Deniz Gezmis

Deniz Gezmiş was born on February 27, 1947 in Ayaş, a district of Ankara, Turkey. He was the son of Cemil Gezmiş, an inspector of primary education and syndicalist, and Mukaddes Gezmiş, a primary school teacher. He spent most of his childhood in Sivas, where his father grew up. He graduated from high school in Istanbul, where he first encountered left-wing ideas. He joined the Workers Party of Turkey (TİP) in 1965 and studied law at Istanbul University in 1966. He became increasingly politically active and involved in the student movement, founding the Revolutionary Student Union (DEV-ÖB) and the Revolutionary Jurists Association (DEV-HUK). He also participated in protests against the US 6th Fleet, the Vietnam War, and the visit of US ambassador Robert Komer to Turkey. He was arrested several times for his actions and escaped from the hospital after being injured in a clash with the police. He went to Palestine Liberation Organization camps in Jordan to receive guerrilla training in 1969. He returned to Turkey and led a group of students who disrupted a lecture by American scholar Daniel Lerner at Istanbul University. He also founded the People's Liberation Army of Turkey (THKO), a Marxist-Leninist armed organization, with Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan. He carried out several armed actions, such as bank robberies, attacks on police stations, and kidnappings of US soldiers. He was captured by the Turkish authorities after the 1971 military coup and sentenced to death for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order. He was executed by hanging on May 6, 1972, along with Aslan and İnan, despite national and international appeals for clemency. He was buried in Karşıyaka Cemetery in Ankara. He is considered by some as "Turkey's Ché Guevara and compañeros". He is regarded as a symbol of the revolutionary youth movement and a martyr of the socialist cause in Turkey. His life and death have inspired many books, songs, movies, and documentaries.