Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front
Encyclopedia
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
: Devrimci Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi or DHKP/C) is a Marxist-Leninist
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
party in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
.
History
The organisation was originally formed in 1978 by Dursun KarataşDursun Karatas
Dursun Karataş was the founding leader of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front in Turkey....
as Revolutionary Left (Turkish: Devrimci Sol or Dev Sol), a splinter faction of Devrimci Yol
Devrimci Yol
Devrimci Yol was a movement rather than a tightly structured organization, with many supporters in trade unions and other professional institutions. Its ideology was based on Marxism-Leninism but rejected both the Soviet and the Chinese model. Devrimci Yol entered the political scene in Turkey on...
("Revolutionary Way", also known as Devrimci Yol
Devrimci Yol
Devrimci Yol was a movement rather than a tightly structured organization, with many supporters in trade unions and other professional institutions. Its ideology was based on Marxism-Leninism but rejected both the Soviet and the Chinese model. Devrimci Yol entered the political scene in Turkey on...
), which splintered from the People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey (THKP-C), which in its turn was a splinter of Revolutionary Youth Federation (commonly known in Turkish as Dev Genç).
A 1994 factional infighting within Dev Sol resulted in two factions: the main group led by Dursun Karatas was renamed DHKP/C, while Bedri Yağan created a new THKP-C (not to be confused with the original one).
In all cases of "Parti-Cephe" (Part-/Front) names, "Party" refers to the group’s political activities, while "Front" is a reference to a group’s military operations. Theoretically they are separate entities.
The group espouses a Marxist-Leninist ideology and holds an anti-U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, anti-NATO positions. It considers that the Turkish government is under the control of Western imperialism and seeks to destroy this control by violent and democratic means.
It finances its activities chiefly through donations raised in Turkey and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Activities
Since the late 1980s, the group has targeted primarily current and retired Turkish security and military officials. It began a new campaign against foreign interests in 1990, which included attacks against U.S. military and diplomatic personnel and facilities.To protest what it describes as US imperialism during the Gulf war
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
, the DHKP/C assassinated two U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
military personnel, wounded an Air Force officer and bombed more than 20 U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and NATO military, commercial and cultural facilities.
It is significant that the only American killed by terrorists during the First Gulf War was a victim of Dev Sol. U.S. Insurance Executive John Gandy was brutally murdered in his Istanbul office in February 1991 by a well-trained Dev Sol hit team that gained access to the office building by wearing Turkish National Police (TNP) uniforms. After tying Gandy to a chair the Dev Sol operatives shot him multiple times in the head. The terrorists then wrote anti-US graffiti on the office walls with the victim's blood.
Although Dev Sol was under active investigation by the American, British, French, Austrian and Danish intelligence and security services, it posed a significant challenge for counterterrorist agents because it was one of the few terrorist organizations (at that time) to employ professional operational and counterintelligence tradecraft. It used sophisticated surveillance and countersurveillance techniques, it employed multi-layer assassination squads with surveillance, primary and secondary shooters, and it successfully exfiltrated its operatives back and forth between Western Europe and Turkey as needed. It skillfully employed professionally forged documents and disguise, and it preyed on innocent Turks living in Europe, extorting money from them in exchange for "protection." Turks who refused to provide pay-offs to Dev Sol were murdered or their businesses were vandalized.
In its next significant act as DHKP/C on January 9, 1996, it assassinated Özdemir Sabancı
Özdemir Sabanci
Özdemir Sabancı was a Turkish businessman and a second generation member of the Sabancı family.-Biography:He was born in Adana, Turkey. After finishing the high school at the Tarsus American College in Tarsus, province Mersin, he received his B.A...
, a prominent Turkish businessman, and two others: an associate Haluk Görgün and a secretary Nilgün Hasefe. The murders were carried out by hired assassins who had been given access to the Sabanci Towers by a member, the student Fehriye Erdal
Fehriye Erdal
Fehriye Erdal is a female political activist of Kurdish origin from Turkey. She was one of the three DHKP-C members allegedly involved in the assassination of a Turkish businessman, Özdemir Sabancı and two of his employees on January 9, 1996 in Istanbul, Turkey. In 2008 however, she was acquitted...
, working there at that time. DHKP/C later claimed responsibility for the act.
The DHKP/C has not only targeted Turks. On August 13th 1991 it
turned its attention to foreign businessmen, with the murder of
Andrew Blake, the head of British Commercial Union in Istanbul.
DHKP/C added suicide bombings to its operations in 2001, with attacks against Turkish police in January and September of that year.
Security operations in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and elsewhere have weakened the group, however. DHKP-C did not conduct any major attacks in 2003, although a DHKP/C female suicide bomber
Female suicide bomber
Though the majority of suicide bombers have been male, female suicide bombers have carried out a number of attacks.-History:Female suicide bombers have been employed in several conflicts, by a variety of organizations, against both military and civilian targets.*In Lebanon on April 9, 1985, Sana'a...
Sengul Akkurt's explosive belt detonated by accident on May 20, 2003 in Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
, in a restroom, while she was preparing for an action.
On July 24, 2004, another mistaken detonation, on a bus in Istanbul, occurred, killing Semiran Polat of DHKP-C and three more people and injuring 15 others.
On July 1, 2005, Eyüp Beyaz of DHKP-C was killed in Ankara in an attempted suicide bombing attack on the ministry of justice.
In late February 2006, female member Fehriye Erdal
Fehriye Erdal
Fehriye Erdal is a female political activist of Kurdish origin from Turkey. She was one of the three DHKP-C members allegedly involved in the assassination of a Turkish businessman, Özdemir Sabancı and two of his employees on January 9, 1996 in Istanbul, Turkey. In 2008 however, she was acquitted...
was convicted in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, while under house arrest. However, shortly before her conviction she escaped and still hasn't been found.
On April 29, 2009, Didem Akman of DHKP-C was wounded in her attempt to assassinate Hikmet Sami Türk at Bilkent University right before a lecture in Constitution Law. Akman and her accomplice S. Onur Yılmaz were caught.
Designation as a Terrorist Organisation
The organisation is listed among the 12 active terrorist organisation in Turkey as of 2007 according to Counter-Terrorism and Operations Department of Directorate General for Security (Turkish policeLaw enforcement in Turkey
Law enforcement in Turkey is carried out by several departments and agencies, all acting under the command of the Prime Minister of Turkey or mostly the Minister of Internal Affairs....
).
It also appears as one of the 44 names in the current U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations
U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations
"Foreign Terrorist Organization" is a designation of non-United States-based organizations declared terrorist by the United States Secretary of State in accordance with section 219 of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act...
, 48 groups and entities to which European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
's Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism applies and 45 international terrorist organisations in the list of Proscribed Terrorist Groups
Terrorism Act 2000
The Terrorism Act 2000 is the first of a number of general Terrorism Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It superseded and repealed the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1989 and the Northern Ireland Act 1996...
of the UK Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
.
Human Resources
Information provided by the Intelligence Resource Program of the Federation of American ScientistsFederation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists is a nonpartisan, 501 organization intent on using science and scientific analysis to attempt make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs...
based on the 2003 Patterns of Global Terrorism
Patterns of Global Terrorism
Patterns of Global Terrorism was a report published each year on or before April 30 by the United States Department of State. It has since been renamed Country Reports on Terrorism...
report suggests that the organisation has several dozen operatives within Turkey and a large support network in Europe.
A study carried out by the Counter-Terrorism and Operations Department of Directorate General for Security over a sample of files about people convicted of being a terrorist under Turkish laws including 826 militants from the organisation and the three other currently active left-wing organisations (see reference 1) 65 % of the members are aged 14 to 25, 16,8 % 25 to 30 and 17,5 % are older than 30. University graduates make up 20,4 % of the members, high school graduates 33,5 %, secondary school graduates 14 %, primary school graduates 29,9 % and illiterates 1,9 % (while they have no sampled literate non-graduate members).