People's Liberation Army of Turkey (, abbreviated THKO) was an armed underground far-left movement in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. It was founded at the

Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish language, Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a prestigious public university, public Institute of technology, technical university located in Ankara, ...

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

, Turkey in 1968 by Hüseyin İnan, Yusuf Aslan, Şirin Cemgil,

Deniz Gezmiş Deniz Gezmiş (, 27 February 1947 – 6 May 1972) was a Turkish Marxist-Leninist revolutionary, student leader, and political activist in Turkey in the late 1960s. He was one of the founding members of the People's Liberation Army of Turkey ...

, Taylan Özgür and

Cihan Alptekin Cihan Alptekin (1947 – 30 March 1972) was a Turkish revolutionary and militant who was a leader in left-wing organisations such as People's Liberation Army of Turkey, and the Revolutionary Youth Federation of Turkey, a Marxist organisation. He ...

Goals

THKO was of the opinion that it had become impossible to carry on the struggle for independence and democracy within the legal framework and depending on peaceful methods of struggle in Turkey. The organization struggled for what they called a "National Democratic Revolution". One of the main goals was to rid Turkey of all things American. The main theses of THKO were: #

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

with the goal of a completely independent and truly democratic Turkey would be realised through a struggle based in rural areas and force policy under the command of national front understanding #

People's war People's war or protracted people's war is a Maoist military strategy. First developed by the Chinese communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (1893–1976), the basic concept behind people's war is to maintain the support of the population ...

should be carried out on the basis of the alliance of the

proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...

peasantry A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

and

petty bourgeoisie ''Petite bourgeoisie'' (, ; also anglicised as petty bourgeoisie) is a term that refers to a social class composed of small business owners, shopkeepers, small-scale merchants, semi-autonomous peasants, and artisans. They are named as such ...

#The party of the working class and People's Army should be counted as the two basic organisations of people's war #These two organisations would be built during the period of struggle, based on the participation of the masses #THKO was a unique organisation, performing the functions of both of these two organisations simultaneously.

Activities

The organization's headquarters was in room 201 of

. In February 1971, the group kidnapped an American sergeant from a base in Ankara and held him in room 201 for 15 hours, before releasing him.

reportedly invited young women to this room, as described by Christopher de Bellaigue:

Into his room at Ankara's Middle East Technical University, the famous room 201, he ushered a considerable number of tender, attractive, young women - captives to his piercing eye and cleft, proletarian jaw.

On March 27, 1972, the THKO abducted three NATO engineers (two of them British, one Canadian), working at a radar base in

Ünye Ünye (''Oinòe'', Οἰνόη in ancient Greek) is a municipality and district of Ordu Province, Turkey. Its area is 569 km2, and its population is 132,432 (2022). It is on the Black Sea coast, 76 km west of the city of Ordu. Geography ...

. The kidnapping was perpetrated in cooperation with another organization: the

People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey People's, branded as ''People's ViennaLine'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH'', is an Austro-Swiss airline headquartered in Vienna, Austria. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights mainly from its base at St. ...

(THKP-C). The kidnappers tried to hide in the village of Kızıldere, but were discovered by the authorities who surrounded their hideout. In the following shootout the hostages and ten of the kidnappers were killed. One was caught alive. On October 22, 1972, four students belonging to the THKO hijacked a Turkish airliner with 69 passengers on board after takeoff from Ankara. The aircraft was forced to change its course and eventually landed in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. During the hijacking one passenger and a pilot were injured and they were allowed to leave the plane together with the women who were released with their children. The four hijackers demanded the release of all political prisoners in Turkey, but after just one day they surrendered to the Bulgarian authorities.

Division

THKO was crippled after the killing of Sinan Cemgil, Kadir Manga, Alpaslan Özdoğan at

Nurhak Nurhak () is a municipality and district of Kahramanmaraş Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,028 km2, and its population is 12,257 (2022). Composition There are 16 neighbourhoods in Nurhak District: * Ağcaşar * Alçiçek Değirmenkaya * Bar ...

;

and

Omer Ayna People's Liberation Army of Turkey (, abbreviated THKO) was an armed underground far-left movement in Turkey. It was founded at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey in 1968 by Hüseyin İnan, Yusuf Aslan, Şirin Cemgil, Deniz Gez ...

at Kizildere; and after the execution of

, Yusuf Aslan and Hüseyin İnan on May 6, 1972. However, the organization remained active during the 1970s. Individuals benefiting from the political amnesty in 1974 and THKO cadres that were already outside of jail constituted a Temporary Central Committee. After the formation of the TCC internal differences arose. One group developed policies advocated by

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

Party of Labour of Albania The Party of Labour of Albania (PLA), also referred to as the Albanian Workers' Party (AWP), was the ruling and sole legal party of Albania during the communist period (1945–1991). It was founded on 8 November 1941 as the Communist Party of ...

(later only PLA) and founded the Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (TDKP); another group adhering to the tendency of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

eventually founded the Communist Labour Party of Turkey (TKEP). A third sector refounded itself as the People's Liberation Army of Turkey-Revolutionary Path of Turkey.

References

{{Authority control Anti-imperialist organizations Communist organizations in Turkey Defunct communist militant groups Defunct organizations based in Turkey Left-wing militant groups in Turkey

Goals

Activities

Division

See also

References