People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey

People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey
Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi
LeaderMahir Çayan
Ulaş Bardakçı
FoundedDecember 1970
Dissolved1972
Preceded byDevrimci Gençlik
Succeeded by
  • People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey/Workers Group (1971) (a.k.a. Yusuf Küpeli-Münir Ramazan Aktolga group)
Armed wingPeople's Liberation Front of Turkey
Ideology
Political positionFar-left
ColoursRed, Gold

The People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi, THKP-C) was a Turkish Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group that was founded in 1970 by Münir Ramazan Aktolga, Yusuf Küpeli and Mahir Çayan. The People's Liberation Party of Turkey (THKP) was the political wing and the People's Liberation Front of Turkey (THKC) was the armed wing.

History

Kidnapping of Ephraim Elrom

On 17 May 1971, the THKC guerrillas Ulaş Bardakçı, Hüseyin Cevahir, Mahir Çayan, Necmi Demir, Oktay Etiman and Ziya Yılmaz kidnapped Israeli consul Ephraim Elrom.[1] They left an announcement directed to the pro-American Council of Ministers (Turkish: Amerikancı Bakanlar Kuruluna) written by Bardakçı and Cevahir.[2] After the Sledgehammer Operation, THKC guerrillas killed Ephraim Elrom on 22 May 1971. Elrom's body was found on the 23 May 1971 in the Hamarat Building, Nişantaşı, Istanbul. After the killing of the consul, the ethnic Zaza actor Yılmaz Güney hid the THKC guerrillas.[3]

Sibel Erkan affair

The THKC guerrillas left Güney's house on 24 May 1971. On 30 May 1971 Çayan and Cevahir entered a house in Maltepe, Istanbul, and took Sibel Erkan as a hostage. The police and army initiated a rescue operation and put the house under siege for 51 hours. With the negotiations having no results, state forces ambushed the guerrillas on 1 June 1971. Firstly sniper Cihangir Erdeniz shot 3 shots at Cevahir.[4] Following the sniper shots, armed forces entered the house and killed the wounded Cevahir. Çayan was captured armed due to a suicide attempt.[5]

Trials and escape from prison

After the arrest of the most of the THKP-C guerrillas, trials began at the İstanbul Court-Martial. Çayan and Bardakçı were tried with execution. However, before the end of the trials, 2 THKO and 3 THKP-C guerillas escaped from prison on 29 November 1971.[not 1][6]

Expulsion of Aktolga and Küpeli from the THKP

After the escape Çayan met with Münir Ramazan Aktolga and Yusuf Küpeli. At their meeting, Çayan blamed Aktolga and Küpeli for being Doctorists and right-deviationists. With a proposal penned by Çayan, Aktolga and Küpeli expelled from the THKP and THKC.

Elimination of the urban guerrilla team

After the escape Çayan and Bardakçı made the decision that Çayan leading the rural guerrilla and Bardakçı leading the urban guerrilla. On 19 February 1971 07:00, Bardakçı killed in Arnavutköy.[7] With this, the urban guerrilla unit of the THKC was defeated.

Kızıldere affair

A Black Sea rural guerrilla team of the THKC and some THKO guerrillas, kidnapped 2 Canadian and 1 Briton radar technicians in Ünye on 26 March 1972. The revolutionaries were surrounded by Turkish soldiers in Tokat, Niksar, Kızıldere village on 30 March 1972. At first, the soldiers tried to negotiate with the militants. However this was deceiving, as soldiers shot the first fire and killed Mahir Çayan. In return of the opening fire and killing of Çayan, the militants killed the kidnapped technicians and the conflict started. At the end of the conflict, 9 guerrillas were captured dead.[not 2] Saffet Alp (from THKP-C) was captured alive but executed by the gendarmeries.[8][9][10] One of the guerrillas, Ertuğrul Kürkçü, hid and saved himself, however because his father was not able to find his body amongst the dead bodies, he too was captured on 31 March 1972.[not 3]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Cihan Alptekin and Ömer Ayna from THKO, Mahir Çayan, Ulaş Bardakçı and Ziya Yılmaz from THKP-C.
  2. ↑ 2 guerrillas from the THKO and 7 guerrillas from the THKP-C.
  3. ↑ Now Kürkçü is a member of the Peoples' Democratic Party.

References

  1. ↑ "44 yıl önce öldürülen İsrail Büyükelçisi Elrom kim çıktı". Oda TV. 31 October 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  2. ↑ Feyizoğlu, Turhan (March 2012). İki Adalı: Hüseyin Cevahir-Ulaş Bardakçı. Istanbul: Alfa Yayınları. p. 88. ISBN 978-605-106-441-3.
  3. ↑ Karakaş, Gökhan. "Güney, Çayan'ı bu arabada sakladı". Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  4. ↑ Şensoy, Hasan. "Şafak Yargilanamaz Cİlt: 2 Vii. Bölüm Thkp-c Mlspb'ni̇n Oluşum Ve Geli̇şi̇m Süreçleri̇". Archived from the original on 15 November 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  5. ↑ "51 Saat Süren Si̇bel Erkan Olayi". Oda TV. 16 March 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  6. ↑ Dündar, Can. "Büyük Fi̇RAR Yazi Di̇zi̇si̇". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  7. ↑ Şentürk, M. Utku (19 February 2014). "Mahallemizin en güzel abisi: Ulaş Bardakçı".
  8. ↑ Bjeduğ, Murat. "Arife Alp: Benim oğlum yaralıyken bile aman dilemedi onlardan..." t24. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  9. ↑ Alp, Fikret. "Sağken öldürülenlerden biri de abim Saffet Alp'ti". t24. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
  10. ↑ "Üsteğmen Saffet'i kim öldürdü?". Retrieved 31 December 2015.
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