Trotsky’s press statement in Istanbul in April 1929

Soviet People’s Commissar, Communist politician and Marxist theorist Leon Trotsky spent 4 years of his exile in Istanbul before exiling to France. Trotsky originally did not plan to stay in Turkey for long, but wanted to emigrate to Germany. After 2 months in Istanbul, Leon Trotsky sent a press release to Turkish newspapers on April 16, 1929, stating that he planned to stay in Istanbul in the near future to work here. He assured that he did not want to become politically active in Turkey.

Birçok gazeteler ne yapmak niyetinde olduğumu sordular. Türkiye hükümeti İstanbul’da kalmaklığım için hiçbir mâni ihdas etmediğinden şimdilik İstanbul’da kalacağım. Şurasını da söyleyeyim ki, bu memleketin dahili işlerine karışmak istemiyorum. Hükümet benim Türkiye’de ikametimi kolaylaştırmak için mümkün olan her şeyi yapmıştır. Halen Amerika, Almanya ve Fransa’da tab edilmek üzere bazı kitaplar hazırlamaktayım. Bunların arasında Lenin’in ve haleflerinin tercümei hallerine dair yazılmış olan eserler yeniden yazılmış, diğerleri Rusya’da yazdığım, fakat Avrupa ve Amerikalılar için tercümesi lazım gelen eserlerdir.

Eski mesai arkadaşlarımdan mühim bir kısmının Türkiye’ye gelip bana iltihak etmelerine müsaade edileceği hakkında Stalin tarafından vaki olan sarih vaatlere rağmen bunlar tevkif edildiklerinden, alakadar müessesatın yardımı ile bir iş için bana yardım edecek yeni mesai arkadaşları tedarik etmeye mecbur oldum. Sükûnetle çalışabilmek için ailem ve mesai arkadaşlarımla birlikte İstanbul civarında bir yerde yerleşmek niyetindeyim.

Leo Dawidowitsch Trotzki © Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R15068 CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Many newspapers have asked what my plans are. I will stay in Istanbul for the time being, as the Turkish government has not put any obstacles in the way of my staying there. Let me also say that I do not want to interfere in the internal affairs of this country. The government has done everything to facilitate my stay in Turkey. I am currently preparing some books to be published in America, Germany and France. Among them are, on the one hand, works that I have written about Lenin and his successors and others are works that I have written in Russia but need to be translated for Europeans and Americans.

Since, despite Stalin’s explicit promise that a considerable number of my old collaborators would be allowed to come to Turkey, they have been arrested, I have been forced to choose new collaborators. I plan to settle somewhere in Istanbul with my family and colleagues so that I can work in peace.

Leon Trotsky was a Russian revolutionary, communist politician and Marxist theorist. After Lenin’s death, he was ousted by Stalin and forced into exile. Trotsky was expelled to Turkey and wrote the autobiographical writings History of the Russian Revolution and My Life in Istanbul.
After revoking his Soviet citizenship in 1933, the Russian secret service began to persecute him as an opponent of Stalin’s autocracy. Trotsky hid in a secret place in France, which, however, became known after a year.
After a two-year stay in Oslo, Trotsky moved to Mexico with a visa in 1937.
In August 1940 Trotsky was assassinated by the Russian secret service

Coşar, Ömer Sami, 2010: troçki istanbul’da, S. 57, İstanbul:Türkiye İş Bankası Yayınları.