The Liberal Universalism of Young Turks

• In Event: Itineraries of Liberalism in the Global South

Abstract

This paper focuses on one of the central aspects of contemporary approaches in political theory, liberal universalism, through the study of the Young Turks’ political thought. The standard interpretation portrays the Young Turks merely as champions of a national cause, limited to overthrowing despotism and re-launching the suspended Constitution of 1876 in the Ottoman Empire. This completely neglects their broader philosophical aim to guarantee peace, order, and union between East and West by adopting Comtian universal positivism, combining it with classical liberalism of Locke and Montesquieu, and French republicanism.
The exiled group of the Young Turks in Paris were remarkably successful in translating their political ideas across countries, not only between France and the Ottoman Empire, but also across the Atlantic, to Latin America. By analysing texts from their official newspapers and the political ideas of Ahmed Rıza, the founder of the Parisian branch, this paper will discuss the vision of the Young Turks that proved so internationally influential, and explain how they might help us think about the transnational transmission of ideas. It will also allow us rethink well-worn tracks of scholarly enquiry that treat Western and other political realms as entirely separate. It reveals how ideas have migrated copiously between distinct geopolitical contexts, casting liberal universalism per se in a new light.

Author

• Banu TURNAOGLU, University of Cambridge