The Kurdistan Workers' Party (Kurdish: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan or پارتی کار کهرانی کوردستان Parti Karkerani Kurdistan), commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK (Freedom and Democracy Congress of Kurdistan) or KONGRA-GEL (Kurdistan People's Congress),[6] is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights for the Kurds in Turkey.[1] The group was founded on 27 November 1978 in the village of Fis, near Lice and was led by Abdullah Öcalan.[10] The PKK's ideology was originally a fusion of revolutionary socialism and Kurdish nationalism - although since his imprisonment, Öcalan has abandoned orthodox Marxism.[11] The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and organizations, including the United States and the European Union.[6][12] Turkey labeled the organization as an ethnic secessionist organization that uses terrorism and the threat of force against both civilian[13][14] and military targets for the purpose of achieving its political goal.
Ideology
During 1980s the movement included and cooperated with other ethnic groups, including ethnic Turks, who were following the radical left.[26]:127 The organization initially aimed to establish a fully independent Kurdistan covering land in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.[26]:129
In 1999, following the capture of Ocalan, the organization announced a "peace initiative," and spoke more often about cultural or linguistic rights.[6] However, the group renounced its self-imposed cease-fire in 2004.[6] Besides the activities directed towards Turkey, on 17 July 2005, one of the chief executives Hasan Özen was murdered in Austria. Hasan Özen wanted to leave the organization, and the PKK is widely thought to be responsible. In Diyarbakir, on 6 July 2005, Hikmet Fidan, the former founder of the legal branch the People’s Democratic Party (HADEP), was also murdered. Hikmet Fidan had tried to form an alternative, non-violent Kurdish political party called the Patriotic Democratic Party (PWD) with Osman Ocalan, the brother of Abullah Ocalan. At least 3 other persons involved with the PWD were also killed. The PKK is widely thought to be responsible for these killings also.[27]
Organization
The PKK has multiple heads in various West European countries.[28] However, Abdullah Öcalan was unchallenged leader of the organization. After the capture of Öcalan, authorities induced him to publicly plead for a ceasefire.[29] Though serving life imprisonment, Öcalan is still considered the honorary leader and figure-head of the organization.[30]Murat Karayilan has the control of the organization in practice, although undergone numerous conflicts between Cemil Bayik. Cemil Bayik beside Abdullah Öcalan, Kesire Yildirim Ocalan, and Hakki Karaer was one of the core leaders. Cemil Bayik’s military skills and leadership were criticized by Abdullah Ocalan during his 1999 trial. The organization appointed "Doctor Bahoz," the nom de guerre of Fehman Huseyin, a Syrian Kurd, in charge of the movement's military operations signifying the long-standing solidarity among Kurds from all parts of Kurdistan.[31]
1999–current
In the third phase (1999–current), after capture of Öcalan, according to Maoist theory of people's war claims that the conventional fighting should be established to seize cities, overthrow the government and take control of the country. This stage has never been achieved. In effect, after the capture of Öcalan, activities of the organization never reached previous levels. At the same time, the PKK continued to heavily recruit new members and sustain its fighting force. It decided to remobilize its armed forces in 2004 as its control over its ethnic constituency is threatened by the rising appeal of the AKP among the Kurds of Turkey.[57] While the fight against the Turkish security forces between 2004 and 2010 failed to achieve any significant military progress, the PKK and its ancillary organizations have continued to enjoy substantial support among the Kurds of Turkey. On October 21, 2011 Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced Iran would co-operate with Turkey in some military operations against the PKK.[58]
Tactics
The areas in which the group operates are generally mountainous rural areas and dense urban areas. The mountainous terrain offers an advantage to members of the PKK by allowing them to hide in a network of caves and making military air operations, especially helicopter use, hazardous for the Turkish Armed Forces.Resources
Funding
The organization's annual budget has been estimated at 500 million Euros. The PKK receives its funding in the form of private donations, from both organisations and individuals from around the world.[citation needed] Some of these supporters are Kurdish businessmen in south-eastern Turkey, sympathisers in Syria and Iran, and Europe.[citation needed] Parties and concerts are organized by branch groups.[71] Additionally, it is believed that the PKK earns money through the sale of various publications, as well as receiving revenues from legitimate businesses owned by the organization.[72] Besides affiliate organizations, there are sympathizer organizations such as the Confederation of Kurdish Associations in Europe (KON-KURD, headquartered in Brussels) and the International Kurdish Businessmen Union (KAR-SAZ, in Rotterdam) which constantly exchanges information and perform legitimate or semi-legitimate commercial activities and donations.A report by INTERPOL published in 1992 states that the PKK, along with nearly 178 Kurdish organizations were suspected of illegal drug trade involvement. Also INTERPOL's chief narcotics officer Iqbal Hussain Rizvi stated that the PKK was also heavily evolved in drug trafficking [73] Members of the PKK have been designated narcotics traffickers by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.[41]
Human
During its highest point in the early 1990s the militant membership was around 17,000. After the capture of Öcalan this number drastically decreased. The membership increased from 3,000 to more than 7,000 since 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2008, according to information provided by the Intelligence Resource Program of the Federation of American Scientists the strength of the organization in terms of human resources consists of approximately 4,000 to 5,000 militants of whom 3,000 to 3,500 are located in northern Iraq.[74]A study carried out by the Counter-Terrorism and Operations Department of Directorate General for Security over a sample of files about people convicted of being a militant under Turkish laws including 262 militants from the organization has found that 54% of the members are aged 14 to 25, 34% 26 to 37 and 12% 38 to 58. University graduates make up 11% of the members, high school graduates 16%, secondary school graduates 13%, primary school graduates 39%, literate non-graduates 12% and illiterates 9%.[75]
International
At the height of its campaign, the organization received support from many countries. The level of support given has changed throughout this period.- Support of Syria[71][76]
- From early 1979 to 1999 Syria had provided valuable safe havens to PKK in the region of Beqaa Valley. After the undeclared war between Turkey and Syria, Syria placed restrictions on PKK activity on its soil. Turkey is expecting positive developments in its cooperation with Syria in the long term, but even during the course of 2005, there were PKK operatives of Syrian nationality operating in Turkey.
- Support of Iran[77][page needed]
- Iran listed PKK as a terrorist organization after Iran's supply of resources to the PKK began to be used on its own soil. Iran provided PKK with supplies in the form of weapons and funds.[citation needed]
- Support of Greece
- retired Greek L.T. General Dimitris Matafias and retired Greek Navy Admiral Antonis Neksasis had visited organization's Mahsun Korkmaz base camp in Bakaa valley in October 1988 along with parliamentarians from the panhellenic Socialist movement (PASOK).[78] At the time it was reported that the general has assumed responsibility for training. Greeks also dispatched arms through the Republic of Cyprus.[78] In December 1993, Greek European affairs minister Theodoros Pangalos was quoted as saying "we must be supportive of the Kurdish people to be free".[79] Greece declined to join Germany and France and the eleven other members at the EU to ban the organization.[79] During the 1990s, Greece supplied the rebels.[80]
- Support of the Republic of Cyprus
- was alleged when Abdullah Öcalan was caught with a Cypriot passport to the name of Mavros Lazaros, a nationalist reporter.
- Support of the Soviet Union and Russia
- [81] According to the former KGB-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned in 2006, PKK's leader Abdullah Ocalan was trained by KGB-FSB.[82] As of 2008, Russia is still not among the states that list PKK as a terrorist group despite intense Turkish pressures.
- United Kingdom
- MED TV broadcast for five years in the UK, until its license was revoked by the regulators the Independent Television Commission (ITC) in 1999. The PKK has been listed as a terrorist organisation since 2001. In 2008 the United Kingdom detained members of the PKK and seized the assets of the PKK's representative in Britain, Selman Bozkur, alias “Dr. Hüseyin”. His assets remain frozen.[83]
- Support of various Europe states
- Despite Brussels' designation of the group as a terrorist organization, the EU continues to permit the broadcasting of the organization's networks on the Hot Bird 3 satellite owned by the French company Eutelsat. MEDYA TV started transmissions from studios in Belgium via a satellite uplink from France. MEDYA TV's license was revoked by the French authorities. A few weeks later Roj TV began transmissions from Denmark. It has also been argued that the Netherlands and Belgium have supported the PKK by allowing its training camps to function in their respective territories. On November 22, 1998, Hanover's criminal police reported that three children had been trained by the PKK for guerrilla warfare in camps in the Netherlands and Belgium.[84] After the death of Theo van Gogh, with increasing attention on domestic security concerns, the Dutch police raided the 'PKK paramilitary camp' in the Dutch town of Liempde and arrested 29 people in November 2004.[85] Denmark allows Kurdish satellite television stations (such as ROJ-TV), which Turkey claims has links with the PKK, to operate in Denmark and broadcast into Turkey.[86]
The Chief of the Turkish General Staff during 2007, General Yaşar Büyükanıt, stated that even though the international struggle had been discussed on every platform and even though organizations such as the UN, NATO, EU make statements of serious commitment, to this day the necessary measures had not been taken.[89] According to Büyükanıt; "this conduct on one side has encouraged the terrorists, on the other side it assisted in widening their [the terrorists] activities. The most distressful part of it is that many of the European countries being a member of NATO, an organization that had announced that terrorism was the greatest threat to itself.[89]" Sedat Laçiner, of the Turkish think tank ISRO, says that US support of the PKK undermines the US War on Terrorism.[90] Seymour Hersh claimed that the U.S. supported PEJAK, the Iranian branch of the PKK.[91] The head of the PKK's militant arm, Murat Karayilan, claimed that Iran attempted to recruit the PKK to attack coalition forces, adding that Kurdish guerrillas had launched a clandestine war in north-western Iran, ambushing Iranian troops.[92]
Toll
Further information: Kurdish–Turkish conflict
More than 37,000 people have died since the beginning of the PKK's armed struggle in 1984.[93] According to Denise Natali, the Turkish Armed Forces have destroyed some 8000 Kurdish communities and created 3 to 4 million refugees in the process.[94]According to Chief of the Turkish General Staff, until September 2008:[95]
According to Kendal Nezan's article published in July 1998 in Le Monde diplomatique, the conflict has weighed heavily on the Turkish state's budget.[96] In 1993, a sum of $70m was allocated from the prime minister’s secret funds. According to government inspector Kutlu Savaş, this sum was used mainly for procuring weapons and anti-terrorist equipment from Israel and for external operations. Irregular units in the conflictual zones have had to find ways to finance themselves, including racketeering and secret funding. The details of state-sanctioned criminal activities were revealed in the wake of the Susurluk scandal. Sedat Bucak has been alleged by Kendal Nezan to have 20,000 men under his command, while the village guards, pro-government Kurdish militias created in the mid-1980s, are estimated to number some 64,000.[96]
Recognition as a terrorist group
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by NATO[97], European Union[98][99] and the following states:[100][101]Australia,[102][103] Austria,[104] Azerbaijan[105] Canada,[106] Iraq,[107]Iran,[105]France,[108] Germany,[109] Netherlands,[110] Kazakhstan,[105] Moldova,[105] New Zealand,[111] TRNC,[105] Philippines,[105] Syria,[112] Turkey,[112][113] United Kingdom,[114] United States,[115][116][117]
The PKK leader claimed on an interview that the only reason they have been put on the 'Terrorist organization' list is due to political pressure from Turkey, who he accuses of falsifying accounts and unfairly demonizing the organization.[118]
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