Anti-communist

Turkey

Anti-communist opinions in Anatolia started in the early 20th century, and first anti-communist incident occurred in the 1920s. On 28 January 1920, Mustafa Subhi, founder of the Communist Party of Turkey, was assassinated together with his wife and his 21 communist comrades while traveling to Batumi in the Black Sea. In the following years, more pressure was put on communist activities. In 1925, the Turkish government shut down several communist newspapers, such as Aydınlık and Yeni Dünya. Many members and symphatisers of the Communist Party of Turkey including Hikmet Kıvılcımlı, Nâzım Hikmet and Şefik Hüsnü were mass arrested on 25 October 1927. Later, in 1937, a committee with the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk decided that works of Hikmet Kıvılcımlı are detrimental communist propaganda, and that they should be censored.