De facto authority and contested legitimacy: the CUP Erzurum branch in provincial politics, 1908–1913

This article examines the Erzurum branch of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) between 1908 and 1913, analysing how a clandestine organisation was transformed into a de facto administrative authority in the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution. Drawing on Ottoman archival documents and British consular reports, the study argues that the Erzurum CUP branch systematically circumvented formal institutional channels by controlling administrative appointments, imposing compulsory financial levies on state officials, and mobilising local society during national crises. The article further argues that the branch’s authority rested largely on coercive mechanisms rather than genuine social consent, and that the multicultural promise expressed as ittihad-ı anasır (Unity of the Ottoman elements) was gradually eroded in the face of mounting tensions between Muslim and Armenian communities. The Erzurum case presents the constitutional period not merely as a moment of liberal transformation, but as an unstable process of power redistribution at the provincial level, one that ultimately deepened the empire’s governance crisis.