I swear… I will never turn back from this road we set out on for revolution. He was one of the poverty-stricken youth of Gazi. He became one of the eyes of the shanty-town. He joined the Gazi uprising at the age of 17. Our comrade Eyup was born in Istanbul on November 13, 1978. His family were from Kizilcakoy, near Zile in Tokat province. he started working after a short time at school. He worked in an electrical shop, a clothing factory and then in a shoemaker’s shop. He was sympathetic to the Front.

He joined it in 1996. He was a young, bold and cheerful comrade. He carried out various responsible duties in Gazi. He was detained several times. Each arrest tempered him a little more, like steel. After each arrest he told our movement he wanted to be a guerrilla. His heart longed for the mountains. He worked in our militia organisations. He was on the commmittees against fascist terror. He sent our Front some writing as a memorial, and it is enough to quote the following: I did not expect our comrades Sadik and Selcuk to be martyred attacking the US consulate.

“I knew comrade Sadik Mamati. It is not possible to express the anger I felt towards the enemy. Without waiting I opened a Front banner that the Party had placed in the house I was in, and I took an oath. I would take revenge for you, and in an honourable fashion become a martyr of the Party-Front, and would never turn back from the road we set out on until victory was achieved.”

For him, the front was a movement whose politics of fighting and making others fight, work methods, way of life and culture, history and martyrs, connection to the people, confidence and values, made it worth dying for. After being taken prisoner he carried out various duties in Armutlu. In November 1999 he was imprisoned. He was in Umraniye when the F Types came on the agenda.

He had never been a guerrilla, but bow he turned his own body into a weapon. Eyup was one of our comrades who volunteered for the Death Fast. He achieved this wish as part of the Fourth Death Fast Team after being thrown into Kandira F Type. On May 11, 2001, he started the Death Fast. While amid hunger, day by day he approached nearer to death or victory, and also volunteered for sacrifice actions. It was very hard for him to remain silent towards the massacre in Armutlu, which happened street by street, house by house. In the sixth month of hunger, he carried out a sacrifice action to protest against the Armutlu massacre. For the poor of Gazi, of Armutlu, for the oppressed and those resisting, he set himself on fire. When on fire, he left behind these LAST WORDS to his comrades and people: We will live on in the belief in revolution and socialism. In dying, we will give our lives for revolution and socialism.

“We are not dying. I will continue to burn as a torch of revolution in the hands of our comrades and all Front supporters. Everybody knows this resistance will never be defeated. We will win by giving our lives and dying for our people and our freedoms. I love all our martyrs, all our comrades, our leader and Party very much. We will meet again in the sunlight. Farewell.”