Süleyman Nuri (1895–1966) was an Ottoman Turkish communist politician and a cofounder of the Communist Party headed by Mustafa Subhi. He was the first justice minister of the Soviet Armenia.
Süleyman Nuri | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1895 |
| Died | 1966 (aged 70–71) Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Political party | Communist Party (1920–1921) |
| Alma mater | Non-Commissioned Officers School |
| Occupation | Military officer |
Early life and education edit
Nuri was born in 1895 into a peasant family.[1][2] He was a graduate of the non-Commissioned Officers school and following his graduation he joined the Ottoman Army.[2]
Activities and career edit
During World War I Nuri was assigned to the army branch in Eastern Anatolia where he was injured.[2] Following this incident Nuri left the army and joined the Russian forces in February 1917.[2] He converted to Russian Orthodox Christianity and also, became a Russian citizen.[2] In late 1917 he settled in Baku where he worked as a mechanic on ships.[2] When Baku was occupied by the British in August 1918 he was arrested and detained.[2] He was released from the prison soon and began to work for the Red Army in Dagestan which was not a success for him.[2] He represented the Caucasus Bolsheviks at the Erzurum Congress held by Turkish revolutionaries in 1919.[2] He was among the founders of the Communist Party which was established in Baku in May 1920.[3] Nearly all founding figures of the party were supporters of Enver Pasha, but Nuri was not.[2] He was part of the central committee of the party.[4] However, he was expelled from the party soon and assigned to Armenia to help the Bolsheviks there.[2] Nuri was arrested there by the Turkish forces, but he was sent to Baku later.[2]
He was elected a member of the council for action and propaganda at Congress of the Peoples of the East in Baku in 1920.[1] The same year he was jailed on Nargin Island, Soviet Azerbaijan.[5] He served in the military-revolutionary committee and participated in the Third World Congress of the Comintern as a delegate which was held in Moscow in June to July 1921.[1] Nuri was appointed people's commissar for justice in the first Armenian Bolshevik government of the Soviet Armenia.[3] In 1925 he attended the Communist University of the Toilers of the East for a short time, but soon expelled together with other Turkish communists.[5] Until 1936 Nuri worked as a mechanical engineer in Soviet Azerbaijan.[2] Then he was sent by the Soviet authorities to Turkey for espionage activities.[2] However, he did not manage to form a spy cell and decided to return to Baku.[2] He was arrested by Turkish security forces while he was trying to enter Azerbaijan and was tried and sentenced to imprisonment.[2] Following his release he left Turkey and went to Odessa in January 1958.[2] He died in Moscow in 1966.[1][3]
Work edit
His biography book, Çanakkale Siperlerinden TKP Yönetimine. Uyanan Esirler (Turkish: From Çanakkale Trenches to TKP Management. Awakening Captives), was published in Turkey in 2002.[6][7]
References edit
- ^ a b c d John Riddell, ed. (2015). To the Masses. Proceedings of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 1921. Vol. 91. Leiden; Boston: Brill. p. 1230. doi:10.1163/9789004288034_038. ISBN 9789004288034.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Mustafa Yasacan (December 2017). "The Impact of the Russian Revolution 1917 on the Turkish Left through the Experiences of Three Leading Communists". Journal of Global Faultlines. 4 (2): 150–162. doi:10.13169/jglobfaul.4.2.0150.
- ^ a b c Tsvetelina Tsvetkova (June 2020). "Soviet-Turkish Relations in 1921-1923: A Few Nuances from the Bulgarian Archives". Journal of Balkan and Black Sea Studies (4): 21.
- ^ Kerem Yıldırım (28 January 2022). "28 Kanunisani'ye bugünden bakmak". İleri Haber (in Turkish). Retrieved 1 August 2022.
- ^ a b James H. Meyer (Fall 2018). "Children of Trans-Empire: Nâzım Hikmet and the First Generation of Turkish Students at Moscow's Communist University of the East". Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association. 5 (2): 212. doi:10.2979/JOTTTURSTUASS.5.2.12.
- ^ Süleyman Nuri (2002). Çanakkale siperlerinden TKP yönetimine uyanan esirler (in Turkish). Istanbul: TÜSTAV-Türkiye Sosyal Tarih Araştırma Vakfı. ISBN 978-975-8683-05-5.
- ^ "Çanakkale siperlerinden TKP yönetimine uyanan esirler". WorldCat. Retrieved 1 August 2022.