Trotsky in Istanbul (Troçki İstanbul’da) - Notes on Ömer Sami Coşar's book

First edition of the book (1969)

The book Trotsky in Istanbul, written by journalist Ömer Sami Coşar (1919-1984), was first published in March 1969. For many years, no new edition appeared. However, this state of neglect changed in April 2010, when Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları reissued the book. In April 2023, the same publishing house brought out its seventh edition. It is rather interesting that the book began to attract what might be described as considerable attention in Turkey more than forty years after its first publication. As Leon Trotsky himself remarked in Chapter 18 of his autobiography My Life, “Books have their own destiny.”

Trotsky in Istanbul is not a work that features in world literature. In none of the foreign books or articles I have read on the subject have I come across a reference to Coşar’s work. The main reason for this, undoubtedly, is that it has been published only in Turkish. Moreover, the text lacks the degree of originality that might attract international attention. Coşar’s book is essentially a collage, compiled and summarised from a limited number of French sources.

The author’s educational background (primary and lower secondary education at Saint Joseph; part of his secondary schooling at Janson de Sailly in Paris; and a 1940 graduate of Galatasaray High School) enabled him to make use of French sources. This was, without doubt, a considerable advantage in Turkey at that time, when very few people spoke a foreign language. However, it is quite clear that the main body of the book’s material is drawn largely from the final volume of Isaac Deutscher’s Trotsky trilogy. The publication dates of the two books are consistent with this observation: the final volume of Deutscher’s trilogy appeared in 1963, and it is also listed in the bibliography of Trotsky in Istanbul.

Ömer Sami Coşar

One of the most serious shortcomings in the work is the lack of proper source attribution. In many instances, passages taken directly from other works are not marked with footnotes. The list of references at the end of the book does not, of course, remedy this problem. Moreover, several lengthy passages, clearly drawn from Deutscher’s book, are presented as the author’s “own observations and analysis”, without acknowledgement, often with certain sentences or paragraphs omitted or summarised. As due care was not exercised in the course of this summarising and adaptation, the result at times borders on the crude, and Deutscher’s writing is vulgarised.

The fact that a large part of Coşar’s work is drawn from Deutscher affords the author a perspective on Trotsky that is, on the whole, not hostile -even, at times, sympathetic- while still remaining critical. However, by detaching some of Deutscher’s observations and assessments from their historical and political context, Coşar seeks to portray certain shifts in Trotsky’s political tactics as contradictions or inconsistencies that might be used against him. Consequently, in trying to demonstrate to the reader that he feels a degree of sympathy for Trotsky while not shying away from criticism, the author falls short of constructing a coherent analytical framework.

One of the book’s more striking shortcomings is its complete omission of several critical political events and developments directly related to Trotsky’s years in Istanbul. In particular, the fact that it makes no mention of Trotsky’s first call for the establishment of the Fourth International -issued from Büyükada on 15 July 1933, following the Nazis’ rise to power in Germany- or of the connection between this call and his decision to leave Büyükada, constitutes a major gap. This episode, a turning point in Trotsky’s biography [*] and one rightly given substantial attention in the final volume of Deutscher’s trilogy, seems to have aroused no interest whatsoever in Coşar.

Four press photographers waiting at the Galata Pier in Karaköy (a district of Istanbul on the European shore) to capture the moment when Trotsky set foot in the city: Faik Şenol, Ali Ersan, Namık Görgüç, and Hilmi Şahenk (12 February 1929). Source: #tarih magazine.

Despite all these criticisms, it would be unfair to dismiss Trotsky in Istanbul as entirely without merit. The book offers many interesting insights, particularly in those sections based on local diplomatic material. The passages drawing on information and documents -many of which the author obtained through the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tevfik Rüştü Aras- provide valuable clues as to the political considerations that shaped the Turkish government’s and Mustafa Kemal’s decision to host Trotsky. Coşar’s access to such local sources gives the work a perspective rarely encountered in the international literature, lending it a certain distinct value.

Nevertheless, it is plainly evident that Coşar’s approach to the Turkish government and to Mustafa Kemal displays a certain bias -indeed, a degree of favouritism. For this reason, it is essential to subject the locally sourced information presented in the book to rigorous critical scrutiny and to cross-check it against other sources wherever possible.

[*] In 1935, Trotsky made the following note in his diary -which would later be published under the title Diary in Exile- about the importance of his effort to build the Fourth International: “…I think that the work in which I am engaged now, despite its extremely insufficient and fragmentary nature, is the most important work of my life-more important than 1917, more important than the period of the Civil War or any other.” Leon Trotsky, Diary in Exile, trans. Elena Zarudnaya, London, Faber and Faber, 1958, p. 53.