(1946-2019)
Armenian by birth, Garbis Altinoğlu – who occasionally used the pen name Gumus Velli – relocated to Amasya, Turkey early in life. He was drawn to Marxism-Leninism as a young man and recognized his role in history as a revolutionary. Garbis was arrested in 1980, shortly after the military coup in Turkey and he remained imprisoned for 11 years during which time he was subjected to torture and exceptionally harsh conditions. He served as a leading member of Turkey’s Marxist-Leninist Communist Party for many years but eventually parted ways with the organization due to fundamental disagreements. Later in life, Garbis lived in exile in Belgium. During his lifetime, Garbis published numerous essays and works and translated key works by Marx and Stalin into Turkish, as well as writings by W.B. Bland and Grover Furr. He passed away in October 2019 due to illness.
See also: Garbis Altinoglu Internet Archive
Written by Hari Kumar for publication via marxists.org, 2019.