Ottoman Empire to maintain the Empire.