In this post of ‘Nation Formation,’ we present a document that sheds light on a stormy period in the people’s history of Kosovo and Macedonia. This episode retrospectively became a crucial moment in the formation of the Turkish national consciousness in Socialist Yugoslavia. The aforementioned text is called ‘The “Sosyalist Fecri” Newspaper and the Relations between The Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY )in Macedonia and (in the then), Kosovo-Metohija.’ It was written by Milutin Folić and it was published in Turkish in the fifty-secondth issue of Çevren Journal, in 1986. Folić was an important historian of the inter-war communist movement in Kosovo, and has widely written on this issue. His monumental book on the CPY’s early activity in Kosovo was published in 1987 in Albanian by Rilindja as ‘Partia Komuniste e Jugosllavisë në Kosovë 1919-1941’ (The Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Kosovo 1919-1941).
Çevren, on the other hand, was one of the most important cultural journals printed in the Turkish language in Yugoslavia. It was active from 1973 until 1992, it produced ninety-two issues, and was published in Prishtina by the publishing house, Tan.
Folić’s text tells a brief and episodic history of the CPY in Kosovo and Macedonia, from 1919 until 1921, a time when the national and political contradictions were sharpening, eventually having to be interrupted by the police forces of the then Kingdom of Serbia. It also shows the crucial position that the Sosyalist Fecri newspaper held during these struggles. Sosyalist Fecri, or Socijalisticka Zora in Serbian (meaning, Socialist Dawn), was the newspaper of the Socialist Labour Party of Yugoslavia (the party’s name was changed to the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in the second meeting held in Vukovar, in 1919.) The newspaper was issued in Serbian, however, there was a brief period when it also came out in Turkish (with Arabian lettering).
According to Folić, there was another newspaper with the same name, Sosyalist Fecri, which was initially and only briefly published in 1910, in Kosovo and Macedonia. In this period, socialist organisations were already active in the region, and were mostly influenced by the Second International and German Social Democrats. Some years later, when the German Social Democrats took a side in favour of participating in the First World War, the socialists felt disappointment with their political ‘model.’ Just a couple of years before that, the socialist congress held in Basel had fiercely opposed the imperialist war in the Balkans and supported the fraternity of people against all forms of national chauvinism. This jump, from being against the war to supporting it, was devastating for international socialist movements. However, in the middle of the war, the October Revolution intervened in the course of history, changing the coordinates of politics and extending huge amounts of energy to the masses all over the world. The revolution was also important as it showed that the industrial proletariat was not the only political subject and it emphasised the liberation of oppressed nations. These ideas were already in circulation when the Sosyalist Fecri newspaper started being re-published, on February 1st, 1920.
The articles in the newspaper were mostly written by party members, or by locals who were close to the party. Texts included the weekly activities of the CPY in Kosovo and Macedonia; the violent measures and tortures committed by the Serbian regime’s police; the poverty and the miserable conditions of the working class and of the peasantry. The issue of oppressed nations was raised many times, albeit, not in a systematic way. Still, the newspaper played a very important role in the union of many nations against common oppressors. Besides the aggressive Serbian bourgeoisie, a crucial block against the people’s emancipation, were the local landlords — as Folić addresses in his article. These landlords supported the most conservative and comprador bourgeois organisations, such as Cemiyet, who were in favour of collaborating with the state and the remnants of the old regime. These organisations were fiercely attacked in the pages of Sosyalist Fecri.
To some extent, Sosyalist Fecri was successful in mobilising and uniting the oppressed classes and nations against the regime. For example, many people from the region participated in the May Day rallies in 1919 and 1920, shouting slogans like “More bread, less police.” The May Day of 1920 was experienced akin to a dress rehearsal for the local elections that were held later that year. Many candidates from the PCY campaigned in Prizren, Peja, Mitrovica, Zveçan, Bitola, Skopje and Ohrid for the local elections. A party pamphlet from this period read: “The communist party is not promising anything to people, but it calls the workers, the peasants and the poor people in cities and in villages to fight against everything that exploits them…” Folić recounts how the bourgeoisie and local landlords were frightened by the possible union between Albanians, Turks, Bosnians and Macedonians. For example, Ethem Bulbulović, a respected Muslim intellectual, was a candidate from the PCY in Zveçan. Since he was capable of speaking to both the poor muslim and non-muslim population, his existence was seen as a threat by the landlords.
There was another very important religious figure supporting the PCY: Haxhi Ymer Lutfi Paqarizi. Paqarizi was a highly respected poet and religious leader of the Melami lodge in Prizren. He contributed to the Sosyalist Fecri with his poem, ‘To Worker and Peasant Comrades,’ and helped in writing the election manifesto of the PCY in Prizren. In this manifesto, he wrote “Socialism is nothing but humanity, it brings happiness to people.” The text was written both in Turkish and in Albanian.
Despite the violent measures taken by the regime, three PCY members managed to be elected in the region: Ilija Krasojevic and Milorad Pantić in Prizren; and Ethem Bulbulović in Zveçan. After the elections, the Serbian regime, concerned by the perceived danger, substantially increased police violence. The murder of Zef Lush Marku, a party member from Skopje, in Gjakova in December 1920, was the turning point. The regime refused to clarify the events of the murder. At the same time many members, including Ilija Krasojevic and Haxhi Ymer Lutfi Paqarizi, were sabotaged, tortured and pushed into silence. Another member from Prizren, Muharrem Taranbaba, was forced into exile. After a few weeks, the government banned the party, arrested many people and prohibited the publication of Socialist Fecri.
Sosyalist Fecri was the platform for the most progressive intellectuals and activists writing in the Turkish language in Yugoslavia, like Ferit Bayram who was on the editorial board of the newspaper. After the Second World War, the work of this newspaper and its legacy was a standard for future internationalists like Kemal Seyfullah.
Still today, there is a street in the centre of Skopje called Socijalisticka Zora/Sosyalist Fecri, a testimony to the internationalism of socialist throughout the Balkans.