FİRZOVİK TOPLANTILARININ MEŞRUTİYETİN İLANINA KATKISI
THE CONTRIBUTION OF FIRZOVIK MEETING TO CONSTITUTIONAL PROCLAMATION

Summary/Abstract: In June 1908, the non-Muslims’ having fun in a grove triggered the gathering of thousands of Albanians in Firzovik. The call was made by the 18th division Commander Şemsi Pasha who was assigned to suppress the rebellion started by Resneli Niyazi Bey and he wanted to get the support of Albanians. After the spreading news of Austrian troops’ moving over the region, it was renounced that the number of gathering people was almost thirty thousand in a few weeks. The Ottoman Government sent the Kosovo Gendarmerie Commander Colonel Galip Bey to Firzovik to solve the problem upon seeing the increasing crowd day by day. Colonel Galip Bey who started the organization in Skopje, and also was a unionist, caused more Albanians’ coming there instead of distributing the group. Colonel Galip Bey convinced the Albanians that gathered in Firzovik to accept the need of the proclamation of the constitutionalism. A draft of a petition prepared by Colonel Galip Bey, demanding the declaration of constitutionalism in a very short time was signed by eighty people representing the crowd and was sent to Yıldız Palace. Albanians, who reported their demands with a petition to the Sultan, indicated that they swore to march on İstanbul if their request would not be accepted. In these days, Resneli Niyazi Bey’s escape to mountains with the soldiers under his command, the Committee of Union and Progress branches’ telegram to the palace for the declaration of Constitutionalism, and Albanians’ this attitude created a major impact on Abdülhamit II to declare the constitutionalism.

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