Çakırcalı Mehmet Efe (1872–1911) was a Zeybek, who was active as an outlaw in the region enclosing

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Muğla Muğla () is a city in southwestern Turkey. The city is the center of the district of Menteşe, Muğla, Menteşe and Muğla Province, which stretches along Turkey's Aegean Sea, Aegean coast. Muğla's center is situated inland at an altitude of ...

and

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in modern western

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, from 1893 to 1910. Born in

Ödemiş Ödemiş () is a municipality and district of İzmir Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,019 km2, and its population is 132,740 (2022). It is located 113 km southeast of the city of İzmir. About 4 km north of Ödemiş town are the ru ...

in 1871, he went out to the Aegean mountains at the age of 22 seeking revenge for his father, Çakırcalı Koca Ahmet Efe, who was murdered by an Ottoman sergeant. While the political standing of Çakırcalı is controversial, he is generally recognized as a legendary

efe Agencia EFE, S.A. () is a Spanish international news agency, the major Spanish language, Spanish-language multimedia news agency and the world's fourth largest wire service after the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. EFE was ...

, who was protective of common people, fought against authority, and established justice in regions of his control. He also called by the Ottoman Empire "kirserdar" in other words commander-in-chief (of an army) a military rank in Ottoman Empire. But he decided to be in charge on his own. In 1911, he was killed by Ottoman security forces during a fight and decapitated by his own men in order to prevent the identification of the body. Until the year 1948 his body was on the mountain where he was killed; his younger daughter Hatice Akkas brought his body to the graveside Ödemis

Kayaköy Kayaköy (also: ''Kaya'' or ''Livissi'') is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Fethiye, Muğla Province, Turkey. Its population is 975 (2022). Situated 8 km south of Fethiye, it is mostly abandoned. It was anciently known i ...

where her family has a glebe. There are stories about him that he killed more than 1000 people. The most famous folk song about him is "Izmir'in Kavaklari". It used to be sung as "Ödemis'in Kavaklari". In 2010 the Ankara State Ballet portrayed his life on stage for the first time. There are also many movies about his life. The first one, ''Çakırcalı Mehmet Efe'' (1950), was directed by Faruk Kenc. The part of Efe was played by Turkish actor Bülent Ufuk. There was a sequel to this film, entitled ''Treasure of Çakırcalı Mehmet Efe'' (1952). In 1957, Fikret Hakan starred in another film about Efe: '' Dokuz Dağın Efesi''. And in 1969 another film about him was released, starring

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. The greel movie Tsakitzis, Protector of the Poor (1960) directed by Kostas Andritsos and starring

Andreas Barkoulis Andreas Barkoulis (; 4 August 1936 – 23 August 2016) was a Greek actor. He graduated from the “Kostis Mihailides” drama school. He was among the most popular male actors of the 1950s and 1960s in Greece. Barkoulis, acted in 109 films and pl ...

is about Çakırcalı's life and is accompanied by songs about hi
(Τσακιτζής)
The book about Çakırcalı Mehmet Efe's life is written by Yasar Kemal called Çakırcalı Efe* (The Life Stories of the Famous Bandit Çakircali) (1972).

References

Views of the "outlaw concept" in comparative perspective: "The American West" and the "Zeybeks" in the Turk lands, Çakırcalı Mehmet Efe example
: Lectures on Central Asia, H.B. Paksoy

The movies are listed in the following link: http://www.sinematurk.com/arama/?a=%C3%87ak%C4%B1rcal%C4%B1+Mehmet+Efe Zeybeks People from Ödemiş 19th-century people from the Ottoman Empire 1872 births 1910 deaths {{crime-bio-stub