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Mustafa Suphi | |
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| Born | 1883 |
| Died | 28 January 1921(1921-01-28) (aged 37–38) |
| Known for | Founding theCommunist Party of Turkey |
Mustafa Suphi orMustafa Subhi (1883 – 28 January 1921) was aTurkish revolutionary andcommunist during the period ofdissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
Suphi was born in 1883 inGiresun Province, in theOttoman Empire, now located inTurkey. He was educated inJerusalem,Damascus andErzurum before he attendedGalatasaray High School. He studied political science inParis, where he was also a correspondent of the Turkish newspaperTanin. He returned to Turkey in 1910, where he edited the newspaperIfham. He also gave lectures onlaw andeconomics. In 1913 he was accused of involvement in the assassination ofMahmud Şevket Pasha and sentenced to fifteen years of exile inSinop. There, he contributed articles about western philosophy to the periodicalsIctiha andHak. However, in 1914 he escaped from Sinop and fled to Russia, where, following the outbreak of theFirst World War, Russian authorities regarded him as a prisoner of war and sent him into exile in theUral region.
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In 1915, he was in the Urals, where he joined theBolshevik Party. In July 1918, he helped organise theCongress of the Turkish Left Socialists, held in Moscow, and in November, he became involved inMuskom. He was also elected to theCentral Committee of the All Russia Muslim Workers section ofNarkomnats. He acted asMirsäyet Soltanğäliev's secretary.[1] In 1918 he foundedYeni Dünya (New World) in Moscow and used it to popularise the foundations of scientific socialism to Turkish prisoners-of-war.[2][3] He was chairperson of the Turkish Section of Eastern Publicity Bureau, and in 1919 attended the First Congress of theThird International as the delegate for Turkey.
At theFirst Congress of Communist Party of Turkey, held inBaku on 10 September 1920, Suphi was elected its chairman[4] and went toAnatolia. He was one of the 15 communists who went to Turkey to join theTurkish War of Independence. After encountering hostility inErzurum, the communists tried to return to Baku. However, they were murdered bySailor Yahya after they had set sail fromTrabzon on the night of 28 January 1921. He was possibly murdered by a group of supporters ofEnver Pasha from Trabzon, apparently because of the fear that Suphi might expose Enver Pasha's plans of political activities inMoscow and his ultimate intention of using the Bolsheviks to regain power in Turkey once theTurkish National Movement were defeated.[5]
Suphi was killed by Sailor Yahya together with his communist comrades while traveling toBatumi in theBlack Sea on 28 January 1921. It is not entirely clear who arranged the killing, whether the emerging central government in Ankara or old Unionists (Enver Pasha supporters).
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