Miralay Sadık Bey

Mehmet Sâdık Bey, also known as Miralay Sâdık, (1860–1941), was a soldier and politician in the late Ottoman Empire who became a fierce opponent of the Committee of Union of Progress.

Early life He was born in Constantinople, in 1860. His father was the well-known religious scholar Filibeli Abdullah Efendi, a high ranking Islamic teacher. His family was originally from Bursa, but eventually moved to Filibe (Plovdiv).

He graduated from the Military Academy in 1882 as a cavalry lieutenant, serving in Syria, Tripoli and Macedonia.

In 1906, while he was a Miralay (colonel) and a cavalry regiment officer in Monastir, he joined the Committee of Union and Progress, upon the recommendation of Kâzım Karabekir. Sâdık ran a secret Unionist newspaper called Neyyir-i Hakikat, recruited many officers into the committee, and became head of the organization's Monastir branch. He participated in the Young Turk Revolution, having an essential role in the assassination of Shemsi Pasha, and sent telegrams to the capital from Monastir demanding the reinstatement of the constitution. 110 out of 160 Union and Progress deputies supported the faction, and were opposed to the left-wing faction: the Progress Party (Turkish: Hizb-i Terraki). Sâdık met with Talât, and stipulated that at minimum, the CUP had to withdraw from the government and the parliament. The New Party presented its views to the CUP in a ten-point program on April 23, 1911:

Deputies should not seek privileges and special interests Deputies should be separated from civil servants Deputies should become ministers by secret ballot and by obtaining a 2/3's majority in parliament Laws should be obeyed and attention should be paid to the responsibilities of ministers Efforts should be made to unite ethnic elements in the Ottoman country, and trade, agriculture, industry and education should be advanced in proportion to need Religious and national morality and traditions should be protected, but they should be developed by taking the good aspects of Western civilization Ottoman traditions should be maintained and kept in accordance with the Constitution The appointment and dismissal of civil servants should be given a serious status In order to strengthen the rights of the sultan, changes should be made in the relations between the legislative, executive and judicial powers in the Constitution The actions of associations established for secret and special purposes should be prohibited

The crisis was resolved with a compromise when some demands of the New Party were accepted at the 1911 CUP congress. This included the resignation of Talât and other CUP hardliners from the government. Hüseyin Cahit in his memoirs described the influence of Sâdık and the New Party: “If the faction issue prepared by Colonel Sâdık Bey and his friends had succeeded as desired, Union and Progress would then have disintegrated and been destroyed.”

Sâdık was then sent away to Salonica by the Minister of War Mahmut Şevket Pasha on 1 May 1911. There he published a manifesto attacking the CUP and the military. In his declaration, he urged the military to withdraw from politics and that the CUP should either remain as a guardian of the constitutional monarchy (nigâhbân-ı meşrutiyet) or become a full-fledged political party. Following this declaration, he was retired from the military on 24 May 1911, with the rank of colonel, on the grounds that he was “not fit for military service.”

Opposition to the CUP When Sâdık returned to Istanbul he was among the founders of the Freedom and Accord Party (founded on 21 November 1911), which quickly absorbed most of the previously existing opposition parties. He was invited to join the party by a group of liberal politicians which became known as the Münevvers Group: Lütfi Fikri, Rıza Nur, Rıza Tevfik and Ahmet Reşit, as they recognized the need to have support in the army.

On 24 November 1911, Damat Ferit Pasha was elected as the party president and Sâdık Bey as the party vice president. However shortly after the party's establishment, Sâdık started having disagreements with the Münevvers Group, especially the many decisions he made without consulting the authorized boards of the party. Even before the 1912 general election, it was expected that he and his supporters would defect and found a new party called Ottoman Union (İttihâd-ı Osmanî), but Sâdık denied this. Following the CUP's victory in the 1912 election, which went down in history as the "election of clubs" he spearheaded the 1912 Ottoman coup d'état by organizing a clique of pro-Freedom and Accord officers in the military, known as the Savior Officers, demanding the resignation of the CUP-government.

Activities during the Turkish War of Independence Over the course of World War I, he maintained close relations with the British. Following the Armistice of Mudros and the liquidation of the CUP he requested to Damat Ferid Pasha to allow for his return to the Ottoman Empire; abroad he was experiencing serious financial difficulties and debts. He returned to Istanbul on 8 May 1919. The Freedom and Accord Party was re-established in early 1919 under the leadership of Müşir Nuri Pasha. As soon as Sâdık returned to Istanbul, he took over the party leadership with the confidence he received from party branches without holding any party congress. After the occupation of Izmir, he participated in the Sultanat Council that convened in Istanbul on 26 May 1919, as the president of the Freedom and Accord Party. He advocated for the Ottoman Empire to become a British Mandate. In a 3 June 1919 telegram by Mustafa Kemal Pasha, he specifically stated that of those who participated in the Sultanat Council, the only delegate there that advocated for a British Mandate was Sâdık Bey. Sâdık denounced the Damat Ferid Pasha government in his speech, saying that while the government initially acted within the framework of the Freedom and Accord Party program, the cabinet significantly deviated from the party program over time.

Personal life Sâdık died at the age of 81, and was buried in the Karacaahmet Cemetery. He was married, and had two daughters and a son. His wife and one daughter died while in Dobruja. He spoke Arabic and French, was good at painting, and was interested in Sufism; he was a member of the Halveti Order. Although his daughter Leman Hanım stated that she wrote his memoirs, they have not been found yet.