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The Maoist insurgency in Turkey, referred by the Maoists as the People's War (Turkish: Halk savaşı), is an ongoing low-level insurgency in eastern Turkey between the Turkish government and Maoist rebels that began in the early 1970s. The insurgency declined in the late 1980s and 1990s and has been sidelined by the larger Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present). Low-level armed attacks continue to be carried out by Maoist insurgent groups, the most significant of which are the Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey (TİKKO) (the armed wing of the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist) and the People's Liberation Army (HKO) and People's Partisan Forces (PHG), both armed wings of the Maoist Communist Party.
| Maoist insurgency in Turkey | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Government of Turkey |
 MKP-HKO-PHGMaoist Party Centre | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Former:
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Cüneyt Kahraman † Cafer Cangöz † Nubar Ozanyan † | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
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Special Forces Command |
| ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
On 24 April 1972, the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist (TKP/ML, sometimes incorrectly referred to as Partizan after the name of one of its publications) was formed by a radical group led by İbrahim Kaypakkaya, and intended to wage a people's war. However, a year later Kaypakkaya was captured, tortured and killed. In 1978, it had its first conference, affirming its plan for guerrilla warfare, although the idea of armed rebellion remained in theory with little progress made to fruition.[1] The TKP/ML was involved in political violence between left and right wing groups in the 1970s.
In the late 1980s, the TKP/ML suffered from a series of splits following the party's second congress. In 1993, the TKP/ML attempted unsuccessfully to reunify with the Maoist Communist Party (Turkey)
On 17 May 1985, the TKP/ML broadcast a propaganda message to millions of television viewers in Istanbul, replacing the soundtrack for the evening news.[2]
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TKP/ML's military wing, the Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey (TİKKO), carried out militant and guerrilla actions in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, mainly in the Tunceli Province, whose inhabitants saw the Maoist guerrilla war as revenge for the repression of the Dersim rebellion in 1938.[3] TİKKO reached its height during this period, carrying out guerrilla warfare in the mountainous areas of the Tunceli and Black Sea regions.[4]
In 2000, Turkish security forces launched operations against TİKKO insurgents in the provinces of Tokat and Sivas. Discovering 12 hideouts, they recovered nine machine guns, four rocket launchers, grenades, and explosives, as well as 10 tonnes of food and medicine.[5]
The TKP-ML came to be the most influential socialist organisation within Dersim's society to the point that they became an organic component of their politico-cultural collective belonging.[33] Individuals supported by ideological descendants of the TKP-ML in Dersim received a third of votes in elections in 2009.[34]
