Metin Yüksel

Yüksel was born on July 17, 1958, in the eastern Anatolian city of Bitlis. Little is known about his early life outside of his Kurdish family's religious devotion, a characteristic that Yüksel would carry with him throughout his short life. His father, Sadreddin Yüksel, born in Konya was a well-known religious scholar, famous amongst Turkey's religious people. His brother, Edip Yüksel, is US-based lawyer who has become known for converting to Quranism and advocating Rashad Khalifa's teachings (for which he was rejected by Metin and called a murtad by their father).

Growing up during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, when the deadly political conflict took place in Turkey, Yüksel began his activism at an early age. Inspired by the ideas of his father and others, Yüksel quickly became active in the burgeoning Islamist movements that emerged in the early 1950s, following the onset of the multi-party period in 1945.

Asides from his political work, Yüksel also founded and led Akıncılar, a social welfare organization most prominent in the Kurdish-majority eastern Turkey, but existing throughout the country.

Although Islamists in Turkey were known for avoiding the 1976-1980 Turkish conflict between Ultranationalist and Leftists factions in Turkey, many of them died nevertheless. On February 23, 1979, while leaving a mosque after Friday prayer, Yüksel was shot dead outside Istanbul's Fatih Mosque by Grey Wolves loyal to the MHP. He was 20 years old.[1][2][3][4]

Following his assassination, Yüksel became a martyr among Turkey's Islamist factions. His assassination led supporters to declare February as Şehit ("Martyr") month.

Every year on the anniversary of his death, supporters make pilgrimage to the spot where he was assassinated, in the yard of Fatih Mosque. It is common for them to hoist banners remembering him and paint red the spot where he fell.

• List of assassinated people from Turkey