The Action Army were joined by 15,000 volunteers including 4,000 Bulgarians, 2,000 Greeks and 700 Jews. Adding to those numbers were Albanians that supported the Action Army with Çerçiz Topulli and Bajram Curri bringing 8,000 Albanian men and Major Ahmed Niyazi Bey with 1,800 men from Resne. In short time CUP members Fethi Okyar, Hafız Hakkı and Enver Bey returned from their international posts at Ottoman embassies and joined Mahmud Shevket as his military staff prior to reaching Istanbul. Traveling by train the soldiers went to Çatalca, then Hademköy and later reached Ayastefanos (modern Yeşilköy) located on the edge of Istanbul. A delegation was sent to Army headquarters by the Ottoman parliament that sought to stop it from taking Istanbul through force. The Action Army laid siege to Constantinople on 17 April 1909.