Süleyman Nuri (1895–1966) was an Ottoman Turkish communist politician and a cofounder of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

headed by

Mustafa Subhi Mustafa Suphi or Mustafa Subhi (1883 – 28 January 1921) was a Turkish revolutionary and communist during the period of dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Early life Suphi was born in 1883 in Giresun Province, in the Ottoman Empire, now ...

. He was the first justice minister of the

Soviet Armenia The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,; russian: Армянская Советская Социалистическая Республика, translit=Armyanskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) also commonly referred to as Soviet A ...

Early life and education

Nuri was born in 1895 into a peasant family. He was a graduate of the non-Commissioned Officers school and following his graduation he joined the

Ottoman Army The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. Army The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...

Activities and career

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Nuri was assigned to the army branch in

Eastern Anatolia The Eastern Anatolia Region ('' tr, Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi'') is a geographical region of Turkey. The most populous province in the region is Van Province. Other populous provinces are Malatya, Erzurum and Elazığ. It is bordered by the Black Se ...

where he was injured. Following this incident Nuri left the army and joined the Russian forces in February 1917. He converted to

Russian Orthodox Christianity Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...

and also, became a

Russian citizen Russian citizenship law details the conditions by which a person holds citizenship of Russia. The primary law governing citizenship requirements is the federal law "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation", which came into force on 1 July 2002. ...

. In late 1917 he settled in Baku where he worked as a mechanic on ships. When Baku was occupied by the British in August 1918 he was arrested and detained. He was released from the prison soon and began to work for the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North C ...

which was not a success for him. He represented the Caucasus

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

at the

Erzurum Congress Erzurum Congress ( tr, Erzurum Kongresi) was an assembly of Turkish Revolutionaries held from 23 July to 4 August 1919 in the city of Erzurum, in eastern Turkey, in accordance with the previously issued Amasya Circular. The congress united de ...

held by Turkish revolutionaries in 1919. He was among the founders of the Communist Party which was established in Baku in May 1920. Nearly all founding figures of the party were supporters of

Enver Pasha İsmail Enver, better known as Enver Pasha ( ota, اسماعیل انور پاشا; tr, İsmail Enver Paşa; 22 November 1881 – 4 August 1922) was an Ottoman military officer, revolutionary, and convicted war criminal who formed one-third ...

, but Nuri was not. He was part of the central committee of the party. However, he was expelled from the party soon and assigned to Armenia to help the Bolsheviks there. Nuri was arrested there by the Turkish forces, but he was sent to Baku later. He was elected a member of the council for action and propaganda at

Congress of the Peoples of the East The Congress of the Peoples of the East () was a multinational conference held in September 1920 by the Communist International in Baku, Azerbaijan (then the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan). The congress was attended by nearly 1,900 delegates from a ...

in Baku in 1920. The same year he was jailed on Nargin Island,

Soviet Azerbaijan Azerbaijan ( az, Азәрбајҹан, Azərbaycan, italics=no), officially the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (Azerbaijan SSR; az, Азәрбајҹан Совет Сосиалист Республикасы, Azərbaycan Sovet Sosialist R ...

. He served in the military-revolutionary committee and participated in the

Third World Congress of the Comintern The 3rd World Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) was held in Moscow on 22 June–12 July 1921. The third official meeting of the Communist International included delegations from more than 50 different national structures and too ...

as a delegate which was held in Moscow in June to July 1921. Nuri was appointed people's commissar for justice in the first Armenian Bolshevik government of the Soviet Armenia. In 1925 he attended the

Communist University of the Toilers of the East The Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV) (russian: link=no, Коммунистический университет трудящихся Востока; also known as the Far East University) was a revolutionary training scho ...

for a short time, but soon expelled together with other Turkish communists. Until 1936 Nuri worked as a mechanical engineer in Soviet Azerbaijan. Then he was sent by the Soviet authorities to Turkey for

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

activities. However, he did not manage to form a spy cell and decided to return to Baku. He was arrested by Turkish security forces while he was trying to enter Azerbaijan and was tried and sentenced to imprisonment. Following his release he left Turkey and went to Odessa in January 1958. He died in Moscow in 1966.

Work

His biography book, ''Çanakkale Siperlerinden TKP Yönetimine. Uyanan Esirler'' (Turkish: ''From Çanakkale Trenches to TKP Management. Awakening Captives''), was published in Turkey in 2002.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuri, Suleyman 1895 births 1966 deaths Communist Party of Turkey (historical) politicians Turkish revolutionaries Turkish Marxists Turkish political party founders Armenian Ministers of Justice Russian prisoners and detainees Converts to Eastern Orthodoxy from Islam Ottoman military personnel of World War I Ottoman defectors Comintern people