Terrorist Organization

Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK)

Political parties attempting to represent Kurdish interests have been repeatedly banned in Turkey. The left-leaning and secular PKK, which had no interest in operating within the political system, launched its armed struggle in 1984. Its avowed aim was and is ending ethnic repression of the Kurds by establishing “Greater Kurdistan.” This independent state would encompass territory in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. The Turkish government responded by declaring a state of emergency in the Kurdish areas of southeastern Turkey, enforced through a military crackdown. Up to 30,000 people died in the ensuing conflict. Some 3,000 Kurdish villages were destroyed, creating approximately two million refugees.

A military setback in 1999 prompted the PKK to retreat 100 km (62 mi) into northern Iraq’s Qandil Mountains. After a five-year moratorium on violence, the PKK resumed its campaign in 2004 with a two-pronged strategy: promoting rural unrest in eastern Turkey, and planting bombs in western Turkish cities, where it established a chain of regional commanders. Public pressure mounted on the Turkish government to respond, particularly after PKK rebels killed 13 Turkish soldiers near the border. In November 2007, Ankara responded with a brief attack inside Iraq.

In March 2008, after a second cross-border ground offensive carried out by 10,000 Turkish troops penetrated 15 km (10 mi) into Iraqi territory, Turkey called on the PKK to lay down its arms. While this is unlikely, the Turkish assault will probably force the People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the military branch of the PKK, to retreat from deployments so close to the border. The actual number of Kurdish fighters is in dispute. The PKK claims 2,500 fighters in Iraq. Outside estimates place the number closer to 500.

If the threat posed by the PKK in Turkey is declining, it is probably less the result of military action than of EU accession-induced reforms, which have afforded Turkish Kurds peaceful alternatives for achieving some degree of cultural autonomy. In addition, the elected Islamist government in Ankara has tried to win over “hearts and minds” by investing in the impoverished region and appealing to the conservative Kurds through the slogan “We’re all Muslims.” Few Turkish Kurds wish to return to the days when the PKK insurgency was battling the Turkish armed forces.

Ankara has long claimed that the PKK finances its activities through drug smuggling, human trafficking, and robbery. Some dismissed the smuggling claims as an effort to get European governments more interested in fighting the group and apprehending members believed to be in Europe. Evidence does support the claim that the PKK is involved in the lucrative transcontinental heroin trade.