Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party[a] or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement which historically operated throughout Kurdistan but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Since 1984, the PKK 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 goals changed to seeking autonomy and increased political and cultural rights for Kurds within Turkey.[27]
Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK)
1978
People's Defence Forces (HPG)
Free Women's Units (YJA-STAR)
Civil Defense Units (YPS)
Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK)
Peoples' United Revolutionary Movement (HBDH)
5,000 (estimate)[note 1]
The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey,[28] the United States,[29] the EU[30] and some other countries;[31][32] however, the labeling of the PKK as a terrorist organization is controversial to some analysts and organizations,[33] who believe that the PKK no longer engages in organized terrorist activities or systemically targets civilians.[34][35][36][37][38][39] This view became controversial after 2016, however, as the PKK restarted its terror activities.[40][41] Turkey has often characterized the demand for education in Kurdish as supporting terrorist activities by the PKK.[42][43][44] 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.[45][46] Nevertheless, the EU has maintained the designation.[47]
The PKK's ideology was originally a fusion of revolutionary socialism and Marxism–Leninism with Kurdish nationalism, seeking the foundation of an independent Kurdistan.[48] 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.[49] Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life.[50] Many who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned.[51] The Turkish government denied the existence of Kurds and the PKK was portrayed trying to convince Turks of being Kurds.[52]
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.[53][54] In 1999, PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured and imprisoned.[55] 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.[56] 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,[57][58][59] while Turkey has depopulated and burned down thousands of Kurdish villages and massacred Kurdish civilians in an attempt to root out PKK militants.[note 2]
Background
As a result of the military coup of 1971, many militants of the revolutionary left were deprived of a public appearance, movements like the People's Liberation Army of Turkey (THKO) or the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist (TKP-ML) were cracked down upon and forbidden.[48] Following, several of the resting political actors of the Turkish left organized away from the public in university dorms or in meetings in shared apartments.[48] In 1972–1973 the organization's core ideological group was made up largely of students led by Abdullah Öcalan ("Apo") in Ankara who made themselves known as the Kurdistan Revolutionaries.[48] The new group focused on the oppressed Kurdish population of Turkish Kurdistan in a capitalist world.[48] In 1973, several students who later would become founders of the PKK established the student organization Ankara Democratic Association of Higher Education (ADYÖD), which would be banned the next year.[65] Then a group around Öcalan split from the Turkish left and held extensive discussions focusing on the colonization of Kurdistan by Turkey.[66] Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life.[50] Many who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned.[51] At this time, expressions of Kurdish culture, including the use of the Kurdish language, dress, folklore, and names, were banned in Turkey.[67] In an attempt to deny their separate existence from Turkish people, the Turkish government categorized Kurds as "Mountain Turks" until 1991.[67][68][69][70] The PKK was then formed, as part of a growing discontent over the suppression of Kurds in Turkey, in an effort to establish linguistic, cultural, and political rights for Turkey's Kurdish minority.[49]
Following several years of preparation, the Kurdistan Workers Party was established during a foundation congress on 26 and 27 November 1978 in the rural village of Fîs. On 27 November 1978,[71] a central committee consisting of seven people was elected, with Abdullah Öcalan as its head. Other members were: Şahin Dönmez, Mazlûm Dogan, Baki Karer, Mehmet Hayri Durmuş, Mehmet Karasungur, Cemil Bayık.[71] The party program Kürdistan Devrimci Yolu drew on Marxism[72] and saw Kurdistan as a colonized entity.[73] Initially the PKK concealed its existence and only announced their existence in a propaganda stunt when they attempted to assassinate a politician of the Justice Party, Mehmet Celal Bucak,[71] in July 1979. Bucak was a Kurdish tribal leader accused by the PKK of exploiting peasants and collaborating with the Turkish state to oppress Kurds.[71]
Status in Turkey
In Turkey, anything which could be perceived as a support of the PKK is deemed unsuitable to be shown to the public. Turkey views the demand for education in Kurdish language or the teaching of the Kurdish language as supporting terrorist activities by the PKK.[42][43][44] The fact that both the HDP and the PKK support education in Kurdish language was included in the indictment in the Peoples' Democratic closure case.[42] In January 2016, the Academics for Peace who signed a declaration in support of peace in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict were labelled and prosecuted for "spreading terrorist propaganda" on behalf of the PKK.[132] In November 2020, a playground for children in Istanbul was dismantled after the municipality decided its design too closely resembled the symbol of the PKK.[133] Politicians of pro-Kurdish like the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP)[134] or the HDP were often prosecuted and sentenced to prison term for their alleged support of the PKK.[135] The possession of Devran, a book authored by the political prisoner Selahattin Demirtaş, was viewed as an evidence for a membership in a terrorist organization in 2019 because according to the prosecution it described events involving the PKK.[136][137]
Status in Germany
The PKK could count with a strong support from the diaspora in Germany where the Hunerkom, its cultural branch was based.[101] During the 1990s, the PKK was able to organize blockades of highways and its sympathizers self-immolated for which the PKK official Cemil Bayik apologized in 2015 [138] after sympathizers of the PKK launched several waves of attacks against Turkish institutions in Germany.[139] The PKK's activities were banned by the Minister of the Interior Manfred Kanther in November 1993.[140] In a meeting between German MP Heinrich Lummer of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and Abdullah Öcalan in Damascus in 1996, Öcalan assured Lummer that it was the PKKs aim to find a peaceful solution for their activities in Germany.[141] The PKK also demanded that it should be recognized as a legitimate entity and not as a terrorist organization in Germany,[142] a demand to which Germany did not accede to. In Germany several Kurdish entities such as the Association of Students from Kurdistan (YXK),[143] the Mesopotamia publishing house or the Mir Multimedia music label were deemed to be close to the PKK.[144] The latter two were eventually closed down by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer who accused them of acting as a forefront of the PKK[144] and to support the PKKs activities in Europe with its revenue.[145] The Kurdish satellite channel Roj TV was also accused of being a branch of the PKK by Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and had to end its activities in Germany in 2008.[146] The PKK has received political support for a lift of its prohibition by the Die Linke and its party leader Bernd Riexinger in 2016.[147]
Resources
Funding
Parties and concerts are organized by branch groups.[163] According to the European Police Office (EUROPOL), the organization collects money from its members, using labels like 'donations' and 'membership fees' which are seen as a fact extortion and illegal taxation by the authorities. There are also indications that the organization is actively involving in money laundering, illicit drugs and human trafficking, as well as illegal immigration inside and outside the EU for funding and running its activities.[164]