This blatant attack and the accompanying smear campaigns are part of the Turkish occupation’s ongoing attempts to settle its complex historical scores with national symbols and figures of the resistance. The exhaustive research and documentation of Professor Ali Kayali’s long and distinguished career as a key figure in the popular resistance for the liberation of the Sanjak of Alexandretta attest to the fact that, for decades, he stood as a formidable barrier against Turkish ambitions and policies in the region. His activism against the Turkish authorities began in the 1970s, when he led the leftist organization Acilciler. This included his arrest and miraculous escape from Turkish prisons in 1980, when he fled to Syria and reorganized the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Alexandretta Sanjak. This long history of struggle placed him at the top of Turkish intelligence’s “red list,” where he has been targeted for many years.