Today in History – 4 December

The “Tan Raid”

Turkey was alarmed when, in 1945, the Soviet Union announced that it was unilaterally annulling the Turkish-Soviet Non-Aggression and Friendship Agreement and claimed rights over the Straits. Meanwhile, Tan newspaper was running articles on how Turkey ought to improve its relations with the Soviet Union and was thus eliciting criticism from nationalist circles and the government. Tevfik Rüştü Aras and Sabiha-Zekeriya Sertel had become the target board of journalists.

On the morning of December 4, 1945, a crowded group of İstanbul University students gathered at Beyazıt Square and began walking towards Bab?âli, shouting slogans. The demonstrators raided Tan newspaper and bookstores selling leftist publications with slogans such as “Down with the Communists! Down with the Sertels!” Heading towards Beyoğlu, the group then vandalized the offices of Görü?ler magazine and Yeni Dünya and La Turquie newspapers. Similar incidents targeting the leftist press also occurred in Bursa, izmir, and Ankara. The incident during which the freedom of the press was trampled was recoded in history as the “Tan Raid.”