The Young Turk Period, 1908-1918 - PSI424

306 The Rise of Modern Turkey, 1808-1975
needs of a much smaller empire than that which the Men of the Tanzimat had
ruled. 106 A new Financial Reform Commission (Islahat-i Maltye Komisyonu),
established in 1912, drastically reformed the tax system, with the tax farms on the
tithes definitively abolished and the rates raised sufficiently to balance the budget in
the face of rising costs. 107 The road-labor tax was increased and its application
extended to Istanbul and the other large cities that had been exempt, thus spreading
the burden and leaving the rural populace with less to pay than in the past. 108
Income taxes were introduced to provide the municipalities with needed funds. 109
The financial activities of all civil servants were placed under the supervision of a
newly established Financial Inspection Commission. 110
A new Provincial Administration Law (March 15, 1913) strengthened the governors
and extended bureaucratic reforms similar to those introduced in Istanbul. 111
Reforms in the financial and judicial systems in the provinces assigned increased
responsibility to those in positions of authority. 112 The police also were reorganized
and placed entirely under civilian authority, with more personnel and equipment to
enable them to enforce the laws limiting the activities of the terrorist groups. 113
An entirely new gendarme organization was established, on the model of that
created by the foreign advisers in Macedonia, and its control was transferred from
the Ministry of War back to that of Interior, again strengthening the civilian authorities
in the provinces. 114
Istanbul's municipality was reorganized and modernized, with a City Council
(§ehir Emaneti Enciimeni) provided to help the mayor; councils of law, health,
accounting, and police were introduced to provide the necessary technical advice
and direction to municipal operations. 115 With the municipality now securing sufficient
funds, especially from the new income taxes, it was able to carry out a vast
program of public works, paving streets and sidewalks, installing electric lights and
a new sewage and drainage system, and reorganizing the police and fire departments.
The major city communication services, the telephone, trams, the tunnel
between Beyoglu and Galata, arid the electric, water, and gas services also were
modernized and extended so that by the commencement of World War I, Istanbul
had caught up to the major European cities. The municipality also worked to solve
the city's population problem. The refugees who had crowded in since 1908 and
the new refugees coming after the Balkan Wars were resettled outside Istanbul as
rapidly as possible: But new problems were to appear in consequence of the population
dislocations of World War I. 116
In addition, a series of even more drastic reform proposals made by Ziya Gokalp
to further Ottoman secularization were brought to culmination during the darkest
days of the war. On April 26, 1913, a new regulation established close state control
over the ulema and the religious courts, requiring them to accept the authority of
the secular appeals court (Mahkeme-i Temyiz) in many areas. 117 State standards
of education and training were imposed on the kadis, and a new state-operated
medrese was opened in Istanbul to train ulema wishing to serve as judges in religious
courts. 118 State examinations administered by the seyhulislam were imposed
to test their training and competence. 119 All subordinate employees of the religious
courts were placed under the control of the Ministry of Justice, 120 and new regulations
limited the authority of the religious courts in favor of the secular ones. 121
This was only the beginning. In 1915 Gokalp proposed the complete secularization
of the religious courts, schools, and religious foundations and the limitation of the
seyhulislam to purely religious functions. This program was carried out by a series
of measures enacted during the next two years. In late April 1916 the seyhulislam