Süleyman Nuri (1895–1966) was an Ottoman Turkish communist politician and a co-founder of the Communist Party headed by Mustafa Subhi. He was also the first justice minister of the

Soviet Armenia The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia ...

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 () was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922. Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years ...

Activities and career

During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Nuri was assigned to the army branch in Eastern Anatolia 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 The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

and also, became a Russian citizen. 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, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; ; ), officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Fede ...

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

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

at the

Erzurum Congress Erzurum Congress () 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 delegates from six easter ...

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 İsmâil Enver (; ; 23 November 1881 – 4 August 1922), better known as Enver Pasha, was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish people, Turkish military officer, revolutionary, and Istanbul trials of 1919–1920, convicted war criminal who was a p ...

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

Soviet Azerbaijan The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent re ...

. 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. 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 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, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

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

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