People's Liberation Army of Turkey (, abbreviated THKO) was an armed underground far-left movement in
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. It was founded at the
Middle East Technical University in
Ankara
Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...
, Turkey in 1968 by Hüseyin İnan,
Yusuf Aslan,
Åžirin Cemgil,
Deniz Gezmiş, Taylan Özgür and
Cihan Alptekin.
Goals
THKO was of the opinion that it had become impossible to carry on the struggle for independence and democracy within the legal framework and depending on peaceful methods of struggle in Turkey. The organization struggled for what they called a "National Democratic Revolution".
One of the main goals was to rid Turkey of all things American.
The main theses of THKO were:
#
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...
with the goal of a completely independent and truly democratic Turkey would be realised through a struggle based in rural areas and force policy under the command of national front understanding
#
People's war should be carried out on the basis of the alliance of the
proletariat,
peasantry
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...
and
petty bourgeoisie
#The
party of the working class and People's Army should be counted as the two basic organisations of people's war
#These two organisations would be built during the period of struggle, based on the participation of the masses
#THKO was a unique organisation, performing the functions of both of these two organisations simultaneously.
Activities
The organization's headquarters was in room 201 of
Middle East Technical University.
In February 1971, the group kidnapped an American sergeant from a base in Ankara and held him in room 201 for 15 hours, before releasing him.
reportedly invited young women to this room, as described by Christopher de Bellaigue:
Into his room at Ankara's Middle East Technical University, the famous room 201, he ushered a considerable number of tender, attractive, young women - captives to his piercing eye and cleft, proletarian jaw.
On March 27, 1972, the THKO abducted three NATO engineers (two of them British, one Canadian), working at a radar base in
Ãœnye. The kidnapping was perpetrated in cooperation with another organization: the
People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey (THKP-C). The kidnappers tried to hide in the village of
Kızıldere, but were discovered by the authorities who surrounded their hideout. In the following shootout the hostages and ten of the kidnappers were killed. One was caught alive.
On October 22, 1972, four students belonging to the THKO hijacked a Turkish airliner with 69 passengers on board after takeoff from Ankara. The aircraft was forced to change its course and eventually landed in
Sofia
Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
. During the hijacking one passenger and a pilot were injured and they were allowed to leave the plane together with the women who were released with their children. The four hijackers demanded the release of all political prisoners in Turkey, but after just one day they surrendered to the Bulgarian authorities.
Division
THKO was crippled after the killing of
Sinan Cemgil,
Kadir Manga,
Alpaslan Özdoğan at
Nurhak;
Cihan Alptekin and
Omer Ayna at Kizildere; and after the execution of
Deniz GezmiÅŸ,
Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan on May 6, 1972.
However, the organization remained active during the 1970s.
Individuals benefiting from the political amnesty in 1974 and THKO cadres that were already outside of jail constituted a Temporary Central Committee. After the formation of the TCC internal differences arose. One group developed policies advocated by
Chinese Communist Party
The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
-
Party of Labour of Albania (later only PLA) and founded the
Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (TDKP); another group adhering to the tendency of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
eventually founded the
Communist Labour Party of Turkey (TKEP). A third sector refounded itself as the
People's Liberation Army of Turkey-Revolutionary Path of Turkey.
See also
*
List of illegal political parties in Turkey
*
People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey
*
1971 Turkish military memorandum
References
{{Authority control
Anti-imperialist organizations
Communist organizations in Turkey
Defunct communist militant groups
Defunct organizations based in Turkey
Left-wing militant groups in Turkey