Information on an organization called Partizan is scarce among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. A Turkish-language Website called "Partizan" can be found on the Internet, however, little information in English or French is presented (Partizan Website, 13 June 1999). The home page includes a paragraph of Turkish text in which the words "Marksizm-Leninizm-Maoizm" appear.

Among the various pages in the Website is one containing links to five texts, four of which are in Turkish, and one of which is in English, entitled "Intensify the struggle against the imperialist offensive on the occasion of May 1st!", and is a statement against the NATO military campaign against Yugoslavia, signed "TKP/ML: Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist: International Relations Bureau." The document is dated 1 May 1999. The Website also contains a page entitled "TURKIYE ISCI KOYLU KURTULUS ORDUSU: TIKKO".

Two Turkish news reports from 1999 describe "TKP/ML-TIKKO Turkish Communist Party/Marxist Leninist - Turkish Worker Peasant Liberation Army" as "illegal" (Anatolia 21 Apr. 1999) and "a terrorist organization" (ibid. 3 Sept. 1999).

For information on TKP/ML and TIKKO, please see Political Handbook of the World: 1998, available at Regional Documentation Centres. For information on TKP/ML, TIKKO and a Kurdish organization called "Partizan," please see Revolutionary and Dissident Movements: An International Guide, available at Regional Documentation Centres.

In addition, information on TIKKO can also be found in TUR12569 of 14 January 1993. Information on TIKKO and the TKP/ML can be found in TUR18923.E of 14 November 1994.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please see below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Response.

Partizan. 13 June 1999 [Last modified]. http://www.partizan.org [Accessed 24 Sept. 1999]

Anatolia News Agency [Ankara, in Turkish]. 3 September 1999. "Members of Marxist 'Terrorist' Body Reported Captured in Eastern Turkey." (BBC Monitoring Europe 6 Sept. 1999/NEXIS)

_____. 21 April 1999. "Turkey: Police Catch Nine Members of Illegal Communist Army." (BBC Monitoring Europe 22 Apr. 1999/NEXIS)

Communist and Marxist Parties of the World. 1990.

Extremist Groups: An International Compilation of Terrorist Organizations, Violent Political Groups, and Issue-Oriented Militant Movements. 1996.