Grand lodge in Turkey

Vicomte Leon de Poncins in ‘The Secret Powers behind the Revolution’ [page 66], giving the history and origin of the ‘Young Turk’ Movement, adds the following information, taken from the Masonic organ of the Grand Orient:-
“The Acacia (October 1908) A secret Young Turk council was formed and the whole movement was directed from Salonica. Salonica, the most Jewish town in Europe - 70,000 Jews out of a population of 100,000 - was specially suited for the purpose. It already contained several Lodges, in which the revolutionaries could work without being disturbed. These Lodges are under the Protection of European diplomacy. And as the Sultan was without weapons against them, his fall was inevitable... On the 1st May, 1909, the representatives of 45 Turkish Lodges met in Constantinople and founded the ‘Grand Orient Ottoman’. Mahmoud Orphi Pasha was nominated Grand Master...
Sir Gerard’s warning from his vantage point at the British Embassy in Constantinople endorses Lady Queenborough’s contention that the powers that had taken over Turkey constituted an Occult (Masonic) Theocrasy. In her book of that title, in the section concerned with Associations of the 20th Century, Chapter CXIII, page 585, entitled ‘The Young Turk Movement’, she makes the following observation:-
“Not till 1900, when the Grand Orient virtually took over the Young Turk Party which was composed chiefly of Jews, Greeks and Armenians, did this movement assume a serious aspect.”