mocked the religion of Islam and tried to prevent the ordinary soldiers carrying out their religious duties. Thus, dissatisfaction within the Army grew to serious proportions, while the expelled officials and officers formed a significant body ready to rebel against the Government.

Also, there was a general feeling of affront and distrust among the people due to the CUP's lax attitude towards religion. Freedom had speeded up the import of Western culture, manners, and morality, and had led to a decline in moral standards.

And finally was the extreme partisanship of the different parties and societies. The excessive and bitter `war' between the newspapers representing the CUP and their opponents continually exacerbated the situation. Dervis ' Vahdeti cannot be altogether exonerated from this.

• The Revolt

The revolt broke out among one of the Light Infantry battalions which only a few weeks previously had been brought to Istanbul from Salonica as the `Defenders of Freedom'. It started in the middle of the night of 12-13 April. Locking their officers in their rooms, the soldiers took control of the barracks, then poured out into the streets. There, as they made their way to Aya Sophia and the Parliament Building, the throng increased in magnitude as they were joined by other soldiers, medrese students, and members of the public. The shout was for the Seriat. It was daytime by the time they reached Aya Sophia. They surrounded the Parliament and presented their demands. These included the dismissal of the Grand Vizier, the War Minister, and Commander of the Imperial Guards, the removal of Ahmed Riza who had acted as Speaker of the Parliament since the Proclamation of the Constitution, the application in full of the Seriat, the reinstatement of their expelled officers, and a guarantee that the soldiers who had taken part in the rebellion would not be punished.

In the meantime, the rebels had murdered one of the Deputies on the mistaken supposition it was the leading CUP journalist Huseyin Cahid, together with the Justice Minister supposing him to be the Grand Vizier.