DHKP flag

DHKC flag

History

The organisation was originally formed in 1978 by Dursun Karata? as Revolutionary Left (Turkish: Devrimci Sol or Dev Sol), a splinter faction of Devrimci Yol ("Revolutionary Way", also known as Dev Yol), which splintered from the Turkish People's Liberation Party-Front (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 Yagan created a new THKP/C (not to be confused with the original one).

In all cases of "Partisi/Cephesi" (Party/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., anti-NATO positions. It considers that the Turkish government is under the control of Western imperialism and seeks to destroy this control by violent means.

It finances its activities chiefly through donations and extortion raised in Turkey and Europe. First designated as a terrorist organization in October 1997 by the US State Department and continues to be there through 2005. According to some sources, the organisation probably has several dozen operatives inside Turkey, with a large support network throughout Europe.

Its main allies are International Solidarity () and PFLP.

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, the DHKP/C assassinated two U.S. military personnel, wounded an Air Force officer and bombed more than 20 U.S. and NATO military, commercial and cultural facilities.

In its first significant act as DHKP/C on January 9, 1996, it assassinated Özdemir Sabanc?, 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, 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 and elsewhere have weakened the group, however. DHKP/C did not conduct any major attacks in 2003, although a DHKP/C female suicide bomber Sengul Akkurt's explosive belt detonated by accident on May 20, 2003 in Ankara, 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 was convicted in Belgium, while under house arrest. However, shortly before her conviction she escaped and still hasn't been found.

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 police).^[1]

It also appears as one of the 44 names in the current U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations,^[2] 48 groups and entities to which European Union's Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism applies^[3] and 45 international terrorist organisations in the list of Proscribed Terrorist Groups of the UK Home Office.^[4]

Human Resources

Information provided by the Intelligence Resource Program of the Federation of American Scientists based on the 2003 Patterns of Global Terrorism report suggests that the organisation has several dozen operatives within Turkey and a large support network in Europe.^[5]

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).^[6]

References

1. ↑
2. ↑
3. ↑ , Official Journal of the European Union L 188/71, 2008-07-16
4. ↑
5. ↑
6. ↑

See also

• List of illegal political parties in Turkey

External links

• Revolutionary People's Liberation Front

an:DHKP-C ca:DHKP-C de:Revolutionäre Volksbefreiungspartei-Front es:Partido Revolucionario Liberación del Pueblo fr:DHKP-C nl:Revolutionaire Volksbevrijdingspartij Front tr:Devrimci Halk Kurtulu? Partisi/Cephesi