Deniz Gezmiş
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| Deniz Gezmiş | |
| Born | February 27, 1947 Ayaş, Ankara, Turkey |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Turkish |
| Known for | THKO |
Deniz Gezmiş (February 27, 1947 Ayaş - May 6, 1972 Ankara) was a political activist , among the most high-profile revolutionaries active in the Republic of Turkey in the late 1960s. He was one of the Marxist-Leninist founders of the outlawed Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Ordusu ("People's Liberation Army of Turkey").
The son of a teacher, educated in various Turkish cities, he spent most of his childhood in Sivas, where his father also grew up. Gezmiş graduated from high school in Istanbul, where he first encountered left wing ideas.
[edit] Political Life
After becoming a member of the Türkiye İşçi Partisi ("Workers Party of Turkey"), he attended the Faculty of Law at İstanbul University in 1966. In 1968, he founded the Devrimci Hukukçular Örgütü ("Revolutionary Jurists Organisation") and Devrimci Öğrenci Birliği ("Revolutionary Student Union").
Becoming increasingly more politically active, he led the student organised occupation of İstanbul University on June 12, 1968. After the occupation of the university was forcibly repelled by the law, he spearheaded protests against the arrival of the US 6th Fleet in Istanbul. Deniz Gezmiş was arrested for these actions on July 30, 1968, to be released on October 20 of the same year.
Intensifying his involvement within the Worker's Party of Turkey, and advocating the National Democratic Revolution, his ideas circulated and inspired a growing revolutionary student base. On November 28, 1968, he was arrested again after protesting US ambassador Robert Komer's visit to Turkey, but was later released. On March 16, 1969, for participating in conflicts between left and right wing students, he was arrested again and imprisoned until April 3. After leading the protests of Istanbul University Law Faculty students for reform conceivement on May 31, 1969, Gezmiş was injured and arrested; the university was consequently closed. Although Gezmiş was under police monitoring, he escaped from the hospital, and went to Lebanon to a Fatah camp to receive guerrilla training.[citation needed]
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[edit] Arrest and Trial
On January 11, 1971, he took part in the robbery of İş Bank, Ankara. On March 4 that year, he kidnapped four US privates in Balgat, Ankara. After releasing the hostages, he was captured alive and arrested in Şarkışla, Sivas with Yusuf Aslan following an armed stand-off with law enforcers.
Their trial began on July 16, 1971, and he was sentenced to death for violating Turkish Criminal Code's 146th article, "to attempt to overthrow the Constitutional order". According to legal procedure, the death sentence was to be endorsed by parliament before being sent to the president of the republic for the final assent. In March and April 1972, the sentence was sent to parliament and in both readings the sentence had been overwhelmingly approved by attending MP's. During the voting, politicians such as İsmet İnönü and Bülent Ecevit opposed the sentence, but Süleyman Demirel lobbied and voted in favor of it.
On May 4, President Cevdet Sunay refused to grant a pardon, after officially consulting the Minister of Justice and Prime Minister Nihat Erim. The death sentence was carried out by hanging on May 6, 1972, along with the death sentences of Hüseyin İnan and Yusuf Aslan, in the central prison in Ankara.
His last words: "Long live the People of Turkey's independence, long live the great ideology of Marxist-Leninism, long live the brotherhood of Turkish and Kurdish people, damn imperialism"; his last wish was to drink tea and listen to Concierto de Aranjuez, Joaquin Rodrigo's guitar concerto.
[edit] Aftermath
- In contrast with their final wishes, all of those who were executed on May 6, 1972 were not buried alongside Mustafa Taylan Özgür, in Ankara.
- In 1980, ex-Prime Minister Nihat Erim was assassinated as revenge for the execution by Devrimci Sol.
- In 1987, after 15 years, Suleyman Demirel, who actively supported the executions, told a journalist who was interviewing him that the executions were "a mishappening which occurred during the circumstances of the cold war".
