Karayilan, Murat (Cemal)

   Murat Karayilan has been an important leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for many years. In the 1990s he served as a member of the PKK leadership council (politburo) and also commanded Kurdistan Peoples Liberation Army (ARGK) forces in the Botan and Amed (Diyarbakir) regions. After the capture of Abdullah Ocalan in 1999, Karayilan was chosen to sit on the presidential council that acted for Ocalan. As of 2010, he is the chairman of the Koma Civaken Kurdistan (KCK), or Kurdistan Democratic Confederation, an umbrella organization coordinating the military efforts of the PKK and Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), among other efforts. In recent years, Karayilan also most prominently has become the main PKK military leader, commanding some 5,000 fighters in northern Iraq's remote Kandil Mountains.