1912 Ottoman coup d'état

The 1912 Ottoman coup d'état (17 July 1912) was a coup by military memorandum in the Ottoman Empire against the Committee of Union and Progress by a group of military officers calling themselves the Saviour Officers (Ottoman Turkish: Halâskâr Zâbitân) during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The coup occurred in the context of increasing distrust in the CUP's political agenda, the fallout of the Italo-Turkish War, and rising political polarization.

In late 1911, anti-CUP opposition consolidated into the Freedom and Accord Party, and both sides sought to abuse the constitution for their own gain. After the CUP's election victory in the 1912 election, widely deemed fraudulent, Freedom and Accord members recruited army officers serving in Albania to their cause in protest. They organized themselves into the Saviour Officers, which are often referred to as the military wing of the Freedom and Accord Party. By the summer of 1912, the pro-CUP Grand Vizier Said Pasha resigned under Savior Officer pressure, completing the coup.

Said Pasha turned over the premiership to Ahmed Muhtar Pasha's non-partisan Great Cabinet. With his resignation due to the First Balkan War, Kâmil Pasha's anti-CUP ministry came to power, until the CUP violently returned to power on 23 January 1913, with the Raid on the Sublime Porte.

The coup was one of the central events of the politically volatile 1912–13 years, which saw political instability due to the power struggle between the CUP and Freedom and Accord, as well as the newly sparked Balkan Wars.