Cemil Bayık

Cemil Bayık
Born	1951 Keban, Elâzığ Province, Turkey
Years of service	1978 – present
Rank	Member of PKK Presidency Council Vice-Chairman of KCK Executive Council Former ARGK commander
Battles/wars	Kurdish-Turkish conflict (1978-present)

Cemil Bayık (born 1951 in Keban, Elazığ) 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.

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.

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 and Murat Karayilan were voted to lead the PKK. According to Turkish claims, 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.

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Wikipedia