A Revolutionary: Dursun Karataş, Volume 1, compiled by Ümit İlter and Ercan Kartal, tells the story of the life, struggle and leadership of Dursun Karataş, known to generations of revolutionaries as Dayı.
Beginning with his childhood in Elazığ and his university years in Istanbul, the book follows his development within the revolutionary movement, his commitment to the political line of Mahir Çayan and the THKP-C, the foundation of Revolutionary Left (Devrimci Sol) in 1978, the resistance against the 12 September military junta, his years of imprisonment and the historic prison resistances of the 1980s. It continues through his return to freedom and the subsequent development of the revolutionary movement towards the formation of the Party-Front.
But this is not simply a chronological biography. Through the memories and testimonies of comrades who knew him, lived with him and fought alongside him, the book portrays Dayı’s understanding of leadership, organisation, comradeship, discipline, creativity, sacrifice and revolutionary morality. It is also a history of the struggles, victories, losses and traditions through which a revolutionary movement was built.
Dursun Karataş (1952–2008) devoted 38 years of his life to revolutionary struggle. From the founding of Revolutionary Left to his later leadership of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), his life became inseparable from the history of the movement he helped create.
A Revolutionary: Dursun Karataş is therefore both the story of Dayı and the story of a revolutionary tradition—told through the experiences of those who were part of it.
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