What is Committee of Union and Progress?
The '''Committee of Union and Progress''' (CUP, Ottoman Turkish: اتحاد و ترقى جمعيتی, romanized: ''İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti'') was a [[Politics|political]] group that tried to reform and modernize the [[Ottoman Empire]] during the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. It ended up being the main political expression of the [[Young Turks]] movement.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Young Turks: Struggle for the Ottoman Empire, 1914-1918|last=Ahmad|first=Feroz|publisher=İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları|year=2018|isbn=6053995304|location=Istanbul|pages=3-4}}</ref> The reforms that had been supported by the [[Ottoman Empire]] since the late 1830s under the [[Tanzimat]] created a generation of Ottomans that advocated even greater modernization of the empire. In 1865, the ''İttifak-ı Hamiye''t (Patriotism Alliance) was founded. In 1867 it was renamed ''Genç Türkiye Partisi'' (Young Turkey Party). Both organizations served as bases for the establishment of the CUP<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gökbayır|first=Satılmış|year=2012|title=Gizli Bir Cemiyetten İktidara: Osmanlı İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti’nin 1908 Seçimleri Siyasi Programı|url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/254147|journal=Çankırı Karatekin Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi|volume=3 (1)|pages=62}}</ref> in [[Paris]] in 1889 by a group of Ottoman intellectuals and military officers as the result of the [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]] governance of [[Sultan]] [[Abdul Hamid II|Abdülhamid II]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/book41452|title=The Young Turks and the Ottoman Nationalities: Armenians, Greeks, Albanians, Jews, and Arabs, 1908–1918|last=Ahmad|first=Feroz|date=2014|publisher=University of Utah Press|isbn=978-1-60781-338-5|location=Salt Lake City|pages=6}}</ref> Its central [[ideology]] was Ottomanism, which advocated the development of a patriotic feeling in all subjects of the empire,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Turkey, Islam, Nationalism and Modernity. A History, 1789-2007|last=Findley|first=Carter Vaughn|p