1927 Detentions

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

1927 Detentions were widespread arrests of members of the Communist Party of Turkey who were secretly active in the country. In autumn 1927, Vedat Nedim Tör, then general secretary of the TKP Central Committee, handed secret party documents and membership lists to the police. A major roundup followed, including Şefik Hüsnü, who led the Comintern in Turkey, and other Central Committee members, and the 1928 TKP Case was opened. During these arrests, Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, a Central Committee member, worked with Tör and later started the Kadro magazine.

The TKP also tried to heal the wounds from the January 1921 murders of many Central Committee members in Trabzon on their way to Ankara from the Baku founding congress, together with party chairman Mustafa Suphi. The party was active in Istanbul, Ankara, and other provinces, taking part in actions such as the 1927 Adana Railway Strike. But changing Comintern decisions about Kemalism, along with growing pressure on opposition after Takrir-i Sükun, created divisions and a difficult situation. Many communists, including senior leaders, were arrested.