Ottoman Socialist Party

The Ottoman Socialist Party (Turkish: Osmanlı Sosyalist Fırkası, OSF) was the first Turkish socialist political party, founded in the Ottoman Empire in 1910.

Before the formation of the party, socialist parties or groupings only existed among the Ottoman Empire's minorities, the Selanik predominantly Jewish Socialist Workers' Federation and Bulgarian left-wing party called People's Federative Party (Bulgarian Section), as well as to some Bulgarian narrow socialists, who worked there. On the other hand, there were the Istanbul Greek Socialist Center, the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. As Ezel Kural Shaw has written in her History of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey, the Ottoman Socialist Party "gained its main support from the Armenian and Bulgarian groups in the Parliament".

The Ottoman Socialist Party was actually not a real political party in the modern sense, but rather a group of intellectuals. After the Young Turks had taken stringent measures against the opposition, the party began to support the opposition. In September 1911, an international organization of the party, led by Dr. Refik Nevzat, was founded in Paris, which should establish contacts with the international workers' movement. Although the activities of this group have remained limited, Hüseyin Hilmi succeeded, however, in having a correspondence with Jean Jaurès. But the party failed to be admitted to the Second International.

After the 1913 military coup of the Young Turks, the opposition began to be massively repressed, difficult times began for the Ottoman Socialist Party. Hüseyin Hilmi was arrested the same year and remained until 1918, either in prison or in exile. This amounted practically to the end of the party.

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