Shivan, Doctor

   Doctor Shivan was the nom de guerre of Sait Kirmizitoprak, a leftist ethnic Kurd from Tunceli in Turkey. While in prison in the 1960s, he became friends with Serafettin Elci, a conservative nationalist who headed the small Kurdistan Democratic Party of Turkey (KDPT). After his release from prison in 1969, Dr. Shivan went to northern Iraq and set up his own leftist base of the KDPT in the Zakho area. In 1971, he captured and executed Elci when he too crossed over into northern Iraq. Mulla Mustafa Barzani then apparently apprehended Shivan and executed him. Shivan's group briefly reemerged as the small Kurdistan Progressive Workers Party (PPKK), or Pesheng (Vanguard).