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Murat Karayilan

Murat Karayilan (5 June 1954-16 September 2023) was the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from 1999 to 2023, succeeding Abdullah Ocalan.

Biography[]

Murat Karayilan was born on 5 June 1954 in Birecik, Sanliurfa Province, Turkey to a family of Kurds. He joined the Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1979 and was active in the PKK's struggle against against the Turkish government in his home province, and in 1980 he fled to Syria after the coup in Turkey. He called on Kurds to stop speaking the Turkish language, cease paying taxes, and to leave the Turkish Army, and Karayilan smuggled drugs to fund the PKK. In 1999, he succeeded Abdullah Ocalan as the PKK's leader after his arrest, and he led the PKK in its 2015 rebellion. He was allegedly killed in a July 2015 Turkish Air Force airstrike in Operation Martyr Yalcin, but the United States still listed him on its "Rewards for Justice" list. He was shot dead in Iraq by Turkish forces in 2023.

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