Kurdistan Workers Party

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was founded to establish a Kurdish state and self-rule in southeastern Turkey, an area that is predominantly Kurdish. Established in 1978 by Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK began its terrorism campaign focusing on Turkish security forces and civilians in the early 1980s; this intensely bloody conflict would last some 15 years.

PKK's history is inextricably linked with the plight of the Kurds, the world's most numerous stateless people. Largely Muslim, Kurds number between 15 and 20 million, have their own language and culture, and live in an area known as Kurdistan, a mountainous region that lies within portions of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Armenia. Nearly 11 million Kurds live in Turkey and represent roughly 20 percent of that country's population; they are the highest concentration of Kurds anywhere.

After World War I, the breakup of the Ottoman Empire formed new nation-states, but no separate Kurdistan. Thus, the Kurds, who were until then nomadic, could no longer keep to their ancient migratory ways. Although the 1920 Treaty of Sevres promised independence, the Kurds were never granted nation status. In 1923, Turkey refused to honor that provision of the treaty; thus, the Kurds remained an ethnic group within Turkey. The Kurd revolts of the 1920s and 1930s were met by the Turkish government with mass executions and village burnings.

The current leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, was born in 1948 in southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border. While attending the university at Ankara, he studied political science and developed, many believe, what would become the thinking behind the PKK. He dropped out of school, wrote the manifesto “The National Road to the Kurdish Revolution,” and, in 1978, formed the PKK as a terrorist group to help establish a Kurdish state. Today, many of the Kurdish people refer to him as “Apo,” the Kurdish word for “Uncle.”

Although Ocalan left Turkey for exile in 1980, he directed the PKK from Syria and other countries, and orchestrated most PKK plots. The PKK held its first congress in July 1981 and later established a Presidential Council—10 senior commanders to run the day-to-day operations. In 1984, the PKK began to use terror (usually serial kidnappings and bombings) to spread its message. Some of the first targets were police stations and other state buildings in Turkey's southeast provinces, but the campaign eventually turned against civilians, most of them Kurds whom the PKK accused of conspiring with the state.

The Turkish government fought back; between 1984 and 1999 (with 1991 and 1993 seeing the peak [Page 210]of PKK activity), nearly 40,000 people died as a result of PKK violence and government retaliation. In 1999, Ocalan was apprehended in Kenya and returned to Turkey, where he was sentenced to death. The day he was sentenced, riots, demonstrations, and occupations of embassies occurred throughout Europe. Ocalan has appealed his sentence, and the courts have not yet ruled on his appeal. From his prison cell, however, he announced a cease-fire and asked all PKK forces to abandon Turkey. In February 2000, the PKK officially ceased its 15-year revolution and agreed to the political program put forward by the imprisoned leader. Today, the PKK has nearly 10,000 active members and many supporters scattered throughout Europe.