Terrorist groups

PKK/KONGRA-GEL

Established in 1978, PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) started its armed
struggle in 1984 after a preparatory period of numerous murders and
attacks, with the objective of the establishment, through armed
struggle, of an independent Kurdistan within Turkey’s borders.
Since 1984, PKK’s terrorist activities resulted in the death of more
than 30.000 Turkish citizens, among whom were innocent civilians,
teachers and other public servants, many deliberately murdered, and
large amount of economic loss.
In its history, the terrorist organization also employed
suicide-bombing methods, waged mainly by women terrorists in Turkey;
and kidnapped foreign tourists in southeastern Anatolia in the early
1990s. In order to damage Turkey’s economy, the organization also set
forests in Turkey’s tourist resorts on fire.
Following the arrest of its leader, Abdullah Öcalan, in 1999, the
organization started claiming that it switched its strategy to
peaceful methods and would pursue political struggle from then on.
In accordance with this policy of appearing as a born-again legitimate
organization and to convince the international community accordingly,
the organization changed its name to KADEK (Kurdistan Freedom and
Democracy Congress) in April 2002, alleging that PKK has fulfilled its
historical mission and would now like to be accepted as a political
organization.
In October 2003, the organization underwent another name change to
KONGRA-GEL (Kurdistan Peoples Congress). The decision was made public
by a press statement in Iraq on 15 November 2003.
However, albeit the name changes, the leading members of the
organization remain the same. Today, PKK/KONGRA-GEL is still headed by
Abdullah Öcalan, with Zübeyir Aydar, a former member of the “Kurdish
National Congress”, an affiliate of PKK, its president. Furthermore,
founders and leading figures of the PKK, such as Murat Karayılan,
Cemil Bayık etc. continue to assume leading roles in the organization.
Many of the leading figures of PKK/KONGRA-GEL are internationally
recognized criminals searched through Red Bulletins.
Moreover, after neither of these two name changes nor the so-called
strategy change of 1999, the organization did not undergo changes on
substantial issues such as decommissioning of arms, continuing to
carry out attacks mainly in southeastern Anatolia, though not in the
scope of pre-1999 period.
PKK/KONGRA-GEL also keeps its militants and recruits new ones. PKK
militants did not surrender to justice, even to benefit from the
provisions of the “Law on Reintegration into Society”, that came into
force on 6 August 2003 (for a period of 6 months) and that provided
amnesty to those members of a terrorist organization who were not
involved in any crimes.
The organization’s recent declaration, of 29 May 2004, alleging an end
to a so-called unilateral cease-fire that the organization claims to
be implementing since September 1999, stating that it would, by 1 June
2004, respond to any offence with a rationale of self-defense, is yet
another open revelation of the organization’s terrorist nature.
Presently, it is estimated that there are a total of 5,000
PKK/KONGRA-GEL terrorists, the majority of whom are in northern Iraq
whereby the organization’s headquarters are situated.
Given the picture, the organization’s arguments for a policy change
can be defined as merely a make-up. It is, furthermore, not possible
and righteous for a terrorist organization that still keeps its
militants and arms and that does not hesitate to publicly threaten
with the use of force, to be freed of its past guilt with the mere
change of a name.



Concept and ideology of terrorism:

A non-exhaustive list of elements to be found in the concept of
terrorism is as follows:
- The indiscriminate and random killing of persons, especially
civilians and non-combatants,
- Assassinations,
- The emphasis on the surprise nature of attacks,
- The quest for shocking the community through media coverage,
- The existence of a self-proclaimed political agenda or “cause” to
justify those attacks.
Terrorism can be considered as an extreme form of expression, which is
most contrary to the values of democracy, civilization and humanity.
Terrorist acts, methods and practices seem to be adopted by movements
which are of an exclusionist nature, which refuses a priori the
responsibility of living together with “the other”, who is thought to
be different. Racism, religious fundamentalism and ethno-nationalism
are such exclusionist movements which adopt terrorist methods. The
followers of these movements practically accuse the target groups of
being the source of all evil. In the case of religious fundamentalism,
the members of “the others” are qualified as infidels and are
perceived as the main obstacle to the restoration of the felicitous
order of the initial phase of the religion. The ethno-nationalists are
obsessed by the real or imagined historical victimization incurred to
them by the majority and fight to separate their group from the rest
of the society.
Terrorist groups project all sorts of pejorative attributes onto their
target groups in a way to dehumanize them. Thus, violence can be
directed without much remorse against the dehumanized members of the
target group. Terrorism is the preferred form of violence which
acquires in this context a conscious and systematic nature, serving a
specific “political” goal. They perversely feel justified to employ
any means to that end.
Terrorism, moreover, is a major violation of one of the most
fundamental human rights, the right to life. By creating a climate of
fear terrorism also violates every individual’s right to live free
from fear, as stated in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. By recruiting and using minors as combatants, terrorists
also violate the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child. As terrorism grossly and systematically violates human rights,
it is only natural to consider it as a crime against humanity.
Turkey, as a country which has been exposed to different types of
terrorist threats for more than 30 years, is an example where the
ideology and methods of terrorist movements can be observed
extensively. The destructive activities of the terrorist organizations
caused death of thousands of Turkish citizens and huge economic
losses. Among these terrorist groups PKK / KADEK/ KONGRA-GEL
(Kurdistan Workers Party) can be singled out as one of the most
dangerous terrorist organizations in the world. PKK / KADEK /
KONGRA-GEL has been indiscriminately conducting a bloody campaign of
terror against the people of Turkey since early 80s. PKK / KADEK /
KONGRA-GEL’s terrorist activities resulted in the death of more than
30.000 Turkish citizens, among whom there are thousands of women and
children, including those of Kurdish origin on whose behalf the PKK
purports to act and claims to defend their rights. Besides, the
terrorist activities of the PKK / KADEK / KONGRA-GEL not only
seriously undermined Turkey’s efforts for the social and economic
development, but also contributed to the deepening of the economic gap
between south-eastern regions of Turkey and the rest of the country.


Building up of international solidarity

Presently, the organization is proscribed in France, Germany (both
since 1993) and the UK (since March 2001) and is included in the
foreign terrorist organizations list in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada,
Japan, Kazakhstan and the USA (the organization’s terrorist nature is
being emphasized by the annual report of the US Department of State,
“Patterns of Global Terrorism”, for over a decade).
As of 2 April 2004, PKK is also included in the EU Terrorist
Organizations and Entities List with its aliases, KADEK and
KONGRA-GEL.
PKK, furthermore, is listed among groups involving child soldiers in
the report, dated June 2001, of the NGO ‘Coalition to Stop the Use of
Child Soldiers’ (PKK is known to abduct children and brainwash and
train them in its camps).
 There was a time in history when being a terrorist was confused with
being a freedom fighter, however, this attitude can no longer prevail.
Specifically following the events of 11 September, international
solidarity against terrorism and terrorist organizations has grown,
with international documents, such as the UNSCR 1373, outlining the
parameters of unequivocal fight against terrorism. In accordance with
these developments, Turkey expects that all countries, in accordance
with their international obligations, take resolute stance towards the
terrorist organization PKK/KONGRA-GEL.

PKK/KONGRA-GEL has many expenditures, ranging from financing of its
terrorist strength to running media outlets (dailies, periodicals, TV
and radio channels) and to carrying out anti-Turkey propaganda
activities in many parts of the world.
Europe is particularly important for the organization as it is in
Europe where the organization generates most of its revenue to finance
these cumbersome activities.
most european countries will be un favour to neutralized kurds in europe