DHKP-C: In search of a comeback

The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) is an offshoot of a Marxist-Leninist movement that was established in the 1970s. The DHKP-C was founded in the 1990s after it splintered from a larger group of far-left organizations responsible for a string of attacks that include the assassination of two politicians in 1980 and several intelligence officials.

It kept a relatively low profile for many years. Additionally, its attacks were relatively minor compared to the PKK, another terrorist organization active in Turkey; however, the DHKP-C stepped up its attacks over the past two years. In 2013, a DHKP-C militant carried out a suicide bombing at the U.S. Embassy compound in the capital, killing a Turkish security guard.

The DHKP-C also claimed responsibility for non-lethal rocket attacks targeting the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) headquarters, the Turkish National Police headquarters and a Justice Ministry building in Ankara in 2013. The group, designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU, advocates a far-left ideology. Moreover, its members do not have a homogenous ethnic background like the PKK, which mainly draws support from Kurds. The DHKP-C's power significantly declined since the death of Dursun Karataş, one of its founding leaders, in 2008.

Still, experts say that the group seeks to stage a comeback by launching "sensational" attacks. As with every terrorist organization, conspiracy theories are abound concerning the DHKP-C with allegations that the group was used as a "tool" by intelligence services, both local and foreign, in the past, to conduct attacks to serve their interests.

The organization claimed responsibility for two attacks this year. A foiled attempt to attack security guards outside an Ottoman-era palace in Istanbul was followed by a militant shooting at police officers at Istanbul's Taksim Square in January. No one was injured in the attacks. Last week's attack on the offices of a magazine, which killed one writer and wounded three others, was also blamed on an affiliate of the organization – though it did not claim responsibility through Halkın Sesi (The Voice of the People), a Twitter account where the group's members generally announce their attacks.

Apart from outright terror attacks, the organization also looks to make a name for itself by exploiting protests such as the Gezi Park incidents of 2013. It was common to see shotgun and pistol-wielding members of the DHKP-C roaming the streets, especially in working-class neighborhoods where it recruits supporters, during the protests and subsequent rallies last year under the pretext of commemorating rioters who died during protests.