Deniz Gezmiş

Deniz Gezmiş  (28 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 (THKO).

He was born to an inspector of primary education and syndicalist Cemil Gezmiş  and a primary school teacher Mukaddes Gezmiş. He was educated in various Turkish cities. He spent most of his childhood in  Sivas, where his father grew up. He graduated from high school in  Istanbul where he first encountered  left wing ideas. Gezmiş and companions are considered by some as "Turkey's Ché Guevara and compañeros".

Political Life
After joining the  Workers Party of Turkey ( Türkiye İşçi Partisi <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">), he studied law at  İstanbul University<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> in 1966. In 1968, he founded the Revolutionary Jurists Organisation ( <span lang="tr" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;" lang="tr">Devrimci Hukukçular Kuruluşu <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">) and the Revolutionary Student Union ( <span lang="tr" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;" lang="tr">Devrimci Öğrenci Birliği <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">).

<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">He became increasingly politically active, and led the student-organised occupation of İstanbul University on 12 June 1968. After the occupation was forcibly ended, he spearheaded protests against the arrival of the  US 6th Fleet<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> in Istanbul. Deniz Gezmiş was arrested for these actions on 30 July 1968, to be released on 20 October of the same year.

<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">As he increased his involvement with the Worker's Party of Turkey, and began to advocate a National Democratic Revolution, his ideas started to circulate and inspire a growing revolutionary student base. On 28 November 1968, he was arrested again after protesting US  ambassador<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">  Robert Komer<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">'s visit to Turkey, but was later released. On 16 March 1969 he was arrested again for participating in right-wing and left-wing armed conflicts and imprisoned until 3 April. Gezmiş was re-arrested after leading Istanbul University Law Faculty students on a protest of the reformation bill <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:8.48px;line-height:0px;white-space:nowrap;">  <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">on 31 May 1969. The university was temporarily closed, and Gezmiş was injured in the conflict. Although Gezmiş was under surveillance, he escaped from hospital and went to  Palestine Liberation Organization<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> camps in  Jordan<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> to receive  guerrilla<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> training.

<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">During the 60s, Gezmiş crossed paths with the infamous American Soviet/Russian  CIA<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> mole  Aldrich Ames<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">. While scouting for information on Soviet intelligence, Ames recruited one of Gezmiş' roommates, who gave him information about the membership and activities of  Devrimci Gençlik<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> (DEV-GENÇ), a Marxist youth group.

Arrest and trial
<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">On 11 January 1971, Deniz Gezmiş took part in the robbery of Emek branch of İş Bank/İş Bankasi (TR) in Ankara<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">. On 4 March that year, he kidnapped four U.S. privates<span class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:0.53em;line-height:0;position:relative;top:-0.5em;font-family:Lora,serif;">[7] <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> from TUSLOG/The United States Logistics Group headquartered in Balgat, Ankara. After releasing the hostages, he and Yusuf Aslan were captured alive between Gemerek-Yeniçubuk,  Şarkışla<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> and  Sivas<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> following an armed stand-off with law enforcement officers.

<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">Their trial began on 16 July 1971, after the  coup d'état of 12 March<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">. Gezmiş was sentenced to death on 9 October for violating the Turkish Criminal Code's 146th article, which concerns attempts to "overthrow Constitutional order". According to legal procedure at that time, a death sentence had to be endorsed by Parliament before being sent to the President of the Republic for final assent. In March and April 1972 the sentence was placed before Parliament and in both readings the sentence was overwhelmingly approved. Some politicians such as  İsmet İnönü<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> and  Bülent Ecevit<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> opposed the sentence, but  Süleyman Demirel<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> voted in favor of it. He and his colleagues within the AP (Adalet Partisi - Justice Party) gave votes in favor of the executions, shouting,  "Three from us, three from them!"<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">. <span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> - referring to the right-wing Democratic Party politicians (including former Prime Minister Adnan Menderes), who had been executed in 1961 after  Yassıada Trials<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">.

<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">On 4 May, President  Cevdet Sunay<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">, after officially consulting the Minister of Justice and Prime Minister  Nihat Erim<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">, refused to grant Gezmiş a pardon. He was executed by  hanging<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;"> on 6 May 1972 in Ankara Central Prison along with Hüseyin İnan and Yusuf Aslan.

<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">His last request was to drink tea and listen to  Concierto de Aranjuez<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">,  Joaquín Rodrigo<span style="font-family:Lora,serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:26.4px;">'s guitar concerto.