TRIALS

  • 1925, The Ankara State Independence Court Case
  • 1927-1928, The Istanbul Criminal Court Case
  • 1928, The Rize Criminal Court Case
  • 1928, The Ankara Criminal Court Case
  • 1931, The Case at the Istanbul Second Criminal Court of First Instance
  • 1933, The Istanbul Criminal Court Case
  • 1933, The Case at the Istanbul Third Criminal Court of First Instance
  • 1933-1934, The Bursa Criminal Court Case
  • 1936-1937, The Istanbul Criminal Court Case
  • 1938, The Case at the Military Court of the Military College Headquarters
  • 1938, The Case at the Military Court of the Naval Headquarters

    1931, The Case at the Istanbul Second Criminal Court of First Instance

    Nâzım was aware of the laws and he was taking pains not to be charged on any account whatsoever.
    Years later he was going to say that,
    "International events were still of importance in my poetry. I had to shroud these, given the circumstances of the country at the times, in a kind of fog; it was the only way in which I could have them published."
    His books entitled 835 Satır (1929) and Varan 3 (1930) were published by the Muallim Ahmet Hamit Publishing House, and he himself published Jokond ile SI-YA-U (1929) and 1+1=1 (1930), and Sesini Kaybeden Şehir was published by the Remzi Publishing House.
    As is seen, despite all, the publication of his first five books was realised with the help of two publishing houses.
    In Ankara, in the CHP circles, it was being said that Nâzım Hikmet was free despite the fact that he was doing 'class-based literature' and writing poems in praise of workers' strike.
    An investigation was launched upon these rumors. On 1 May 1931, an undercover policeman delivered a summons and the very next day he was facing the magistrate. He was brought to trial by order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with charges of "encouraging the public to advocate the superiority of a class over another class" in his five books so far published.
    Nâzım Hikmet arrived at the criminal court hearing wearing a dark suit, striped tie, and a felt hat. The session started at 15:00 hours on 6 May 1931, pendant on articles 311 and 312 of the Turkish Criminal Law. Some time after his entrance, his lawyer Irfan Emin (Kösemihaloğlu) approached him. The small court room was packed with young university students, young poets, and ladies wearing hats.
    During the hearing, Nâzım Hikmet said:
    "I am accused of some five or six points according to the indictment. First of all, my open declaration of being a communist was taken as a crime. Yes, I am a communist, that is certain. I am a communist poet and I am trying to become an even more radical communist. According to the Constitution, I am not committing a crime by being a communist poet. Being communist is an intellectual conception. Just as other modes of economic and political commitment do not constitute crime, communist ideology too, does not constitute a crime. It is not valid to claim that I provoke one class against the others."
    He proceeded to explain the aims of his books, taking them up one by one. He also stated that in fact western imperialist countries should file charges against him. Then, depending on the statistics published in the periodicals of the Chamber of Commerce about the Turkish economy, which was in deep trouble, he said, if to talk about the situation was a crime, it was necessary to abolish the science of economy.
    After closing the interrogation, the public prosecutor declared opinion on the legal matter and said that,
    "According to his defence, we did not detect any crime worthy of investigation according to the law and the statutes and thus we demand his acquittal."
    The lawyer Irfan Emin also made an emotional and long defence talking about Turkey's war against imperialism, and concluded his defence stating that,
    "We join the prosecution in demanding our acquittal."
    The judges gave a ten-minute break to examine the files. Everyone was awaiting the decision to acquit but it did not happen that way; the trial was adjourned to meet again on 10 May 1931, a Sunday morning.
    Because of this adjournment, which created suspicion in a number of people, interest increased in the trial. On that Sunday morning, the court room was rather overcrowded and did not have enough space for the people so that a number of them had to remain in the corridors. At the end, the decision was declared as acquittal so a torrent of applause went up.
    A number of newspapers published the series of debate in the hearing, albeit with deviations. Thus, NNâzımzım firstly went to İrfan Emin's office in Sirkeci and wrote what he had really said in the hearing and sent them to the newspapers. People should not think that this acquittal was a result of a concession.
    The Turkish people who liked honesty and bravery, also liked his open declaration to the judges that "I am a communist." Those who were not interested in poetry, and even those who were against communism, started to think positively about this conceited young man, after they read the newspapers.