Mihri Belli (December 1915 – 16 August 2011) was a prominent leader of the

socialist movement The history of socialism has its origins in the 1789 French Revolution and the changes which it brought, although it has precedents in earlier movements and ideas. ''The Communist Manifesto'' was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1847-4 ...

in Turkey. He fought for the communist side in the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος �όλεμος}, ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom and ...

. Belli was repeatedly prosecuted and sentenced to prison for his political views, and was altogether imprisoned for 11 years, and forced into exile for another 18. Belli wrote several influential books on the Turkish left and was, for many years, a source of inspiration for leftist Turkish youths.

Early life

Belli was born in 1916 in

Silivri Silivri, formerly Selymbria (Greek: Σηλυμβρία), is a city and a district in Istanbul Province along the Sea of Marmara in Turkey, outside the urban core of Istanbul, containing many holiday and weekend homes for residents of the city. Th ...

, then in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, to Mahmut Hayrettin Bey, later a prominent leader of the

Turkish War of Independence The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...

Urfa Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa () and in ancient times as Edessa, is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphrates River. Its climate features ex ...

. He was educated at Robert College in Istanbul, and in 1936 went on to study economics at the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment ...

in the United States. There he was introduced to Marxist thought and revolutionary action. He took part in the activities of the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

Return to Turkey

Belli returned to Turkey in 1940, where he joined the illegal Communist Party of Turkey (TKP). Turkey was at the time under a one-party regime. The government, under the influence of the German advances in the initial years of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, had abandoned its policy of friendship with the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. The only opposition party in Turkey in these days was the underground TKP. Belli, after returning to Turkey, contacted the illegal party via his elementary-school friend David Nea, who was the party secretary for

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

at the time. Belli became a member of the central committee of the TKP in 1942. He served as assistant professor with professor Fritz Neumark at the Faculty of Economics of Istanbul University in the years 1943–1944. There he was among the founders and organizers of the ''İlerici Gençler Birliği'' (Progressive Youth Union). In 1944 he was arrested for these activities and sentenced to two years imprisonment and exile.

Greek Civil War

Belli left Turkey in 1946, and joined the

as a guerrilla fighter on the communist side. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the

Democratic Army of Greece The Democratic Army of Greece (DAG; el, Δημοκρατικός Στρατός Ελλάδας - ΔΣΕ, Dimokratikós Stratós Elládas - DSE) was the army founded by the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War (1946–1949). At ...

. He was wounded twice in battle, and was treated in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

and the

. In 1950 he was imprisoned in Turkey for a short while for entry without a passport and illegal possession of a handgun. Shortly after his release, he was imprisoned again in 1951 in a wave of TKP arrests. This time he was sentenced to seven years in prison and two years and four months of forced relocation. A documentary about his time in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

, entitled "''Καπετάν Κεμάλ, ο σύντροφος''" ("Captain Kemal, A Comrade"; Turkish title "''Kaptan Kemal, Bir Yoldaş''") was made by the prominent

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

filmmaker Fotos Lamprinos.

Turkish revolutionary movement

During the 1960s, Belli could write and speak without having to use an alias. Nevertheless, also in that period he served prison time for various articles and speeches. He was part of the group who published the revolutionary magazines ''Türk Solu'' and '' Aydınlık Sosyalist Dergi''. Expelled from the TKP, he joined the newly formed

Workers Party of Turkey Workers' Party of Turkey (''Türkiye İşçi Partisi'') was a Turkish political party, founded the 13 February 1961. It became the first socialist party in Turkey to win representation in the national parliament. It was banned twice (after the mi ...

(TİP). At this time, he developed his well-known thesis known as ''Milli Demokratik Devrim'' (National Democratic Revolution), abbreviated MDD. In 1964 Mihri Belli joined weekly ''

Yön ''Yön'' ( Turkish: ''Direction'') was a weekly Turkish political magazine published between 1961 and 1967. It was a Kemalist and leftist magazine. In fact, ''Yön'' was more than a publication in that its contributors represented a political mov ...

'' magazine. With his friends, Belli contacted

Deniz Gezmiş Deniz Gezmiş (27 February 1947 – 6 May 1972) was a Turkish Marxist-Leninist revolutionary, student leader, and political activist in Turkey in the late 1960s. He was one of the founding members of the People's Liberation Army of Turkey (THK ...

and

Mahir Çayan Mahir Çayan (15 March 1946 – 30 March 1972) was a Turkish communist revolutionary and the leader of People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi''). He was a Marxist–Leninist revolutiona ...

, who were at the time leaders of the youth movement amassing popular support. The ideas of MDD quickly gained prominence among the leftist youth movement; it became the main theoretical framework for most of the leftist groups that flourished in Turkey in that period and played a key role in the '68 movement in Turkey, giving it a Marxist and revolutionary characteristic. Mihri Belli left Turkey after the 1971 military coup to avoid arrest, and was for a while a guest of the

Palestinian Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and ...

. He returned to Turkey briefly, en route to Western Europe. There he stayed for a while and helped with the magazine ''Yurtsever'' (Patriot). He returned to Turkey when the centre-left Republican People's Party (CHP) under Bülent Ecevit emerged as the largest party in the 1973 elections. After the amnesty of 1974, he founded the Labour Party of Turkey (TEP) in 1975. Immediately after the founding of the party, the prosecutor's office of the

Martial Law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

Court took notice and demanded the removal of the word '' Kurd'' from the party program and other documents. The

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

banned the TEP for demanding equal rights for Kurds. In 1979, Belli faced an assassination attempt in which he was severely injured. After the

1980 military coup __NOTOC__ Year 198 (CXCVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sergius and Gallus (or, less frequently, year 951 '' Ab ...

, he left for the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

. From there he moved to Sweden, where he followed the Kurdish movement closely until he returned to Turkey in 1992. In 1997 he met with Abdullah Öcalan, and they came to the common conclusion that a solution to the Kurdish issue under the umbrella of a

unitarian state A unitary state is a sovereign state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority. The central government may create (or abolish) administrative divisions (sub-national units). Such units exercise only th ...

, instead of a federative solution, was possible on the basis of equality and voluntary union. The report of this meeting was later published in book form. In 1996 Belli participated in the founding of the

Freedom and Solidarity Party The Left Party ( tr, Sol Parti, often written as SOL Parti), is a secular, socialist political party in Turkey. The Party was founded after Freedom and Solidarity Party ( tr, Özgürlük ve Dayanışma Partisi - ÖDP) decided to change its name ...

(ÖDP), and that of the

Socialist Democracy Party Socialist Democracy Party (''Sosyalist Demokrasi Partisi'', SDP) was a socialist party in Turkey. Most of its members were formerly in an opposition grouping within ÖDP, named ''Sosyalist Eylem Platformu'' (Socialist Action Platform). They def ...

(SDP) in 2002. He was a candidate for member of parliament for Istanbul in the 2002 elections. In 2005, the portraits Belli had made 50 years earlier, while in prison, were presented in an exhibition "Lines From Prison". Together with several other founding members he resigned from the SDP in 2007 and took part in the 2008 founding of the Workers' Socialist Party (''İşçilerin Sosyalist Partisi''), better known by the shortened name Socialist Party (''Sosyalist Parti''), along with others who left.

Death

Mihri Belli died in his home in

from respiratory distress on 16 August 2011. He was laid to rest in

Feriköy Cemetery The Feriköy Cemetery ( tr, Feriköy Mezarlığı) is a burial ground situated in Feriköy quarter of Şişli district on the European part of Istanbul, Turkey. It is administered by the Metropolitan Municipality. Many prominent figures from the ...

following a religious funeral service held at Şişli Mosque.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belli, Mihri 1915 births 2011 deaths Politicians from Istanbul Communist Party of Turkey (historical) politicians Workers' Party of Turkey politicians Turkish socialists Turkish revolutionaries Turkish Marxists Robert College alumni University of Mississippi alumni Democratic Army of Greece personnel Prisoners and detainees of Turkey Deaths from respiratory failure Burials at Feriköy Cemetery Politicians arrested in Turkey 20th-century Turkish politicians 21st-century Turkish politicians