Background
Kalkan was born in Güzelim, Tufanbeyli, Adana, in 1954 to a family that immigrated from Erzurum.
Kalkan was born in Güzelim, Tufanbeyli, Adana, in 1954 to a family that immigrated from Erzurum.
Initially, serving as a guerrilla commander in the PKK, he succeeded Riza Altun as the PKK"s transnational money manager in the late 1980s and managed the organisations finances in Germany until the early 1990s when he moved to Iraqi Kurdistan, to evade arrest warrants. He publishes articles in Özgür Gündem newspaper under the name Adil Bayram.
There he served as commander in the Arteshen Rizgariya Gelli Kurdistan (ARGK) and member of the PKK"s Presidential Council, eventually becoming a member of the Executive Council of the Koma Civakên Kurdistan (KCK).