Deniz Gezmiş

Deniz Gezmiş (February 27, 1947 Ayaş - May 6 , 1972 Ankara) was a political activist and militant, among the most high-profile revolutionaries active in the Republic of Turkey in the late 1960s. He was the Marxist-Leninist founder 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.

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").

Increasingly more politically active, he led the occupation of İstanbul University on June 12, 1968. After the occupation of the university, he participated in protests against the arrival of US 6th Fleet at Istanbul. Deniz Gezmiş was arrested for these actions on July 30, 1968, but was released on October 20 that year.

Intensifying in Worker's Party of Turkey, adopting National Democratic Revolution idea, he made these ideas of him to spread in revolutionary students. On November 28, 1968, he was arrested again after protesting US ambassador Robert Komer's visit to Turkey, and was released. On March 16, 1969, taking place in conflicts between left and right wing students, he was arrested again and imprisoned until April 3. After the protests of leading Istanbul University Law Faculty students' for reform conceivement on May 31, 1969, the university was closed. Although Gezmiş was under police control, he escaped from the hospital, and went to Lebanon to a Fatah camp to receive guerrilla training.

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Arrest and Trial

On January 11, 1971, he took part in İş Bank robbery in Ankara. On March 4 that year, he kidnapped four US privates in Balgat, Ankara. After releasing the hostages, he was arrested in Şarkışla, Sivas with Yusuf Aslan following a gunfight.

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 should be endorsed by parliament before being sent to president of the republic for the final assent. In March and April 1972; the sentence sent to parliament and in both readings the sentence has been overwhelmingly approved by attended MPs. During the votings politicians like 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 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 People of Turkey's independence, long live great ideology of Marxism-Leninism, long live the Turkish and Kurdish People's independence struggle, damn imperialism" and his last wish was to drink tea and listen to Concierto de Aranjuez, Joaquin Rodrigo's guitar concerto.

Aftermath

• 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".

His Last Letter

      Father, when you receive this letter I will no longer be with you. I know you will be in grief even if I tell you not to. But I want you to stay in solidity; people are born, they grow, live and die. It is not important to live much long but to accomplish much while living. That's why I don't mind leaving early. In addition, my friends who left before me have never hesitated to die. Be sure, I will not, neither; your son is not foible nor helpless against death. He chose this path deliberately and he knew this would be the end. We may differ in our opinions but I think you may understand me. Not only you but also the Kurdish and Turkish people in Turkey I believe will understand. I gave the necessary instructions for my funeral to my lawyers. I will also send them to the attorney. I want to be buried next to my friend Taylan Özgür who died in Ankara in 1969, hence, do not take my funeral to Istanbul. It falls on you to comfort my mother. I am leaving my books to my little brother. Take care of him especially. I want him to be scientist, let him study science, let him not to forget studying science is a humanitarian service after all. At this last moment, I express that I don't regret for what I have done and that I embrace you, my mother and my younger and elder brothers with all the passion of revolutionism.
Your son, Deniz Gezmiş.(Book: Gülünün Solduğu Akşam, Author:Erdal Öz)