TRIBUTES were paid to revolutionaries Deniz Gezmis, Yusuf Aslan and Huseyin Inan across Turkey today, with activities marking the 48^th anniversary of their execution by the state amid calls not to whitewash their memory.

The trio were part of Turkey’s so-called “’68 generation” and seen as part of the wave of radical politics that was sweeping the world at the time.

They were arrested in March 1971 following the kidnap of four US soldiers who were stationed in Ankara. A court charged them with attempting to “overthrow the constitutional order” and recommended the death sentence, which at that time needed to be approved by parliament.