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Kurdistan Workers' Party

Kurdistan Workers' Party
Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê (Kurdish)
Leaders
Dates of operation27 November 1978 (1978-11-27)
Allegiance
HeadquartersQandil Mountains, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
Ideology
Historical:
Political position
Size5,000 (estimate)[note 1]
Allies
Opponents
Battles and wars
Designated as a terrorist group by

The Kurdistan Workers' Party[a] or PKK (Kurdish: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê) is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla group which is primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq and north-eastern Syria. It was founded in Ziyaret, Lice on 27 November 1978 and has been involved in asymmetric warfare in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict (with several ceasefires between 1993 and 2013–2015). Although the PKK initially sought an independent Kurdish state, in the 1990s its official platform changed to seeking autonomy and increased political and cultural rights for Kurds within Turkey.[25] On 1 March 2025 the PKK declared a ceasefire with Turkey.[26]

The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey,[27] the United States,[28] the European Union,[29] and some other countries;[30][31] however, the labeling of the PKK as a terrorist organization is controversial to some analysts and organizations,[32] who believe that the PKK no longer engages in organized terrorist activities or systemically targets civilians.[33][34][35][36][37][38] Turkey has often characterized the demand for education in Kurdish as supporting terrorist activities by the PKK.[39][40][41] Both in 2008 and 2018 the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the PKK was classified as a terror organization without due process.[42][43] Nevertheless, the EU has maintained the designation.[44]

The PKK's ideology was originally a fusion of revolutionary socialism and Marxism–Leninism with Kurdish nationalism, seeking the foundation of an independent Kurdistan.[45] The PKK was formed as part of a growing discontent over the suppression of Turkey's Kurds, in an effort to establish linguistic, cultural, and political rights for the Kurdish minority.[46] Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life.[47] Many who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned.[48] The Turkish government denied the existence of Kurds and the PKK was portrayed trying to convince Turks of being Kurds.[49]

The PKK has been involved in armed clashes with Turkish security forces since 1979, but the full-scale insurgency did not begin until 15 August 1984, when the PKK announced a Kurdish uprising. Since the conflict began, more than 40,000 people have died, most of whom were Kurdish civilians.[50][51] In 1999, PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured and imprisoned.[52] In May 2007, serving and former members of the PKK set up the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organisation of Kurdish organisations in Turkish, Iraqi, Iranian, and Syrian Kurdistan. In 2013, the PKK declared a ceasefire and began slowly withdrawing its fighters to Iraqi Kurdistan as part of a peace process with the Turkish state. The ceasefire broke down in July 2015.[53] Both the PKK and the Turkish state have been accused of engaging in terror tactics and targeting civilians. The PKK has bombed city centres and recruited child soldiers,[54][55][56] and conducted several attacks that massacred civilians.[57][58][59][60]

Turkey has depopulated and burned down thousands of Kurdish villages and massacred Kurdish civilians in an attempt to root out PKK militants.[61][62][63][64][65]

  1. ^ "Kurdistan Workers' Party". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 7 September 2020. Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) ... militant Kurdish nationalist organization ...
  2. ^ "Handbuch Extremismusprävention". Federal Criminal Office (in German). 10 July 2020. p. 159. Archived from the original on 3 October 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020. ... der inzwischen stärker durch kurdischen Nationalismus geprägten PKK. [... the PKK, which is now more strongly influenced by Kurdish nationalism.]
  3. ^ "Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)". Counter Extremism Project. Retrieved 15 May 2021. In 2003, Öcalan reformulated the ideological basis of the PKK. Inspired by eco-anarchists Murray Bookchin and Janet Beihl, he advocated for a new anti-nationalist approach he referred to as 'democratic confederalism.'
  4. ^ O'Connor, Francis (1 January 2017). "The Kurdish Movement in Turkey: Between Political Differentiation and Violent Confrontation". Peace Research Institute Frankfurt: 16–17. The PKK has explicitly renounced its demand for an independent state... [Öcalan] describes [his theory] as 'an anti-Nationalist movement [...]'
  5. ^ a b de Jong, Alex (18 March 2016). "The New-Old PKK". Jacobin Magazine. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  6. ^ "Mad Dreams of Independence". 15 July 1994.
  7. ^ Novellis, Andrea (2018). "The Rise of Feminism in the PKK: Ideology or Strategy?". Zanj: The Journal of Critical Global South Studies. 2 (1): 115–133. doi:10.13169/zanjglobsoutstud.2.1.0115. hdl:2434/817740. JSTOR 10.13169/zanjglobsoutstud.2.1.0115.
  8. ^ Glioti, Andrea (6 August 2016). "Rojava: A libertarian myth under scrutiny". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 19 August 2016.
  9. ^ Wali, Zhelwan Z. "Kurd vs Kurd: Fears of full-scale war rise in northern Iraq". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 19 April 2021. The PKK has an estimated 5,000 fighters stationed largely in Iraqi Kurdish region's rugged mountainous areas
  10. ^ "Country Reports on Terrorism 2019". United States Department of State. Retrieved 19 April 2021. The PKK is estimated to consist of 4,000 to 5,000 members
  11. ^ "Terrorism Profile – Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)". The Mackenzie Institute. Retrieved 19 April 2021. The exact number of fighters in the PKK is unknown, however, it is widely believed to be approximately 7000
  12. ^ "Assyrian Nationalists Cooperate with Kurdish PKK Insurgents". Jamestown Foundation. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  13. ^ "MLKP salutes the PKK on the anniversary of 15 August". Firat News Agency. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
  14. ^ "Verfassungsschutzbericht 2007" (PDF). Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. 2007. ISSN 0177-0357. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 September 2008. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
  15. ^ "Turkey spy agency denies role in Paris Kurds murder, launches probe". 16 January 2014.
  16. ^ "Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions" (PDF). European Commission. 29 May 2019.
  17. ^ "TRILATERAL MEMORANDUM" (PDF). NATO. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  18. ^ "Foreign Terrorist Organizations".
  19. ^ "Currently listed entities". 21 December 2018.
  20. ^ "MOFA: Implementation of the Measures including the Freezing of Assets against Terrorists and the Like". www.mofa.go.jp.
  21. ^ "Statement Made By İsmail Cem, Foreign Minister, On The Special Security Meeting Held Between Turkey And Syria October 20, 1998 (Unofficial Translation) / Rep. of Turkey Ministry of Foreign Affairs". 1 March 2016. Archived from the original on 1 March 2016.
  22. ^ "Listed terrorist organisations | Australian National Security". Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  23. ^ "Proscribed terrorist groups or organisations". Home Office. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
  24. ^ "Designation of Terrorist Entities". New Zealand Government. 18 February 2010.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference Stanton was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ "Kurdish group PKK declares ceasefire with Turkey". www.bbc.com. 1 March 2025. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference RadioFrance was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ "Foreign Terrorist Organizations". United States Department of State. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  29. ^ "Turkey 2019 Report" (PDF). ec.europa.eu. p. 5. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  30. ^ "Listed terrorist organisations". www.nationalsecurity.gov.au. Attorney-General's department. Archived from the original on 5 February 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  31. ^ "MOFA: Implementation of the Measures including the Freezing of Assets against Terrorists and the Like". Archived from the original on 6 April 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  32. ^ Haner, Murat; Cullen, Francis T.; Benson, Michael L. (13 February 2019). "Women and the PKK: Ideology, Gender, and Terrorism". International Criminal Justice Review. 30 (3): 279–301. doi:10.1177/1057567719826632. ISSN 1057-5677. S2CID 150900998.
  33. ^ "Kurdish Fighters Aren't Terrorists". Bloomberg News. 20 August 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  34. ^ Levy, Bernard-Henri (22 October 2014). "Stop Calling Our Closest Allies Against ISIS 'Terrorists'". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  35. ^ Rubin, Michael (7 February 2020). "US should follow Belgium's lead and end PKK terror designation". American Enterprise Institute. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  36. ^ Beklevic, Tuna (22 October 2019). "Trump says the PKK is worse than ISIS. I say he's wrong — and I'm a Turk". The Washington Post. Retrieved 18 March 2021. I am Turkish. I am a former government official. And I believe that the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK... is not a terrorist organization.
  37. ^ "The Case for Delisting the PKK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization". Lawfare. 11 February 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  38. ^ Bodette, Meghan (23 October 2018). "It's time for the US to delist the PKK — here's why". The Region. Archived from the original on 30 September 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  39. ^ Can, Osman (17 June 2021). "The Motion before Turkey's Constitutional Court to Ban the Pro-Kurdish HDP". German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
  40. ^ Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove; Fernandes, Desmond (2008). "Kurds in Turkey and in (Iraqi) Kurdistan: A Comparison of Kurdish Educational Language Policy in Two Situations of Occupation". Genocide Studies and Prevention. p. 46.
  41. ^ Protesting as a terrorist offense (PDF). Human Rights Watch. 2010. pp. 40–41. ISBN 978-1564327086. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  42. ^ Cite error: The named reference :6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  43. ^ Cite error: The named reference :7 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  44. ^ "EU-Gericht: PKK zu Unrecht auf EU-Terrorliste". Tagesschau (in German). Retrieved 17 January 2021.
  45. ^ Jongerden, Joost (1 October 2017). "Gender equality and radical democracy: Contractions and conflicts in relation to the "new paradigm" within the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)". Anatoli. De l'Adriatique à la Caspienne. Territoires, Politique, Sociétés. 8 (8): 233–256. doi:10.4000/anatoli.618. ISSN 2111-4064.
  46. ^ Joseph, J. (2006). Turkey and the European Union internal dynamics and external challenges. Basingstoke [England]: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 100. ISBN 0230598587.
  47. ^ Toumani, Meline. Minority Rules, The New York Times, 17 February 2008
  48. ^ Aslan, Senem (2014). Nation Building in Turkey and Morocco. Cambridge University Press. p. 134. ISBN 978-1107054608.
  49. ^ Scalbert-Yücel, Clémence; Ray, Marie Le (31 December 2006). "Knowledge, ideology and power. Deconstructing Kurdish Studies". European Journal of Turkish Studies. Social Sciences on Contemporary Turkey (5). doi:10.4000/ejts.777. hdl:10036/37913. ISSN 1773-0546.
  50. ^ Michael, Gasper (2019). Lust, Ellen (ed.). The Middle East. CQ Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-1544358215. The Turkish military responded with a ferocious counterinsurgency campaign that led to the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, most of them Turkish Kurdish civilians, and the displacement of more than three million Kurds from southeastern Turkey
  51. ^ Abadi, Cameron (17 October 2019). "Why Is Turkey Fighting Syria's Kurds?". Foreign Policy.
  52. ^ Hooper, John; Kundnani, Hans; Morris, Chris (18 February 1999). "Military action and three deaths after Ocalan's capture". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  53. ^ "PKK group says Turkish ceasefire over". Rudaw. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  54. ^ "No Security Without Human Rights". Amnesty International. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  55. ^ Roth, Mitchel P.; Sever, Murat (2007). "The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) as Criminal Syndicate: Funding Terrorism through Organized Crime, A Case Study". Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. 30 (10): 901–920. doi:10.1080/10576100701558620. S2CID 110700560.
  56. ^ "Child Soldiers Global Report 2001 – Turkey". Child Soldiers International. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  57. ^ Aliza, Marcus (2007). The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence. New York: New York University Press. pp. 115–120.
  58. ^ "Kurdish Rebels Kill 20 In 2 Villages in Turkey". The New York Times. Reuters News. July 1987. Retrieved 21 October 2012. The dead consisted of 16 children, eight village guards, and eight women.
  59. ^ Satana, Nil S. (2012). "The Kurdish Issue in June 2011 Elections: Continuity or Change in Turkey's Democratization?". Turkish Studies. 13 (2). Routledge: 169–189. doi:10.1080/14683849.2012.686575. hdl:11693/21264. S2CID 55920795. In those years, the PKK committed several "crimes against humanity" such as the Pınarcık massacre in 1987 in which 8 village guards, 16 children and 8 women were slaughtered in a raid on a village in Mardin province.
  60. ^ Ajansı, İlke Haber (28 June 2018). "PKK'nin katliamlar tarihi". İLKHA (in Turkish). Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  61. ^ Jongerden, Joost (6 June 2005). "Villages of No Return". MERIP. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  62. ^ Filkins, Dexter (24 October 2003). "Kurds Are Finally Heard: Turkey Burned Our Villages". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  63. ^ Phillips, David (8 July 2020). "Turkey must face a reckoning for its crimes in Iraqi Kurdistan". Ahval. Archived from the original on 31 January 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  64. ^ Ferhad Ibrahim, Gülistan Gürbey. The Kurdish conflict in Turkey: obstacles and chances for peace and democracy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000. p. 167. ISBN 0312236298
  65. ^ Dahlman, Carl. The Political Geography of Kurdistan Archived 2008-10-03 at the Wayback Machine p. 11


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