The Young Turks were a clique of political reformers in the Ottoman Empire that sought to replace the absolute monarchy of Turkey with a constitutional monarchy. The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 saw Abdulhamid II be overthrown and political and military reforms be enacted, but liberal and pro-decentralization Young Turks formed the Freedom and Accord Party while the nationalists formed the Committee of Union and Progress. The CUP seized power in the Raid on the Sublime Porte in 1913 and the "Three Pashas" ruled the country until the end of World War I in 1918. They were responsible for perpetrating the Armenian Genocide, Greek Genocide, and Assyrian Genocide during the war, as well as for allying with the German Empire and joining the Central Powers in the war. While the Young Turks may have been responsible for several crimes against humanity, they contributed to the Westernization of Turkey and to its road to becoming a republic, and they also influenced future Turkish nationalists such as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the Grey Wolves. The Three Pashas would be murdered by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation in the following years, and the Young Turks vanished from politics.
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