Türkçe TercümeHussein Tosun was born in 1876 in Manyas as the son of a Ubykh family whose parents were expelled from the Caucasus during the Great Circassian Exile of 1864 and settled in Karesi Sandjak of the Ottoman Empire.
After graduating from the Mekteb-i Sultani (Lycée de Galatasaray) and the Military Academy in Istanbul, Hussein Tosun joined the Ottoman army and was involved in revolutionary activities when he was still a young officer and consequently arrested.
In 1896, he was exiled to North Africa, where he worked as a French teacher at the Tripoli Military High School. Among those exiled to Tripoli, like Hussein Tosun, were many figures of North Caucasian origin, such as Djarım Hadji Rashid Bey, Hanakhe Dr. Mehmed Reshid Be,y and the Dagestani Sheikh Ahmed Husameddin Efendi, who took part in the Young-Turk movement. According to the 1897 Geneva Treaty, these prisoners, who were released to roam within the city limits in the summer of 1898, had also established a branch of the Young-Turks in Tripolitania. Hussein Tosun was deported to Tripolitania one year before the other exiles and was considered a senior exile. Tosun became the helping angel for the other exiles. He was making all the preparations for the members of the organization to escape and collecting aid for those whose families in Istanbul were suffering. The secret agents of the Ottoman administration also surveilled the activities of Tosun. When he was ordered to return to Istanbul, he fled to Egypt. He joined with a group of Unionists in Cairo in the same period who also escaped from Tripolitania among whom were Caucasian-origin Ottoman subjects such as Lokh Mehmed Emin Bey and Mehmed Fazyl Bey. They attempted for the first time in the history of Caucasian emigration a specific émigré political formation and organized under the roof of Cemiyet-i Ittikhadiye-i Cherakise. The first issue of the newspaper ‘Ittihad’, the publication of the society, was published on 19 October 1899. The newspaper disturbed not only the Sublime Porte but also some Unionist leaders either. Unionists such as Tunaly Hilmi stated that it was a ‘separatist’ initiative and called the newspaper ‘Ittihad’, the organ of the society, a ‘disgraceful document’. Hussein Tosun Bey was later among the participants of the Young-Turk Congress in Paris organized by Prince Sabahaddin in 1902 and took part in the Decentralist group of the organization, which was fragmented into two. As one of the pioneer profiles of the Djemiyet-i İnkylabiye, which functioned as the Istanbul branch of the group, Tosun's return from Europe to Anatolia was planned in a very interesting way. In cooperation with the revolutionary Russian groups, Hussein Tosun first traveled to Russia, where he secretly entered Ottoman territory through the Caucasus with a fake Russian passport provided to him, with the help of Armenian Revolutionaries. This choice was not a coincidence. Hussein Tosun went to Erzurum in 1906 to open a Young-Turk branch. He also founded an illegal organization called ‘Djanveren’ and incited the people to revolt against the new taxes imposed on the population by the Sublime Porte. As a result of Marshall Berzeg Mehmed Zeki Pasha's refusal to lead the troops against the ordinary people, the uprising ended in the victory of the rebels, but a large group, led by Hussein Tosun Bey, was arrested, tried, and sentenced to lifetime imprisonment.
After the proclamation of the Constitutional Monarchy, Hussein Tosun Bey was rescued from prison by his cousin Shkhaply Hussein Kadri Bey, a prominent member of the Committee of Union and Progress, during the ‘March 31 events’ in 1909. When the Italians attacked Tripolitania in 1911, Hussein Tosun Bey went back to Tripolitania to organize the resistance, together with other Caucasian leaders of Ottoman intelligence service, such as Shkhaply Aziz Al-Misri, Chuv Kushchubashi Eshref, Jankhot Omer Nadji, Izmitli Mumtaz, Sapandjali Hakky and Pshevu Reshit Beys. Hussein Tosun was one of the front-line comrades of Mustafa Kemal Bey (later Pasha) in Derne. During the battles in Tripolitania, he was captured by the Italians and taken to Rome as a prisoner. The forced accommodation in Rome would make Rome an indispensable city for him in the future and he would go to Rome at every opportunity. After his return from Rome, Hussein Tosun Bey took part in the ranks of the Committee of Union and Progress in the elections of 1912, arranged propaganda speeches on behalf of the society in Bayburt, where he had made an electoral alliance with Armenian candidates, and explained the terms of the agreement between the Committee of Union and Dashnaks to the public. In the parliamentary elections of 1912, the Armenian Dashnaks and the Unionists were on the same side. The Unionists were victorious in the elections, four Muslims, including Hussein Tosun Bey, and two Armenians from Dashnak won the parliamentary seats.
Hussein Tosun also took part in the negotiations between the Unionists and the representatives of the Caucasian political emigration in August 1914, immediately after the outbreak of World War I, and contributed to reaching an agreement with the Ottoman administration for the basic principles of a state to be established in the Caucasus under Ottoman protection after the collapse of the Russian Empire. He was appointed as the Director of the National Information Agency when the Parliament activities were suspended during the war period and thus ensured that the publications voicing the Caucasian cause reached the whole world. He took an active role in the activities of the Caucasian Independence Committee and the North Caucasian Political Immigrants Committees in Turkey as well. He played an important role in the activities of the Circassian Union and Solidarity Association and the North Caucasian Political Association, of which he is the president.
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He was suffering from prostate cancer, which started during his exile life in Malta, and quite advanced. He died in Istanbul on 7 January 1930 at the age of 54, while living in the Yeniköy mansion of Princess Kadriye, the wife of Mahmud Hayri Pasha and the sister of King Fuad of Egypt, whom he met in Italy, and was buried in Machka Cemetery.
You can read the two selected works in our library which are still an important reference source for us today, published by Shkhaply Hussein Tosun Bey.
Cem Kumuk,
Istanbul, 12 January 2025
Letter 1:
Rome, 9 May [19]22,
I came to France for 9 days
Dear and esteemed friend,
Your two honored letters have reached me. I have not written you a reply since, since there has been no news. Affairs in Egypt are not going well. There are third parties who are preventing us from starting. But I am sure that we will overcome these difficulties, only we are prevented for the moment from helping you in your difficult and noble task.
We were unable to come to Paris, because of our unsettled affairs. On the 26th of this month, I left for Constantinople. I believe that in a month I will return. If you have any orders, commands, or commissions, I beg you to let me know as soon as possible. As a precaution, I give you an address:
Hussein Tosun c/o Ismail Bey
Chief of Operations of the Company of the Golden Horn Ferries,
Ayvansaray, Constantinople
I will certainly see our friends from the Caucasus.
My condolences for the loss of our friend General Youssef Izzet Pasha. His sudden death shocks me a little, but we will get used to. He had 5000 Turkish pounds, he bequeathed the 4500 to the Circassian school in Beshiktash, Constantinople.
We have yet another mournful loss in the person of the father of our friend Mahmoud Khairy Bey. Until old age, he had a great attachment to his country and his nation. Do not forget to send him a letter of condolence. His brother left last week for Cairo.
I am sending you a letter from Ibrahim Khan. It is addressed to Ismail Pasha who is not here and has not left an address. Only I was told that he will return, but when, we do not know. His address is generally the Grand Hotel. If you find it useful you will communicate it to him.
For the political situation, although it seems that we are sidelined, the day will come when we will be in the foreground, provided that you resist the presentation of our country to the powerful forces. Until that time I had my eyes turned towards our compatriots in Turkey, from there to other places. We need a strong organization, But that can only be done with the liquidation of the Turkish questions. The Americans are very interested in the question of oil, did you have any relations with them? I had learned that Kamil Shamil Pasha and his son Said Shamil wanted to come to Europe. I wrote, but late, that they do not come, if they have not left I will insist.
Best regards to all of you and see you soon,
H. Tosun
Letter 2:
Rome, 12 May [19]22,
Dear and esteemed friend,
Bekir Sami has been here for a few days. I would have written to you immediately about his arrival, but learning that Shevket Bey had telegraphed, I waited to be able to give you a few news from Anatolia.
Although Bekir Sami Bey was disturbed by terrible lumbago just as he returned to Rome, we dealt with it. All he told us is more or less what we know. Besides, we did not expect reassuring news since Angora is linked foot to the Bolsheviks, so much so that the departure of Bekir Sami coincided with that of Youssouf Kemal, their commissioner made demonstrations directly to Moustafa Kemal saying that he plays the double role. On one side, we send Y.[Yusuf] Kemal whom we trust, and on the other, B. Sami. Moustafa K.[Kemal] asked him to delay his trip a little explaining the cause. So B.[Bekir] Sami Bey spent his time here and there so as not to be the Bolshevik commissar in Europe, with I meant Angora. As for our compatriots, they are on the alert, even though they are doing everything possible to contain the country. There are only a few hotheads who are in Smyrna and their number is very limited, despite the propaganda that is being made that there are thousands. Even among those, a hundred soulful horsemen returned to Angora, fighting an entire Greek regiment that routed him, making him suffer enormous losses. On this feat of arms, the little Patriots of the Bolsheviks of Angora were kind enough to forgive them.
Fortunately, there is no animosity between the two peoples in the places; Bekir Sami Bey has traveled, we fear i.e. to Sivas, to Adana: But that this current will spread there too. Bekir Sami Bey came by the way of Adana by train, to Iskenderun (Alexandretta), and from there to Halep, Hama, Damascus, and Beirut. In Syria he has in interviews with our compatriots They are very well seen by the French, and all say that this nation has a very great aptitude for cleanliness and civilization (!).
Yesterday I saw Bekir Sami again; We spoke about you, but I did not show your reports and your writings. We hope that he will be up tomorrow, and I will give him the copies that you sent us.
We do not know what we can do during this time, which is running. We are undecided and paralyzed. If I see security, I think I will return to Constantinople. I have just received a letter from Egypt in which I am informed that a letter has been written on behalf of the delegation asking for money. Are you aware of this step?
My sincere greetings to all
H. Tosun
Letter 3:
23 June [19]22,
Dear friend,
For about twenty days, I have been in Constantinople. The situation of our refugees and that of our compatriots here is very critical. Especially since the latter is very confused. From the first day, I started running everywhere to see the situation well. Now I have taken the line of conduct that we had already traced from afar:
1-Help our refugees as much as possible. I gave 200 Turkish pounds to the Committee formed by Tsalikov [Ahmed Tsalykkaty] and 50 Turkish pounds monthly for 4 months. During this time, I hope I can increase this amount. Apart from that, I gave some books and clothes,
2-Seeing that an organization is impossible since we lack funds, I found it useful to form a commission of ten or twelve people and work to arrange this question of the alphabet in Latin characters, publish some books and a small monthly newspaper (for the moment) with the characters, which we have remedied. That in a word is my performance of the day.
Being very busy with the question here I regret that I do not see our refugees as much as I would like. With the occupation, the excessive heat overwhelms me. I will do everything possible with the very little funds that I have. Tsalikov [Ahmed Tsalykkaty] and his friends had proposed a way to send part of our refugees to Caucasia, to Samsun, to Trebizond. I have addressed the government here. The Director of refugees promised to send them to the last two Asian cities. But we must obtain entry authorization from the government of Angora. I am working on that.
Kotsev [Pshemakho Kotse] has returned here and before him, Namitok Aytek is here from Prague. I have had several interviews with the last one. From Rome, I have no news. Bekir Sami and [Ismail] Djambolet Beys will return to Asia soon. We were expecting a child from Khairi Bey this month. I think he will send me the news by dispatch. From Asia no important news. I do not know if you have heard the question of the embassy of Angora in Moscow. The Bolsheviks searched and took all the papers of Ambassador Fouad Pasha and the military attachés and forced them to leave Russia within 24 hours. Given the lack of trains, they left within three days. The cause: The military attachés had relations with Russian nymphs, who even came with them to the embassy. They learned that these gentlemen worked or corresponded with people against the Soviets. Aziz Bey, who spent two months in the Caucasus, is obliged to return from Trebizond to Moscow to represent the Embassy. But he will make his decision if he is not appointed consul in Sukhum or first secretary in Rome. For me these proposals alone are unacceptable. The personnel of the Embassy are on trial in Angora. What is extraordinary is that none of the embassy personnel know Russian. The first two military attachés knew Russian. But being our compatriots, Fuad Pasha had sent them back, despite the advice of Aziz Bey. I will beg you very much to do so. All your possible, with the French government to save one of our friends most necessary to our cause: Youssouf Bey, remained in Banderma, a port of Marmara. His occupation was to take care of his lands and did not mix himself with politics. He had not taken until now the part of Angora nor Constantinople or other. Lately, the Greeks wanted to force him to take their side. He refused saying that he does not deal with politics, At the end on May 22 he was exiled to Athens. On the way to Smyrna, he found the means to take refuge in a French torpedo boat Ambra, anchored in Smyrna. After six hours, the French captain of said torpedo boat returned him to the Greek authorities. A person who has committed no wrongdoing, minded his own business, and not wanting to get involved in the tugs of war between any party, takes refuge under the French flag which we all consider beyond expectation, and is handed over to the injustices of a nation. The case has greatly impressed us. I beg you, in the name of the honor of this sacred flag, to take steps with the right people and save our innocent compatriots. Here I have no relationship with the French authorities, to make these just claims.
I end my letter with this prayer. While waiting for your good news.
Please accept, dear friend, my most sincere wishes to you, your family, and our friends.
Hussein Tosun
P.S. – My address: Hussein Tosun c/o Ismail Bey
Chief of Operations of the Golden Horn Ferries Company
Ayvansaray, Constantinople