Just 25 year old Devrim is from Çorum. In 25 years he was arrested over and over again, he was a revolutionary who experienced torture and imprisonment.
A big part of his dreams and plans were related to what he will do when an uprising comes. For him, revolution was not as much of a far away dream for him: it was a reality which he felt right next to him as if it would happen spontaneously any moment-
Devrim was born on June 7th, 1993 in Çorum as a child of a Turkish Alevi family. He abandoned Çorum’s Eti highschool at the last grade.
Devrim Top was arrested for the first time on September 19th 2011 while he was a student of Çorum’s Eti highschool when he resisted police during the protest action against the compulsory religion lessons.
His uncle Selhan Top was a guerrilla. He fell a martyr on October 20th 2003 in a clash with the gendarmes in Çorum. That’s when the anti-fascist struggle entered the heart and the mind of Devrim:
“I first thought of revolution when I was still a child, when my uncle was martyred. I wanted to become a revolutionary and demand reckoning for my uncle.” That’s the dilemma of fascism.
In 2009 he decided to become a revolutionary. Since that day he was within the struggle as a Dev-Genç member. He took place in the organizing Liseli Dev-Genç (highschool revolutionary youth) in Çorum, Ankara and Istanbul. He participated in the militia activities. He spent certain period of his struggle being searched for. He never stood back in any fight.
He experienced imprisonment. In the imprisonment he did not surrender. He is self-educated. He read, he prepared himself physically for the war on isolation cell’s airconditioning. His rage against the enemy was great. Upon being able to disciplne this rage, he would be able to do a lot more in the struggle against the fascism then he did until this day. If one does not act with an ideologic and political programme, such rage does not convert into a force which kicks enemy into the guts. That’s also what all our comrades will learn from Devrim.
Devrim was finally released on February 2nd 2018. It was a time when the police set an ambush in front of the prison and once again arrested the ones that were set free. He continued the struggle since he was released until September 13th 2018 when he was killed by the running dogs of AKP’s fascism.
In his biography Devrim used the following words to explain what the movement meant for him:
“The movement is the only force that will change the world. And we are obliged to change the world. This exploitation and the system of oppression cannot go on like this.”
Our promise to all Devrims: WE WILL CHANGE THIS UNJUST WORLD.
WE WILL END THIS EXPLOITATION AND THE SYSTEM OF OPPRESSION.
The AKP government will be brought to account for all it’s massacres.
Devrims die, Revolutions continue! The victory is Devrims.
This decadence, this povery, those massacres are the cause of our revolution.