# Civil crisis in the Ottoman Empire in 1913

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/explaining-history-524006/civil-crisis-in-the-ottoman-empire-in-1913
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/explaining-history-524006/civil-crisis-in-the-ottoman-empire-in-1913.md
Podcast: [Explaining History](https://stenobird.com/podcast/explaining-history-524006)
Published: 2026-03-11T14:55:27+00:00
Episode link: http://explaininghistory.org
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/explaininghistory/e/69b1825fc891dc74e833020b/media.mp3
Processing state: processed
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/explaining-history-524006/episodes/civil-crisis-in-the-ottoman-empire-in-1913
Duration seconds: 1544

## Resource

In this episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we return to Eugene Rogan's superb  The Fall of the Ottomans  to explore how military defeat and political crisis in the Balkan Wars transformed the Ottoman Empire from within—and set the stage for the birth of modern Turkey. It's remarkable how topical the story of a declining empire, seemingly in endless crisis, yet still capable of surprising its enemies, feels at this moment. But the Ottoman story is worth understanding on its own terms, not just as a mirror to our own times. We pick up the narrative in 1913, following the catastrophic First Balkan War in which the Ottomans lost most of their remaining European territories. The defeat of Edirne—a historic Ottoman city—triggered a political earthquake in Constantinople. The liberal government that had overseen the loss was overthrown, and when the Grand Vizier was assassinated in June 1913, the Committee of Union and Progress (the Young Turks) seized the opportunity to eliminate their opponents once and for all. The result was the emergence of a ruling triumvirate that would dominate the empire until its final collapse: Enver Pasha, Talat Pasha, and Cemal Pasha. More powerful than the Sultan himself, these men would lead the Ottoman Empire into the First World War and oversee both its greatest triumphs and its ultimate destruction. But 1913 also brought an unexpected gift. Bulgaria, aggrieved by the division of spoils after the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies—Greece and Serbia—sparking the Second Balkan War. With Bulgarian forces redeployed away from the Ottoman frontier, Enver Pasha seized his moment. Defying a cautious government, he led Ottoman forces back into Edirne, liberating the city on 9th July 1913 to national euphoria. The hero of t…

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