Kaypakkaya, Ibrahim (1949-1973)

KaypakkayaThe founder of the Communist Party of Turkey-Marxist Leninist (TKP-ML) and the Worker Peasant Liberation Army of Turkey (TIKKO).

During his university education he joined Federation of the Clubs of Ideas (FKF, later Revolutionary Youth, DEV-GENC). He advocated the thesis of the National Democratic Revolution and took up a position with the Maoist wing of DEV-GENC. The Maoist Wing (Proleter Devrimci Aydinlik, PDA) became later the Revolutionary Worker Peasant Party of Turkey (TIIKP), but Kaypakkaya and his comrades split up from the Party and found the TKP-ML and TIKKO. They appropriated the armed struggle and guerilla actions and developed the strategy of a People's War. In January 1973 after combat he was wounded and arrested while another leader of the movement, Ali Haydar Yildiz, was killed. After a long torture period he was killed under arrest on 18 May 1973. Ever since he has become a symbol of heroic resistance under torture. [1]