High school student detained for carrying flag of Turkish revolutionary leader Mahir Çayan

Duvar English

A high school student was detained early on June 14 by anti-terror police teams for carrying a flag of Turkish Marxist-Leninist leader Mahir Çayan during a march on May 1 Labor Day.

The student Kemal Selçuk Taşkelek faces charges of “conducting terror propaganda.” The march was organized by the leftist organization People’s Houses (Halkevleri) in the southern Antalya province.

The People’s Houses organizes a march on May 1 every year and carries the flag of Mahir Çayan. It was the first time this year that the flag has been considered as “terror propaganda,” drawing severe criticism on social media.

People’s Houses General Secretary Kutay Meriç said, “Our friend Kemal Selçuk Taşkelek was detained for carrying the flag of Mahir Çayan at the May 1 rally. Mahir Çayan is one of the symbol names of the socialist movement who lost his life 50 years ago. He is a name considered among the theoreticians of the social movement whose books and texts are still today legally published and sold. Commemorating Mahir Çayan, carrying his photo is not a crime; it is an honor.”

The posters of Çayan and his comrades have become a common sight at protest rallies. Çayan was a Turkish communist revolutionary and the leader of People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey (THKP-C). On 30 March 1972, he was killed in an ambush by Turkish Military Forces with nine of the other members of THKP-C.