An important Young Turk press in Egypt, it was responsible for numerous problems between the Young Turks and the Ottoman government and among the Young Turks themselves.
A document bearing the seal of Ottoman High Commissioner in Egypt Ahmed Muhtar and the date 5 Safar 1320/13 May 1902 indicates that the Osmanli Press was established by Rodoslu Salih Cemal in 1311 or 1312." The document also points to the following developments at the press: the khedive had recently provided 1,000 lira to some refugees from Istanbul so that they would leave Egypt, but these had given 200 lira of the money to Salih Cemal to open a press so that they could continue their publishing activities; the press had printed numerous works denouncing Istanbul and was acting as though it were an arm of the Young Turks in Geneva; after two years Tunali Hilmi had come to Egypt and initiated an audit of the press, which had driven Salih Cemal to declare that it was his personal property and had no links to the Young Turks Association; the matter therefore went to court, with the outcome that Salih Cemal continued to run the press at his own expense,12 during which period the press continued to keep the archives of its opposition materials. Another individual co-owned the press with Salih Cemal for a period; however, this partner was pardoned by the khedive and agreed to return to Istanbul.13 The khedive applied pressure to the Young Turk members in Egypt to force them to leave and thus guarantee improved relations with the sultan. He attempted to close the Osmanli Press and send the papers kept there to Istanbul, compelling a naval officer named Riza Effendi to become Salih Cemal’s partner in the press and then fomenting a disagreement between the two of them and compelling the officer to take Cemal to court. As a result of the case for confiscation brought by Riza Effendi, the court sealed the press with red wax.14 With the help of Lord Cromer, the British High Commissioner, however, Young Turk members were able to intervene before any of the secret papers at the press fell into the hands of the khedive’s men, and thus succeeded in extracting themselves from that predicament too. Cromer ignored the court’s decision and ordered the police to cordon off the press and break the seals. They then took the papers that were inside and sent them to England, thus preventing them from falling into the hands of Sultan Abdulhamid II. In a statement on the affair in which he gave his political justifications for ignoring the court’s decision, Cromer said:
Had the political papers at the press become public, it would have cost their authors their lives. The khedive’s men had been trying for two years to get hold of these papers. If they had fallen into the khedive’s hands and he had managed to send them to the sultan, the latter would have been able to discover the names of the members of the secret society in Turkey.15
Following this, there was talk of selling the Osmanli Press to the Ottoman government, but this did not come about.16
The novel Jonler (The Young Turks) by Bekir Fahri, who gained entree to the Young Turks in Cairo and depicted their lives and the conflicts that arose among their different factions there quite realistically, is certainly an important source for an understanding of events. This literary text casts light on the post-1897 phase, and especially the period from August 1900 to May 1901 during which the novel is set. It depicts the activities in Cairo of leading Young Turk personalities, such as Tunali Hilmi, Hoca Kadri, Salih Cemal, Ali Kemal, Tarsusizade Munif, and Damad Mahmud Celaleddin Pasha, and sketches scenes from their lives.17 The novel depicts the lives of misery and suffering led by some Young Turks and the lives of opulence and luxury enjoyed by some of the others. It also draws a picture, throbbing with vitality and action, of the Kanun-i Esasi (or Osmanli) Press and its owner Salih Cemal (Arif Cemil in the novel), and recounts the disputes, differences, and rumors that erupted in Cairo at that time and the background of conflict and struggle against which these took place.18
The Osmanli Press printed six Turkish books as well as certain issues of newspapers—Kanun-i Esasi (The Constitution) (1898-99), Sancak (The Banner), Havdtir (Thoughts), Hakk-i Sarih (The Clear Truth) (1900), and Mecmua-i Kemal (Kemal’s Miscellany) (1901). The first Turkish book that the Osmanli Press printed between 1315/1897 and 1318/1900 was a comic dictionary written by Ali Bey under the title Lehcet el-hakdyik (The Language of Truths). Four of the others were on historical topics, and the last bore the title Damad Halilpa§azade Damad Mahmud Pa§a ’nin e§ ‘dri (The Poems of Damad Mahmud Pasha son of Damad Halil Pasha). The same press also printed four other Turkish books under the name Kanun-i Esasi Matbaasi (The Constitution Press), all of them in 1315/1897.
World History
