page_title: Ottoman Socialist Party
section_title: Turkish Socialist Party (1919–1922)
hierarchical_section_title: Ottoman Socialist Party / Turkish Socialist Party (1919–1922)
caption_attribution_description: Türkçe: Baha Tevfik, Osmanlı anarşisti.
context_page_description: The Ottoman Socialist Party was the first Turkish socialist political party, founded in the Ottoman Empire in 1910.
context_section_description: Its chairman was the journalist Hüseyin Hilmi, founder on 26 February 1919 of the socialist weekly İştirak. Other leading members were Avnullah Kâzımî, Namık Hasan, Pertev, Tevfik, İbnil Tahir, İsmail Faik, Baha Tevfik, Hamid Suphi. After the fall of the Young Turks regime, the party was reactivated in 1919 under the leadership of Hüseyin Hilmi and Mustafa Fazıl under the name Socialist Party of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Sosyalist Fırkası, TSF). The party had contact from the beginning with the Second International, it was also represented at its congresses in Bern, Amsterdam and Geneva. There was also a Workers' International Association in Istanbul, mainly made up of minorities, Greeks, Bulgarians and Jews.
  Although the founding in September 1919 by Dr. Şefik Hüsnü (Deymer) of the Turkish Workers and Peasants Socialist Party (Turkish: Türkiye İşçi ve Çiftçi Sosyalist Fırkası), leaning towards the Third International, led many members to leave the TSF, it successfully led the great strikes' wave of 1920. In a short time the party, which basically organized trade union activities, won a lot of popularity among the workers. On the other hand, Hüseyin Hilmi successfully exploited the conflicts between the British garrison headquarters in Istanbul and the French firms. Therefore, he could get the support from British authorities in Istanbul.
  After the conflicts between the French and English had been mitigated and the party had become a threat to international firms, the TSF lost its power. The firms founded and supported competing labor organizations such as Amele Siyanet Cemiyeti and forced the workers to become affiliated to these organizations. The compulsory membership in 1922 was one of the main reasons for the great defeat of the strike of streetcar workers. After this defeat, Hüseyin Hilmi was arrested and the party was dissolved.
  Splinter party Independent Socialist Party (Turkish: Müstakil Sosyalist Fırkası) reported no success.
  The Socialist Party of Turkey was organized almost only in Istanbul. It maintained distance from the Kemalists who led a national movement against the occupation of Anatolia, and the Communists who tried to unite the workers organizations. The TSF was more a trade union than a political party.
caption: Baha Tevfik
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