Deniz Gezmiş

Who was Deniz Gezmiş?

Deniz Gezmiş was a Turkish Marxist-Leninist revolutionary and political activist in Turkey in the late 1960s. He was one of the founding members of the People's Liberation Army of Turkey.

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".