Dursun Karataş

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Dursun Karataş is the founder and leader of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) in Turkey. He was born in Elazığ, 1953.[1] In 1978 he founded Dev-Sol (Revolutionary Left, precursor of DHKP-C).[2] Karataş' group was based in Istanbul.[3]

Karataş was jailed after the 1980 military coup. In prison a political reorganisation was undertaken. The Dev-Sol inmates at Bayrampaşa prison refused to follow orders and boycotted court invitations. In prison Karataş wrote Haklıyız Kazanacağız, a work which included analysis of past mistakes of the Dev-Sol movement and lists of enemies of the organization. It was published in two volumes in 1989, spanning more than 1000 pages.[3][4][5]

He escaped from prison in 1989.[6] After escaping from jail, he went into exile in Europe.[4] In 1989-1990 Dev-Sol carried out a series of attacks. However, on July 12, 1991, Turkish police was able to dismantle several cells of the organization. Karataş fled to Europe. In April 1992 his wife Sahabat was killed by Turkish police.[3]

Following the police crackdown on Dev-Sol, Karataş was kidnapped and detained by the second-in-command of the movement, Bedri Yağan, on September 13, 1993. Karataş did however escape from captivity, and Dev-Sol was divided. Karataş and his followers reorganized their movement as DHKP-C.[3]

In 1997 he was arrested in France.[2] He served a shorter jail sentence there. He is believed to be living somewhere in Europe.[4][6] In 2006 a Belgian court sentenced him in absentia.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dursun Karataş at Biyografi.net (Turkish)
  2. ^ a b Chasdi, Richard J.. Tapestry of terror : a portrait of Middle East terrorism, 1994-1999. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2002. p. 230-231
  3. ^ a b c d http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-4569:1
  4. ^ a b c Kushner, Harvey W.. Encyclopedia of terrorism. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, cop. 2003. p. 315
  5. ^ Alexander, Yonah/Pluchinsky Alexander, Dennis A.. Europe's red terrorists : fighting communist organizations. London: Cass, 1992. p. 39-40
  6. ^ a b Orttung, Robert W./Makarychev A. S.. National counter-terrorism strategies legal, institutional, and public policy dimensions in the US, UK, France, Turkey and Russia Publisher: Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2006. p. 156.
  7. ^ Belgium sentences members of Turkish terror group to prison
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