Duran Kalkan (born

Güzelim, Tufanbeyli Güzelim is a village in the District of Tufanbeyli, Adana Province, Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatol ...

Adana Province Adana Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey located in central Cilicia. With a population of 2.26 million, it is the sixth most populous province in Turkey. The administrative seat of the province is the city of Adana, home to 79% of the r ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, 1954), also known as Selahattin Abbas,Duran Kalkan: The Turk Fighting for Kurdish Irredentism
jamestown.org; accessed 4 June 2017. or Selahattin Erdem is a senior commander of the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...

(PKK). Duran Kalkan,

Murat Karayılan Murat Karayılan ( ku, Mirad Qarayîlan) (born 1954),Murat Karayılan yakalandı mı?< ...

and

Cemil Bayık Cemil is a Turkish given name and is derived from Arabic Jamil with other Arabic variants Gamil (mainly in Egypt), Djemil (mainly in North African countries) and Djamil. The feminine equivalent is Cemile (derived from Arabic Jamila and its Arabic v ...

, the three current leaders of the PKK, are wanted by the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...

and the Government of Turkey for recruiting child soldiers, involving in drug trafficking, targeting Turkish government officials, police and security forces, and indiscriminately injuring and killing civilians.

Biography

Kalkan was born in

Adana Adana (; ; ) is a major city in southern Turkey. It is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The administrative seat of Adana province, it has a population of 2.26 million. Adana lies in the heart of Cilicia, wh ...

, in 1954 to a Turkish family that had migrated from

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. The city uses the double-headed eagle as ...

. He was among a group around Abdullah Öcalan,

Ali Haydar Kaytan Ali Haydar Kaytan (Born 26 March 1952, Nazımiye, Tunceli, Turkey) also known as FuadCigerli, Sabri; Saout, Didier Le (2005), pp.68–69 is a co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and a member of the executive council of the Kurdistan C ...

and Cemîl Bayık amongst others which held regular meetings from 1973 onwards and were known as the Kurdistan Revolutionaries later on. He was shortly detained together with Öcalan and Haydar Kaytan in December 1974, as the Turkish authorities closed down the ''ADYÖD.'' In November the group established the Kurdistan Workers' Party in which he initially served as a guerrilla commander in the PKK. He succeeded Riza Altun as the PKK's transnational finance manager in the late 1980s and managed the organizations finances in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

until the late 1980s. He was arrested in 1988 and prosecuted during the Kurdish trial in Düsseldorf, Germany. In pre-trial detention in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

he made a hunger strike which lasted for 40 days. He was accused of together with Hasan Güler, to have led the European organization of the PKK and ordered the murder of Ramazan Adigüzel. The state prosecutor demanded a life sentence but he was given six years for being a leader within a terrorist organization and due to his pretrial detention he was released. After he moved to

Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also inc ...

, to evade arrest warrants. There he served as commander in the Arteshen Rizgariya Gelli Kurdistan (ARGK) and member of the PKK's Presidential Council, eventually becoming a member of the Executive Council of the Koma Civakên Kurdistan (KCK). He publishes articles in the ''

Özgür Gündem ''Özgür Gündem'' ( Turkish for "Free Agenda") was an Istanbul-based daily Turkish language newspaper, mainly read by Kurds. Launched in May 1992, the newspaper was known for its extensive reporting on the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, and was reg ...

'' newspaper under the name Adil Bayram. Kalkan is in the red category of the "most wanted terrorists list" published by the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Turkey since October 28, 2015. The list contains information that Duran Kalkan was born in Adana in 1954 and is a member of the PKK/KCK organization. The Ministry announced that a monetary reward of up to 10 million Turkish liras will be given to Kalkan in this category. In November 2018 the USA declared, that within their Reward for Justice Program they offered a bounty of 3 million US-dollars for informations that led to the capture of Duran Kalkan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalkan, Duran Living people People from Tufanbeyli Members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party Turkish Kurdish people Apoists 1954 births Hunger strikes Prisoners and detainees of Germany People charged with terrorism Hunger strikers