DHKP-C (The Front)
Started to hit sensational targets, after a decade long silence.
Turkey's extreme-left
Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) has claimed the
responsibility of the suicide attack on the US embassy in Ankara on February 1,
2013. Right after the US Embassy attack, Front’s most popular website
www.halkinsesitv.com announced that “the attack was an act of self-sacrifice
and the sole intent was to target US and its collaborator AKP Government.” Through
their website they also claimed that they have the potential, dedication and
willingness to punish traitors who are siding / cooperating with Imperial
powers like US, Israel and especially Turkish Security Forces, accusing the
police as being a merciless tool for AKP Government and serving Gulen
Congregation/Hizmet Movement, an Islamic Turkish influential group whose leader
is living in the US. (These comments can
be reached at www.halkinsesitv.com., www.sosyalistforum.net, www.devrimcigenclik.info, www.ozgurce.org in
German and Turkish)
In the US Embassy
Attack; DHKP-C militant Ecevit Şanlı (A.K.A Alisan) blasted a 6 kg TNT embedded
to a vest, killing a security officer and wounding a journalist. Ministry of
Interior reports indicated that he was in disguise as a cargo-man which enabled
him to enter the main gate. He was also carrying a pistol and hand grenades as
a backup; indicating that his primary objective was to clear the entrance with
his pistol guarded by three to four security guards, try his chances to find a
passage through a second security door with grenades and finally blow himself
inside the visa offices compound.
According to police
records, Şanli was a well-known figure for DHKP-C, who was recruited in
Istanbul, trained in Greece and attended several attacks from 1995 to 1997
against police posts and governmental buildings. He was arrested after his deliberate
attack to Istanbul Harbiye Officers’ Club building with LAW rockets in 1997 and
sentenced to 25 years. He served time for some 4 years and released in 2001
with a presidential amnesty due to the Wernicke Korsakoff syndrome, a disease
caused by a long- term hunger strike he performed, during his time in jail.
A Brief
History of the DHKP-C
The DHKP-C
(Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front) is a Marxist-Leninist, anti-western
splinter group of the Turkish terrorist group Dev Sol (Revolutionary Left). Dev
Sol was originated as a splinter group of Dev-Yol (Revolutionary Path) which
itself was a splinter group of THKP-C (Turkish People's Liberation Party-Front).
The THKP-C was an offshoot of the broader Revolutionary Youth movement (Dev
Genc) within Turkey. In the early 1990s, infighting within Dev-Sol resulted in
the emergence of two factions. Dursun Karatas (a.k.a Dayı/Uncle),
who
founded Dev-Sol by
combining splintered factions of Turkish radical leftist groups in 1978,
changed the group's name to DHKP/C in 1994 in Damascus. Bedri Yagan, also a
founding member of Dev-Sol, broke from the Karatas faction and created a new
faction, THKP/C (not to be confused with the original THKP/C). Karatas faction
dismissed its political branch in 2000 adopting the name DHKC (Revolutionary
People’s Liberation Front). They shortly call themselves as “Cephe” (The Front).
The organization has
committed many acts since then and formed a strong system within the prisons which
helped to strengthen its grassroots. Aftermath of 1994 remodeling, the
organization continued their activities. One of the groundbreaking attacks of
DHKP-C was assassination of a prominent businessman of Sabancı Group, Özdemir
Sabancı and his two associates in 1996. This sensational action is followed by
some other assassination attacks to retired army generals and police officers,
and then a chain of “hunger strike” protests in Turkish prisons from 1999 to 2003,
which caused at least 13 out of 126 DHKP-C prisoners’ death in strike.
In 2000; DHKP-C leadership
– most of them were in Belgium, Netherlands, Greece and Germany- initiated a
new agenda for the organization, for the purpose to reach out the acceleration
they enjoyed during 1990s, announcing that their “Revolutionary Wave Program” would be initiated by every member
whether in jail, in exile or on the field/front. The program was primarily put
in action by the jailed members of the Front with a series of hunger strikes
and prison uprisings. Turkish Government took some harsh methods to counter,
launched military operations to some major prisons in Istanbul on December 19,
2000. As a result, a total of 54 prisoners were killed and more than 150 were
wounded. Turkish Government named these prison interventions as “Back to Life
Operations” and re-punished 154 prisoners –majority of which were DHKP-C
members- with additional sentences. In the following term, DHKP-C tried to
assassinate some government officials and ex-Secretary of Justice Hikmet Sami
Turk who they thought were masterminds of “Back to Life” operations.
Turkey’s terror
experts mostly agree that; following the death of DHKP-C founder and leader Dursun
Karatas in Belgium in 2008, the Front –under the new leadership of Musa Asoglu,
Zerrin Sari and Huseyin Fevzi Tekin- stayed low and avoid confrontations.
Except one failed attempt to kill ex Secretary of Justice H.Sami Turk with a
suicide bomber attack in 2009, the Front did not show any profile other than
participating “May 1 Workers’ Day” celebrations with Front banners and flags.
Analysts agree that between the years 2008-2012; the Front, trying to fill the
gap of Dursun Karatas, most probably focused on assigning new leadership cadres
and cells in Europe, Turkey and Middle East. They also must have been
established new areas of operation as well as new assault plans and targets.
Countries
Sheltering DHKP-C
According to Turkish
Ministry of Interior and intelligence reports; The Front is believed to be
functional in Syria and six European countries; Greece, Germany, Belgium,
Netherlands, Italy and Spain.
(1)
Greece:
Huseyin Fevzi Tekin is reported to be heading the Front’s activities in Greece.
He’s also believed to be directing the cells in Turkey and organizing the safe
passages of the militants from/to Turkey and Middle East, through Greek Islands,
Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus. Another prominent figure Zerrin Sari is believed
to be managing the training camps in Greece’s Lavrion, Kinesa and Oropo-Dileysi
regions. According to media reports, the group is sharing Lavrion camp’s
guerilla training facilities with another terrorist group, PKK.
(2)
Germany:
DHKC’s politburo is believed to be located in Berlin. Germany has a significant
importance for the group, in terms of providing short-term safe housing, money
raising and publications’ printing and distribution. The group is believed to
be managing at least 3 printing houses, 10 to 15 local markets, coffee houses, restaurants
and some small scale doctrine training camps in Germany.
(3)
Belgium
is also important for the group, since the country black-listed Turkey for
human-rights abuses in 2001. So the Front members can find refuge in this
country without much difficulty. Musa Asoglu, who was a close friend of Dursun
Karatas and accepted as the heir of him, is living in Brussels. Intelligence
reports mention that Belgium is Front’s primary address for organizing its
major decision making meetings and political demonstrations.
(4)
In
Netherlands, The Front is believed to be dealing with drug trafficking and sales,
making enough profit to support weapons procurement.
(5)
In
Italy, the group is developing ties with Italian Communist Refoundation Party
and organizing political activities to corner Turkish government with accused
human rights abuses.
(6)
In
Spain, the group is believed to be organizing joint political platforms with
Bask and ETA figures, as well as Socialist party (Partido Socialista Obrero
Español) members. Also there are reports suggesting that the Front has a couple
of safe houses in Madrid’s suburban areas.
(7)
Syria:
The group leaders as well as militants have great sympathy against Syria and
Assad regime, since Damascus provided shelter for Karatas and his friends from
1994 to date. Bekaa Valley, a no man’s land on Syria-Lebanon border had been
used by lots of extremist left organizations for almost 50 years. Interrogation
reports of some captured militants indicate that DHKP-C leadership was planning
to establish a safe haven along with efficient training camps in Syria’s Bekaa
Valley but the project is cancelled in 2011, after the outbreak of the Syrian uprising.
The Reasons Behind US
Embassy Attack
After a four year re-organization
phase, DHKP-C has become more active in Turkey by 2012 once again. The
organization have killed 3 police officers and committed some illegal
activities like attacking to police stations by suicide bombers in the last six
months, before the attack of US Embassy in Ankara.
Following their
activities closely, Turkish Police and National Intelligence Agency (MIT) shared
a report last year and indicated that there are 15 suspects who were abroad and
trained to deploy terrorist attacks to some high value targets. Police stated that
8 of them were trained in Greece, 4 in Germany, one in Syria and two in
Belgium. Based on this report Ecevit Şanlı was among four people who were
trained in Germany.
According to the
organization’s press announcements and web site comments, DHKP-C supported
Assad Regime and his war against Syrian resistance. The group also condemned
Turkey’s war readiness efforts against Syria and took sides with PKK, strongly
opposing PATRIOT deployments in the region, as well as NATO/US military
involvement against Syria.
The recent attack
shows that the concerns of security forces in Turkey were not baseless. DHKP-C
assumed the responsibility of the attack to the embassy next day and publishing
a declaration in its website stated that the bomb blasted because of the US and
Turkey’s policies in Libya, Egypt, Iraq and Syria.
DHKP-C dynamics are
based on opposing imperialism and fighting against every value which represents
American ideology. In this perspective, it will not be wrong to say that every
American entity “in Turkey” is bound to be targeted by the Front. Also,
intelligence experts believe that the organization is looking for options to
reach out a permanent training base which will enable the group to recruit more
and more candidates both in Turkey and abroad, smuggle them to a safe haven to
train, equip and prepare for a revolutionary war, just as PKK has been doing
for more than four decades. And by targeting high profile American figures
and/or buildings, it will be easier and prestigious for the Front, to gain
access to such places in Syria or another place in the Middle East.
Regional Reasons for
DHKP-C’s Rising Profile
The DHKP-C as stated
above is a Marxist-Leninist organization and this is not the first time that
the organization attacks to a foreign target, especially to American targets.
But again, the US Embassy attack shouldn’t be regarded as a confrontation
against US; as in one of his speech a leader figure of the organization Huseyin
Fevzi Tekin stated that “the most vital objective of the Front is not US but
its collaborators”. He added that America’s imperialist policies wouldn’t gain
such success without the support given by other nations so the revolutionists
should do their best to bring havoc on this cooperation by creating a chaos and
instead of attacking “the strong” they should choose to punish “relatively
weak” collaborators.
It can be argued that
developing events after Arab Spring fueled anti-Western/anti-American
ideologies both for right and left wing ideologies. “E.g. in Middle East’s
Islamic culture, which prohibits the suicide, the Arab Spring is initiated with
a suicide in which Mohammed Bouazizi – a Tunisian street vendor- dowsed himself
with fuel and set his body on fire in a protest in 2010. What happened next was
unexpected as it was explosive. Riots broke out, spread to Tunisian cities and
amidst massive demonstrations President Zayn-Al Abidine and his cabinet were
eased out by army and forced to flee into exile.
Uprisings in Tunisia,
Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria, against heavy handed governments with close ties
to West have inspired one another and created a domino effect in the region.
DHKP-C Leadership should have noticed the importance of a strong organization
with dedicated militants whose sacrificial acts are keen to inspire crowds. The
group started to “awaken” its cells in Europe and in Turkey due to the
following possible reasons;
·
The
time was right, and with the advantage of anti-American and anti-West
atmosphere, they would be able to gain some international support and sympathy
in the Middle East, a front they have been neglected for more than a decade. (E.g.
even a slight improvement to establish a post in North Africa (Tunisia or
Libya) may give Front an advantage to transport its militants in and out of
Europe.)
·
Syrian
regime did not dissolve as fast as it was expected and they turned out to be an
immediate enemy of the Turkish State. The Front probably felt the urgent need
to support its enemy’s enemy, probably hoping to get a permanent support either
from Baathists or their current sponsors like Russia, or even Iran.
·
It
became obvious that, the instability throughout the Middle East would be
permanent, causing long term vacuums which might be filled with strong
organizations with military capabilities. (If the Front succeeds to gain access
to the isolated regions, the longer their cause, existence and ability to fight
may survive.)
·
New
governments in Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Tunisia have Islamic roots and a
significant religious agenda. If Assad regime dissolves, the picture in Syria
will not be so different. Despite their differences, most of these countries
will pursue a fundamentalist policy, and all together they will be able to
oppose Israel, as well as America and continue to support Palestinian regime,
Hamas and Hezbollah, who’re also filling some vacuum in the region. In the long
run, even though they are distant to any religious ideology, DHKP-C’s military
capabilities and its strong connections in Europe might be needed by the new regional
actors/groups, to suppress any initiative in favor of Israel and the West.
·
Turkey’s
ruling party AKP and Turkish Security Forces are also in the central target of the
Front, since AKP crushed Turkish Left parties –including the main opposition
CHP (Republican People’s Party) - in the last two elections and filled out most
of the state agencies, governorates and municipalities with its cadres. In addition to the negative atmosphere of “The
Ergenekon Case” about an alleged illegal neo-nationalist organization accused
of planning to oust the pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP)
government through a military coup, university students and some left wing
socio political humanitarian foundations are not happy with AKP policies and
Turkish Leftist groups have no efficiency in Turkish political arena. This
weakness creates some amount of sympathy to marginal left wing groups, and
DHKP-C might easily enjoy popularity among Turkish Left by putting some weight
on social life, with sensational activities. (E.g. In Istanbul Okmeydani square
on February 15, 2013 a public bus of metropolitan municipality have been
stopped and burned to fire with Molotov Cocktails. Traffic has stopped for
hours and Istanbul Police couldn’t reach the area on time. In the following
hours more than three revolutionary leftist groups claimed responsibility and
each of them praising US Embassy attack, threatened government for following
angry mob demonstrations.)
DHKP-C’s
Possible Actions in the Future
DHKP-C is significantly
famous with its assassinations and suicidal attacks, so it will probably be the
first priority for the Front to attack “soft and hard targets” whenever and
wherever the ground is suitable. Soft targets by their nature and existence do
not have much security and they are much easier to attack than hard targets,
which deter attacks by maintaining a comparatively strong security presence, as
was the case in US Embassy Attack. Possible “hard targets” on the cross-hairs
of the Front might be US or Israeli personnel and their associates, AKP figures
and party employees, police and police stations, Turkish media buildings and
journalists who are known to be supporting AKP policies, Turkey’s Islamic
foundations and support groups who have Western ties. (e.g. like Gulen
Movement’s supporters). A wide variety of soft targets may be included to this
list; such as tourists and touristic places, restaurants and cafes with US
franchising trademarks like Starbucks, Burger King or Mac Donald, public
transportation, water, electric distribution facilities, etc.
Turkish media and
police records in the vicinity of recent events indicate that the Front is
expected to increase their safe house restructuring activities in Turkish
metropols -like Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Kocaeli, Antalya and some other cities
in Turkey’s Southeast, like Mersin, Hatay, Gaziantep, Maras -with improvements
like multiple steel-door emplacements in their safe houses, building
complicated explosive mechanisms and booby traps, with the intention to make
any police operations hard and costly. Since the safe houses are used to
provide short/long term refuge and safety for militants before and after their
activities, it is also logical to presume that each safe house location might
as well indicate a location for the group’s assault attempt. And this brings
Turkish intelligence to the assumption that the cities stated above, might witness
DHKP-C assaults in a close future.
The Front may also be
expected to show more profile in political opposition arena, cooperating with
other marginal leftist groups in Europe. They also may seek for a common ground
to develop a mutual agreement with PKK, putting aside their long term political
disagreements, but cooperate, at least in opposing and condemning the AKP
Government. Such cooperation may include intelligence gathering and sharing
about critical targets and organizing social protests against AKP policies, to
be demonstrated by large crowds.
By Coskun
Unal
Published by TRAC on February 2013
