Mahir Çayan (15 March 1946 in Samsun - 30 March 1972, Kızıldere) was the Turkish politician and the leader of People's Liberation Party-Front of Turkey (Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Partisi - Cephesi). He was a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader. On 30 March 1972, he was killed by soldiers with nine friends in Kızıldere village. In this attack only Ertuğrul Kürkçü survived.

He studied in Haydarpaşa Highschool and Ankara University. Earlier, he became a member of Workers Party of Turkey and a leader of youth movement. He supported the idea of National Democratic Revolution but then he refused it. He admired guevarist guerilla groups in Latin America (Tupamaros), and he created a strategy which was called people's revolution and democratic revolution. He and his 10 friends abducted two NATO technicians. They went to an old village house in Kızıldere with the technicians. They wanted Deniz Gezmiş and his friends not to be executed. But gendermas didn't accept it and bombed the old house. Only Ertuğrul Kürkçü survived this attack...