Interview to the newspaper Teeminat of the deputy Dr Riza Tefik, one of the major founders and leaders of the Young Turk Committee,

where his criticism is included for the state of Turkey during the period of the Committee's government.

[...]"Ever since I could not endorse the government measures in effect under the pretext of reforms. Being hopeless I observed the calculating acts of my party friends moving around the ministries. I was quickly convinced that these friends are unparalleled in machinations and tricks. I retired from the committee followed by many other supporters. We have sworn jointly to support body and soul and be on the alert for the implementation of the objectives of the Committee, that is of the educational and economic development of the state and the safeguard of the natural and political rights of all Nationalities. We have soon strayed from this objective, beginning to serve specific interests and ideas. We have created an assembly of 280 deputies, of which 260 were our followers. Instead of making a positive contribution through this magnificent majority, we only saw to our own vested interests. Through illegal means we have suppressed the protests, provoked by the policy of the Committee.
[...]We have committed plenty of violations of law and intrigues. No mention of the implementation of the principle of equality before the law. The complaints raised by the people concerning misgovernment remained unexamined and because of that discontent generalized ".

[...]These views by Dr Tefik, which were the cause for his sentence to three-month imprisonment by the Court-Martial of Constantinople, shed plenty of light on the situation in Turkey and should be read with caution by the European public.

G. Papandonakis, Ellinika Zitimata, Athens, 1916, pp. 74-76.