Ahmed Niyazi Bey (1873–1913) (; ; "Ahmet Niyazi Bey from Resen") was an Ottoman revolutionary who was the bey of the Resne (now Resen, North Macedonia) area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. An ethnic Albanian, Niyazi was one of the heroes of the 1908 Young Turk Revolution and of suppressing the 1909 countercoup as he played leading roles in both events. Niyazi is also known for the Saraj, a French-style estate he built in Resne.
Life Early years and education
Ahmed Niyazi Bey was born to a Tosk Albanian landowning family from Resne in 1873. His father was Abdullah Aga. Niyazi was educated at the Ottoman Civil Service Academy, and later at the Military High School in Monastir (modern Bitola). Many years later, he stated that he transferred to the Monastir school out of a desire to be taught by some of its instructors, who "[advocated] love for humanity, patria, progress, and society." In his memoirs, Niyazi would recall that as a student in the 1880s he had heard Ottoman and French stories of patriotism, and been strongly influenced by them. He credited these stories, and the teachers who told them, with inculcating ideas of loyalty and love of country in him. He was particularly influenced by the Ottoman writer Namık Kemal; according to Niyazi, Kemal was frequently referred to when they discussed global issues.
After completing his secondary schooling in Monastir, Niyazi studied at the Ottoman War Academy between 1894 and 1897. Like many other students who would eventually rise to hold officer ranks in the army, he received training from the German military, and developed a degree of respect for Germany. While studying in Istanbul, he was again exposed to the writing of Kemal, despite the fact that they were banned because they questioned the authoritarianism of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Abdul Hamid had dissolved parliament and governed alone. According to Niyazi, Kemal's works inspired him; "an intoxicating patriotism prepared my heart, my innocent heart, for revolutions...", he later wrote. After reading Kemal's work, he told his friends that their education lacked patriotism. In 1896, Niyazi also renovated and upgraded the Haji Murat Mosque of Resne, built in 1612, with the rooms of the ground floor reserved for schooling and the remaining space for prayers. "Џамијата Хаџи Мурати (Горна Џамија), се наоѓа во северниот дел на градот, изградена во 1612 година на приземје, реновирана и надградена во 1896 година од Ахмет Нијази беј, со намена приземните простории да се користат ѕа училиште, а катот за молитви."
Young Turk membership and early military career During his time training at the Istanbul War Academy, a fellow Ottoman officer Ismail Enver Bey initiated Niyazi into the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) movement. He became a lieutenant (mülazım) and joined the Ottoman army at a young age in 1896. Niyazi fought with distinction during the Greco-Turkish War (1897), in particular at the Battle of Beşpınar in Epirus, and returned to Istanbul with prisoners of war. Sultan Abdul Hamid II proposed that Niyazi become his aide-de-camp at the palace. Niyazi refused the offer due to the government campaign launched against suppressing the CUP and decided to return home. Among the CUP of his time, Niyazi became disillusioned with exiled opposition figure Murad Bey after he reconciled with the sultan and took a government position following an amnesty for Young Turk members. Niyazi despised the despotism of the sultan and nepotism at the royal court, where ranks and other positions were given at times to people with close social connections.
Between 1899 and 1903 Niyazi was stationed in Ohri as an officer in charge of the ammunition depot in a company of reservists. During his time there he monitored the preparations of the Macedo-Bulgarians for an uprising and noticed how various Russian and Bulgarian missionaries, teachers, officers and advisers contributed to the organisation of this revolt. Through the press and his correspondence with Mecduddin Efendi, a captain based in Izmir, Niyazi followed the activities of the Young Turks within Europe, in particular the decisions and split of the CUP First Congress in Paris (1902). In August 1903, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (IMRO) staged an uprising against the Ottomans in Macedonia and Niyazi was assigned to the third regiment of the Ottoman Third Army. During these events he had an active role in the Monastir branch of the CUP with his status raised to war hero and had gained great notoriety among the Muslim Albanian population of Macedonia. Beginning from 1904 and for five years prior to the revolution he served in an Ottoman chasseur battalion becoming renown for the effective pursuit of bandits in mountainous terrain. Niyazi became committed to the ideas of Ahmet Rıza Bey, a CUP member who advocated for constitutional restoration through revolution and was against foreign intervention in the empire or reforms for a specific community based on preferential treatment.
Military service and a deteriorating security situation in Macedonia affected individuals such as Niyazi who felt that the plight of local Muslims was little known and like other peoples in the region had experienced attacks due to guerrilla activity. He was influenced by reforms implemented in the region by the empire under pressure from the Great Powers after the Ilinden revolt of 1903. Niyazi thought that European powers were pushing Ottoman Christians into uprisings against the state to defeat the empire and wanted to prevent the development of propaganda by the Russians and Austrians in Macedonia. He felt that Ottomans were viewed negatively in the West and that the Great Powers did not care about the majority Muslim population of Macedonia, as they wanted to partition the empire. Niyazi and his colleagues preferred to preserve the empire with all its multiethnic and multireligious population and denounced attacks by reactionary Muslims against Christians, yet they had limited knowledge of Ottoman politics.
Coming from an area where the strongest supporters of the Young Turks among Albanians in the Balkans originated from central and southern Macedonia, those events motivated Niyazi to become part of the CUP. He became an army captain (kolağası). The position was obtained for him by the CUP through its powerful underground influence in government and Niyazi was stationed in Resne where the committee thought he could be most useful toward the cause. At Resne he played an influential role in recruiting people into the CUP. In military operations against bands, Niyazi's actions were done on behalf of the CUP instead of the Ottoman government. Niyazi had a reputation of being an Albanian with close connections to other Albanians living in Macedonia, possessed strong authority among fellow Muslims in the area where he resided and could communicate with them as he spoke both Albanian (his mother tongue) and Turkish.
Young Turk Revolution (1908)
Planning for revolution
Niyazi was an important member of the councils held by the Young Turks. Starting from March 1908 some soldiers initiated mutinies after the CUP organised meetings and encouraged them to demand better work conditions. Niyazi stated that troops who achieved redress attributed their success to the committee. CUP publications calling for action against the sultan and prevention of foreign occupation like Şura-yı Ümmet, Mechveret Supplement Français and Ahmed Rıza's pamphlet on the army influenced junior officers such as Niyazi who described their "extraordinary impact in illuminating minds". Following a meeting in Reval between Tsar Nicholas II and Edward VII (9-12 June 1908) rumors of a partition of Macedonia through imminent Russo-British intervention spread and were accelerated by the CUP, whereas Niyazi took it as a signal to act immediately. At the time Niyazi heard rumors regarding the Reval meeting and experienced three sleepless nights that left him "flushed with anxiety and excitement" which shaped his conviction that he "found salvation in sacrifice and death". He discussed matters with the local CUP membership and the CUP Monastir branch that followed on with a decision by Niyazi to form a band and head into the mountains.
On 28 June 1908 Niyazi at his home advised Hoca Cemal Efendi, the mayor and Tahir Efendi, the police commissioner of Resne to form a band and on 29 June repeated those calls to a larger group of Muslims where he inscribed on his hat the words "Hürriyet ya da ölüm" (freedom or death). The group was placed under the direction of the CUP. Niyazi modeled his guerrilla band on Bulgarian, Serb and Greek bands operating in Macedonia that had been formed in the preceding decade in the region. In his memoirs Niyazi wrote that he formed his CUP band on 28 June 1908, yet for some time before that he had been giving confiscated weapons from Macedo-Bulgarian villages to fellow members as CUP headquarters planned to mobilise bands from mid-June. Cemal Efendi, as the mayor of Resen, a spiritual leader (Sufi cleric) and a member of the Young Turks had traveled to Monastir for talks with its CUP branch about the details of action to be taken and had obtained approval.
Start of revolution
In July the CUP conspiracy involving Niyazi was uncovered by the military mufti of the Ottoman Third Army stationed in Monastir. The mufti, a palace spy and police agent was shot and wounded to stop him from reporting back to Istanbul. A military commission was sent from Istanbul to investigate subversion within the army in the area. Fearing discovery on 3 July 1908 Niyazi spread rumors of an approaching Bulgarian band and lured out most of the Resne garrison and its commanding officers from the town. In Resne, as some other officers were attending Friday prayers, Niyazi along with mayor Cemal Efendi, police commissioner Tahir Efendi, tax commissioner Tahsin Effendi and two hundred men raided the military depot. From the Resne depot they seized fifteen boxes of ammunition, seventy rifles that were given to volunteers and 600 Ottoman liras from the garrison safe that was divided among people within the band. All escaped from Resne into the nearby mountains from where Niyazi initiated the Young Turk Revolution and issued a proclamation that called for the restoration of the constitution of 1876 without specifically mentioning the CUP. On the night prior to his departure Niyazi entrusted the care of his family to his brother in law Ismail Hakki Bey, an Albanian national awakening figure.
Initially composed of 160-240 volunteers (mostly of Albanian descent), Niyazi's band was named the CUP Resne National battalion. The group consisted of civilian supporters who were in the belief that they were in pursuit of a Bulgarian band and CUP members involved in plotting the revolution from 28 June. Nine soldiers from Niyazi's battalion participated and once in the mountains thirty more volunteers from the Prespa region joined. Later, the initial reason of pursuing a Macedo-Bulgarian band was discarded and Niyazi informed his troops and volunteers that there was no such band and four of his soldiers left and returned to the Resne barracks. Niyazi's band grew to 500 troops at the end of the first week and was joined by 800 armed civilians in the mountains. In short time the band was joined by two more officers, other officials and people from the Prespa region.