Mahir Çayan

Mahir Çayan
Born	1946 Samsun, Turkey
Died	30 March 1972 Kızıldere, Turkey
Nationality	Turkish
Known for	One of the most well-known Turkish Communist leaders
Political party	People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey

Mahir Çayan (15 March 1946 in Samsun - 30 March 1972, Kızıldere) was a Turkish politician and the leader of People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey (Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Partisi - Cephesi). He was a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader. On 30 March 1972, he was killed by soldiers with nine friends in Kızıldere village. In this attack only Ertuğrul Kürkçü survived.

Biography

Çayan studied in Haydarpaşa high school and at the school of political sciences^[1] of Ankara University. Earlier, he became a member of Workers Party of Turkey and a leader of youth movement. He supported the idea of National Democratic Revolution but then he refused it. He admired guevarist guerilla groups in Latin America (Tupamaros), and he created a strategy which was called people's revolution and democratic revolution. He and his 10 friends abducted two NATO technicians. They went to an old village house in Kızıldere with the technicians. They wanted Deniz Gezmiş and his friends not to be executed. But gendermas did not accept their demand and bombed the old house. Only Ertuğrul Kürkçü survived this attack.

See also

• Devrimci Yol

References