Biography

Rauf Denktas was born on January 27, 1924 in Baf, Cyprus. He was an actor and writer, known for Isgal Altinda (1993), The Valley of the Wolves (2003) and Kypros '72 (1972). He was married to Aydin Denktas. He died on January 13, 2012 in Lefkosa, Northern Cyprus.

First president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is not recognized by any nation in the world except Turkey.

Turkish Cypriot leader.

He became a leader of the Turkish Resistance Organization in the 1950s.

He and his wife, Ayndin Munir, were married in 1949 until his death in 2012. They had two sons and two daughters. Both sons died including one in a traffic accident in 1986.

He was born into a wealthy family in Papphos (Baf in Turkish), a community in the Greek Majority. He attended the English School in Nicosia in the 1930s. He was the son of Raif Bey Denktash, a judge. He earned his degree in Istanbul, Turkey. He studied law at Lincoln's Inn in London, England. He had a practice in Nicoseia in the late 1940s. He became a crown prosecutor in 1952 and was acting solicitor general from 1956 to 1958.

I know that whatever I do, I will be known as Mr. No No, the one who is always intransigent. We are like little candles in a sea of Greeks. One storm and we are all snuffed out.