1908 DEVRİMİ’NDE POLİTİK TİYATRO VE BESA OYUNU

The 1908 Revolution in the Ottoman Empire, like other revolutions such as French Revolution and 1917 Russian Revolution, was followed by a theater epidemic. Unlike novels, newspapers, journals and pamphlets, theater has the potential of reaching out to the illiterate masses. That is why, the elites made use of it for their causes. Theater was a political vehicle in disseminating and legitimating political ideals. Yet, the theater plays were not only literary texts but also social and political phenomenons. Their performances in public spaces had crucial social and political affects. The 1908 Revolution was accompanied by a genre of revolutionary plays such as “Besa,” “Vatan yahud Silistre” and “Sabah-ı Hürriyet.” This article focuses on the first performance of Besa after the promulgation of the second constitution. It was the first experience of revolutionary theater. It demonstrated the power of theater for mass mobilization as well as the need of the Committee of Union and Progress to control and contain it within its own ideological framework. The performance was regarded by many as the true marker of a new era. Besa was perfomed by theater groups such as Ahmet Fehim and Mınakyan which had existed in the pre-constitutional period. The performances of these groups demonstrate how the political context pushed these pre-existing theater groups to change their repertoires. Besa is the first example of revolutionary performances preaching Ottomanism to the masses.