Nickname(s) Cuma Battles/wars Turkey–PKK conflict Other name Cuma | Years of service 1978 – present Battles and wars Kurdish–Turkish conflict | |
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Rank Member of PKK Presidency Council
Vice-Chairman of KCK Executive Council
Former ARGK commander Siblings Ahmet Bayık, Hasan Bayık, Gülişat Bayık, Celal Bayık Similar Murat Karayılan, Duran Kalkan, Bahoz Erdal, Mustafa Karasu, Abdullah Öcalan | ||
Cemil Bayık (born 1951 in Keban, Elazığ), also known as Cuma, is one of the five founders of the Kurdish movement Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and is among the organization's top leadership. He is a member of the 12-man leadership council of the Koma Civaken Kurdistan (KCK), a Kurdish political umbrella organisation that the PKK is part of, and is also part of the three-man PKK Executive Committee, the leading body of the organisation, which consists of himself, acting PKK leader Murat Karayilan and Fehman Huseyin, a Kurd from Western/Syrian Kurdistan who is the PKK's military commander.
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Cemil Bayik has accused Turkey of protecting and supporting ISIS. He has also asked international observers to study Turkey's bombing raids against IS militants.
Life
In the PKK's first meeting in 1978, Bayik was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the organisation, making him the PKK's second man (after Abdullah Öcalan) and until 1995 he served as the leader of the PKK's military wing, the Arteshen Rizgariya Gelli Kurdistan (ARGK) or Peoples' Liberation Army. In the early nineties he was the camp director at the Mahsum Korkmaz Academy, the PKK's training camp in the Syrian-controlled Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.
After the capture of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, Bayik teamed up with Murat Karayilan against the reformists in the PKK. As a result, reformist leaders such as Osman Öcalan, Nizamettin Tas (who previously backed Bayik against Osman Ocalan in a leadership struggle) and Kani Yilmaz left the organisation, Karayilan served as acting leader of the PKK with Bayik's support. Bayik's position was weakened when Fehman Huseyin was made leader of the PKK's new military wing, Hezen Parastina Gel (HPG) or Peoples' Defence Forces. Since then Bayik has been a political leader in the PKK and is in charge of the organisation's relations with Iran. Bayik himself is said to have been to Iran numerous times, including to a base in Urumiyeh.
Just before the 2015 Ankara bombings Bayik stated that PKK does not want war and is again ready to an immediate ceasefire. Because if war could solve the kurdish challenge in Turkey it would have been solved long time ago. The ceasefire came into action on the day of the Ankara bombings.
Capabilities
His capabilities as a military commander have been criticised by many PKK leaders, including Öcalan, who doesn't hold Bayik in very high regard.
Suspicions of drug trafficking
On April 20, 2011, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the designation of PKK founders Cemil Bayik and Duran Kalkan and other high-ranking members as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers (SDNT) pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). Pursuant to the Kingpin Act, the designation freezes any assets the designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from conducting financial or commercial transactions with these individuals. However, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution says that there is no evidence that the organisational structures of the PKK are directly involved in drug trafficking.