ABSTRACT
Paradoxically, the suppression of the counter-revolution of 13 April 1909 did not lead to an immediate CUP seizure of power, but to a prolonged period of military rule, in the course of which Mahmud Shevket Pasha, the victorious commander of the Action Army, having had himself appointed first inspector general of the three principal army corps (based in Instanbul, Salonica and Edirne) and then minister of war, attempted, in conjunction with the CUP, to reestablish order not only in the army but also in government and society. The steps taken proved initially reasonably successful. But in due course, as the opposition parties, profiting from the support of thousands of discharged army officers, officials and other discontented elements, including the minorities - the minorities for a variety of reasons became disenchanted with the regime - reorganised their forces, the regime suffered a series of reverses, leading first to the defeat of the CUP in the chamber of deputies (the CUP bloc in the chamber split into a series of parties, groups and factions) and then, in the summer of 1912, to the complete exclusion of the organisation from power.
