Turkey-PKK conflict
Encyclopedia
The Turkey
– Kurdistan Workers' Party
conflict, also referred to as the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey, the Kurdish Conflict, the Kurdish insurgency, the Kurdish rebellion or PKK-terrorism and has also been described as the latest Kurdish uprising or as a civil war, is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and various Kurdish
insurgent groups, which have demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or to have autonomy
and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey. The main rebel group is the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK , which is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States
and the European Union
. Although insurgents have carried out attacks in Western-Turkey, the insurgency is mainly in South-Eastern Turkey
. The PKK's military presence in Iraq
's Kurdistan Region, which it uses as launchpad for attacks on Turkey, has resulted in the Turkish military carrying out frequent ground incursions and air and artillery strikes in the region, as the Kurdistan Regional Government
claimed they do not have sufficient military forces to prevent the PKK from operating. The conflict has particularly affected Turkey's tourism industry.
Since the PKK was founded on November 27, 1978, it has been involved in armed clashes with Turkish security forces. The full-scale insurgency
however, did not being until August 15, 1984 when the PKK announced a Kurdish uprising. The first insurgency lasted until September 1, 1999 when the PKK declared a unilateral cease-fire. The armed conflict was later resumed on June 1, 2004, when the PKK declared an end to its cease-fire.
The PKK was estimated to have between 10,000 and 15,000 fighters, 5,000 to 6,000 of which inside Turkey (the rest in neighbouring countries) as well as 60,000 to 70,000 part-time guerillas, as of 1994. In 2004, the Turkish government estimated the amounth of PKK fighters at approximately 4,000 to 5,000, of whom 3,000 to 3,500 were located in northern Iraq. By 2007 the number was said to have increased to more than 7,000. The PKK's leader Murat Karayılan
claimed the group had between 7,000 and 8,000 fighters, 30 to 40% were in Iraq, and rest in Turkey where they were backed by an additional 20,000 part-time guerillas. High estimates put the number of active PKK fighters at 10,000.
(PKK) began in 1974 as a Marxist-Leninist organization under the leadership of Abdullah Öcalan
. In 1978 the organization adapted the name "Kurdistan Workers Party" and waged Urban War
between 1978 and 1980. The organization restructured itself and moved the organization structure to Syria between 1980 and 1984 just after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état.
The campaign of armed violence began in 1984. The rural-based insurgency
lasted between 1984 and 1992. The PKK shifted its activities to include urban warfare between 1993 and 1995 and 1996 to 1999. The leader of the party was captured in Kenya in early 1999, following an international campaign by US, Israel, Greece, UK and Italy. After a unilaterally declared peace initiative in 1999, PKK was forced to resume the conflict due to Turkish military offensive in 2004. Since 1974, it had been able to evolve, adapt, gone through a metamorphosis, which became the main factor in its survival. It had gradually grown from a handful of political students to a dynamic organization, and became part of the target on the War on Terrorism
.
With the aftermath of the failed 1991 uprisings in Iraq
against Saddam Hussein
the UN established no-fly zone
s in Kurdish areas of Iraq giving those areas de facto independence. The PKK soon found a safe haven from which they could launch attacks against Turkey, which responded with Operation Steel
(1995) and Operation Hammer
(1997) in an attempt to crush the PKK.
In 1992, General Kemal Yilmaz, declared that the Special Warfare Department (the seat of the Counter-Guerrilla
) was still active in the conflict against the PKK. The U.S. State Department echoed concerns of Counter-Guerrilla involvement in its 1994 Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Turkey.
Öcalan was captured by CIA, agents in Kenya
on February 15, 1999, who turned him over to the Turkish authorities. After the trial he was sentenced to death, but this sentence was commuted to life-long aggravated imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished in Turkey in August 2002.
With the invasion of Iraq in 2003 much of the arms of the former Iraqi army fell into the hands of the Kurdish Peshmerga
militias. The Peshmerga became the de facto army of northern Iraq and Turkish sources claim many of its weapons found their way into the hands of other Kurdish groups such as the PKK and the PJAK (a PKK offshoot which operated against Iran). This has been the pretext for numerous Turkish attacks on the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
As of June 2007, over 3,000 PKK fighters are believed to be in Iraqi Kurdistan
, by Turkey.
, Haki Karer and Kemal Pir. The group decided in 1974 to start a campaign for Kurdish rights. Cemil Bayik was sent to Urfa, Kemal Pir was sent to Mus
, Hakki Karer to Batman
and Ali Haydar Kaytan to Tunceli, they then started student organisations which talked to local workers and farmers about Kurdish rights.
In 1977, an assembly was held to evaluate the political activities. The assembly included 100 people, from different backgrounds and several representatives from other Leftist organisations. In Spring 1977, Abdullah Öcalan travelled through whole Kurdistan on a campaign to make the public aware of the Kurdish issue. During his campaign he travelled to Mount Ararat
, Erzurum
, Tunceli, Elazig
, Antep and other cities. This was followed by a Turkish government crackdown against the organisation. On 18 March 1977, Haki Karer was assassinated in Antep. During this period, the group was also targeted by the MHP
's Grey Wolves
. They were also targeted by Kurdish landowners who on 18 May 1978, killed Halil Çavgun, which resulted in large Kurdish meetings in Erzurum, Dersim, Elazig and Antep.
The founding Congress of the PKK was held on 27 November 1978 in Fis, a village nearby the city of Lice
. During this congress the 25 people, present decided to found the Kurdistan Workers' Party. The Turkish state, rightist groups and Kurdish landowners, continued their attacks on the group, in response the employed armed members to protect itself which got involved in the fighting between leftist and rightist groups in Turkey (1978–1980) at the side of the leftists. In Summer 1979, Öcalan travelled to Syria
and Lebanon
where he made contacts with Syrian and Palestinian
leaders. After 12 September 1980 Turkish coup d'état and a crackdown which was launched on all political organisations, during which half a million people were imprisoned and 51 officially executed, most of the PKK withdrew into Syria and Lebanon. Öcalan himself going to Syria in September 1980, Kemal Pir, Mahsum Korkmaz
and Delil Dogan being sent to set up an organisation in Lebanon. PKK fighters took part in the 1982 Lebanon War
at the Syrian side.
The Second PKK Party Congress was then held in Daraa, Syria from 20 August to 25 August 1982. Here it was decided that the organisation would return to Turkey to start an armed guerilla war there for the creation of an independent Kurdish state. Meanwhile they prepared guerilla forces in Syria and Lebanon to go to war. Many PKK leaders however were arrested in Turkey and sent to Diyarbakir
Prison. The prison became the site of much political protest.
In Diyarbakır Prison
the PKK member Mazlum Doğan
burned himself to death on 21 March 1982 in protest at the treatment in prison. Ferhat Kurtay, Necmi Önen, Mahmut Zengin and Eşref Anyık followed his example on 17 May 1982. On 14 July 1982 the PKK members Kemal Pir, M. Hayri Durmuş, Ali Çiçek and Akif Yılmaz started a hunger strike in Diyarbakır Prison. Kemal Pir died on 7 September 1982, M. Hayri Durmuş on 12 September 1982, Akif Yılmaz on 15 September 1982 and Ali Çiçek on 17 September 1982. On 13 April 1984 a 75-day hunger-strike started in Istanbul. As a result four prisoners – Abdullah Meral, Haydar Başbağ, Fatih Ökütülmüş and Hasan Telci – died.
. During these attacks 1 gendarmerie soldier was killed, 7 soldiers, 2 policemen and 3 civilians were injured. It was followed by a PKK raid on a police station in Siirt
, two days later. At first, Turkish authorities did not take the attacks seriously, however within the next two months the group was responsible for an attack that killed 3 of General Kenan Evren
's Preidential Guards in Yüksekova
and an ambush which killed 8 Turkish soldiers in Çukurca
. During the next 5 years some 2,500 people would be killed in the conflict.
The Turkish state responded by deploying 350,000 soldiers and gendarmes and 35,000 police to the region, while setting up pro-government Kurdish militia named the Village Guards with a strength of 70,000 men, to combat the PKK. On 19 July 1987 they created a region of emergency rule called the OHAL region
. This included the provinces of Bingöl
, Diyarbakır
, Elazığ
, Hakkari
, Mardin
, Siirt
, Tunceli
and Van
with Adıyaman
, Bitlis
and Muş
as neighbouring provinces. They later added the newly created Batman
and Şırnak Province
s. Starting in 1994 the region was slowly narrowed down until it was disbanded on 30 November 2002.
In the 1990s the campaign intensified, with major protests called Serhildan
breaking out in 1990 in Nusaybin and spreading to most Kurdish cities. The PKK also stepped up its attacks resulting in the confirmed deaths of at least 15,000 people between 1991 and 1995, which is 6x as much as in the preceding 5 years. The Özal
government had started an anti-PKK offensive in 1992, this was however halted after the PPK's September 1992 Tasdelen attack which killed 20 Turkish soldiers. The PKK had established bases in Northern Iraq after the 1991 uprisings in Iraq
had resulted in Kurdish control of the area and expulsion of Saddam's Army. In response Turkey launched Operation Northern Iraq
from 5 October 1992 to 15 November 1992, which they claim resulted in the death of 1,551 and capture of 1,232 PKK militants as well as the death of 28 killed and injury of 125 security forces, but was proved to be false.
In 1993, the two sides came closest to reconciliation as Turkish President Turgut Özal wanted to establish dialogue with the PKK’s leaders and said that he would be prepared to allow the broadcasting of Kurdish language and would even be prepared to discuss a federal system in Turkey to solve the problem. The PKK responded by announcing a cease-fire on March 20, 1993. However, Özal's death on April 17, 1993 brought a halt to such efforts from the Turkish government. The PKK responded by breaking the cease-fire with an ambush
that killed 33 Turkish soldiers on a road between the eastern provinces of Elazığ and Bingöl. After the Turkish government started a new crackdown which included the banning of Turkey's only Kurdish party the People's Work Party
, on June 16, 1994 and the arrest and imprisonment of several of their members. Part of the crackdown was also the evacuation of thousands of Kurdish villages. The PKK launched attacks on Turkish diplomatic and commercial facilities in many Western European cities in 1993 and repeated these attacks in spring 1995. A second, one-sided cease-fire was declared by the PKK on December 15, 1995 but this was ended on May 6, 1996 after talks between Turkey and Israel declared Öcalan a terrorist.
Due to the PKK's claim to be the only true spokesman for Kurdish nationalism in Turkey, a violent conflict also erupted with rival Kurdish group Hezbollah
(a Kurdish group with an Islamist character), between 1992 and 1995, in which an estimated 500 PKK and 200 Hezbollah militants were killed. During this period, clashes between factions of Hezbollah led by Hüseyin Velioğlu
and Fidan Güngör also took place, in which the Veliğlu faction emerged victorious. These clashed took part without interference of Turkish security forces. Links between the Kurdish Hezbollah and Turkish security forces during this period have been alleged.
During the mid-1990s the conflict reached its peak in violence, in 1994 the PKK had between 10,000 and 15,000 full-time and 60,000 to 75,000 part-time guerrillas, which is the highest it has ever been. To counter the growing force of the PKK the Turkish military started new counter insurgency strategies between 1992 and 1995. To deprive the rebels of a logistical base of operations the military carried out de-forestation of the country-side and destroyed over 3,000 Kurdish villages, causing at least 2 million refugees. Most of these villages were evacuated, however other villages were burned, bombed, or shelled by government forces and several entire villages were obliterated from the air. While some villages were destroyed or evacuated, many villages were brought to the side of the Turkish government, which offered salaries to local farmers and shepherds to join the Village Guards which would prevent the PKK from operating in these villages, while villages which refused were evacuated by the military. These tactics managed to drive the rebels from the cities and villages into the mountains, although they still often launched reprisals on pro-government villages, which included attacks on civilians.
However, the turning point in the conflict came in 1998, when, after political pressure and military threats from Turkey, the PKK's leader: Abdullah Öcalan was forced to leave Syria, where he had been in exile since September 1980. He first went to Russia
, then to Italy
and Greece. He was eventually brought to the Greek embassy in Nairobi
, Kenya
, where he was arrested on February 15, 1999 at the airport in a joint MİT-CIA
operation and brought to Turkey, which resulted in major protests by Kurds world-wide. Three Kurdish protestors were shot dead when trying to enter the Israeli consulate in Berlin to protest alleged Israeli involvement in the capture of Abdullah Öcalan. Although the capture of Öcalan ended a third cease-fire which Öcalan had declared on August 1, 1998, on September 1, 1999 the PKK declared a unilateral cease-fire which would last until 2004.
of Iraq and in February 2000 they declared the formal end of the war. After this, the PKK said it would switch its strategy to using peaceful methods to achieve their objectives. In April 2002 the PKK changed its name to KADEK (Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress), claiming the PKK had fulfilled its mission and would now move on as purely political organisation. In October 2003 the KADEK announced its dissolution and declared the cration of a new organisation: KONGRA-GEL (Kurdistan Peoples Congress).
PKK offers for negotiations were ignored by the Turkish government, which claimed, the KONGRA-GEL continued to carry out armed attacks in the 1999–2004 period, although not on the same scale as before September 1999. They also blame the KONGRA-GEL for Kurdish riots which happened during the period. The PKK argues that they only defended themselfes as they claim the Turkish military launched some 700 raids against their bases militants, including in Northern Iraq. Also, despite the KONGRA-GEL cease-fire, other groups continued their armed activities, the PŞK
for instance, tried to use the cease-fire to attract PKK fighters to join their organisation. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons
(TAK) were formed during this period by radical KONGRA-GEL commanders, dissatisfied with the cease-fire. The period after the capture of Öcalan was used by the Turkish government to launch major crackdown operations against the Kurdish Hizbullah, arresting 3,300 Hizbullah members in 2000, compared to 130 in 1998, and killing the group's leader Hüseyin Velioğlu on January 13, 2000. During this phase of the war at least 145 people were killed during fighting between the PKK and security forces.
After AK Party came to power in 2002, the Turkish state started to ease restrictions on the Kurdish language and culture.
From 2003 to 2004 there was a power struggle inside the KONGRA-GEL between a reformist wing which wanted the organisation to disarm completely and a traditionalist wing which wanted the organisation to resume its armed insurgency once again. The conservative wing of the organisation won this power struggle forcing reformist leaders such as Kani Yilmaz, Nizamettin Tas
and Abdullah Öcalan's younger brother Osman Öcalan
to leave the organisation. The three major traditionalist leaders, Murat Karayilan
, Cemil Bayik
and Fehman Huseyin formed the new leadership committee of the organisation. The new administration decided to re-start the insurgency, because they claimed that without guerillas the PKK's political activities would remain unsuccessful. This came as the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party
(HADEP) was banned by the Turkish Supreme Court om March 13, 2003 and its leader Murat Bolzak was imprisoned.
In April 2005, KONGRA-GEL reverted its name back to PKK. Because not all of the KONGRA-GEL's elements reverted back, the organisation has also been referred to as the New PKK. The KONGRA-GEL has since become the Legislative Assembly of the Koma Civakên Kurdistan
, an umbrella organisation which includes the PKK and is used as the group's urban and political wing. Ex-DEP
member Zübeyir Aydar
is the President of the KONGRA-GEL.
In March 2006 heavy fighting broke out around Diyarbakir between the PKK and Turkish security forces, as well as large riots by PKK supporters, as result the army had to temporary close the roads to Diyarbakır Airport
and many schools and businesses had to be shut down. In August, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons
(TAK), which vowed to "turn Turkey into hell," launched a major bombing campaign. On August 25 two coordinated low-level blasts targeted a bank in Adana
, on August 27 a school in Istanbul was targeted by a bombing, on August 28 there were three coordinated attacks in Marmaris
and one in Antalya
targeting the tourist industry and on August 30 there was a TAK bombing in Mersin
. These bomnings were condemned by the PKK, which declared its fifth cease-fire on October 1, 2006, which slowed down the intensity of the conflict. Minor clashes, however, continued in the South East due to Turkish counter-insurgency operations. In total, the conflict claimed over 500 lives in 2006. 2006 also saw the PKK assassinate one of their former commanders, Kani Yilmaz, in February, in Iraq.
In May 2007, there was a bombing in Ankara
that killed 6 and injured 121 people. The Turkish government alleged the PKK was responsible for the bombing. On June 4, a PKK suicide bombing in Tunceli killed seven soldiers and wounded six at a military base. Tensions across the Iraqi border also started playing up as Turkish forces entered Iraq several times in pursuit of PKK fighting and In June, as 4 soldiers were killed by landmines, large areas of Iraqi Kurdistan were shelled which damaged 9 villages and forced residents to flee. On October 7, 2007, 40–50 PKK fighters ambushed a 18-man Turkish commando unit
in the Gabar mountains, killing 15 commandos and injuring three, which made it the deadliest PKK attack since the 1990s. In response a law was passed allowing the Turkish military to take action inside Iraqi territory. Than on October 21, 2007, 150–200 militants attacked an outpost, in Dağlıca, Yüksekova
, manned by a 50-strong infantry battalion. The outpost was overrun and the PKK killed 12, wounded 17 and captured 8 Turkish soldiers. They then withdrew into Iraqi Kurdistan, taking the 8 captive soldiers with them. The Turkish military claimed to have killed 32 PKK fighters in hot pursuit operations, after the attack, however this was denied by the PKK and no corpses of PKK militants were produced by the Turkish military. The Turkish military responded by bombing PKK bases on October 24 and started preparing for a major cross-border military operation.
This major cross-border offensive, dubbed Operation Sun, started on February 21, 2008 and was preceded by an aerial offensive against PKK camps in northern Iraq, which began on December 16, 2007. Between 3,000 and 10,000 Turkish forces took part in the offensive. According to the Turkish military around 230 PKK fighters were killed in the ground offensive, while 27 Turkish forces were killed. According to the PKK, over 125 Turkish forces were killed, while PKK casualties were in the tens. Smaller scale Turkish operations against PKK bases in Iraqi Kurdistan continued afterwards. On July 27, 2008, Turkey blamed the PKK for an Istanbul double-bombing
which killed 17 and injured 154 people. The PKK however denied any involvement. On October 4, the most violent clashes since the October 2007 clashes in Hakkari
erupted as the PKK attacked the Aktutun border post in Şemdinli
in the Hakkâri Province
, at night. 15 Turkish soldiers were killed and 20 were injured, meanwhile 23 PKK fighters were said to be killed during the fighting.
At the start of 2009 Turkey opened its first Kurdish language TV-channel: TRT 6
. and on March 19, 2009, local elections
were held in Turkey in which the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party
(DTP) won majority of the vote in the South East. Soon after on April 13, 2009, the PKK declared its 6th ceasefire, after Abdullah Öcalan called on them to end military operations and prepare for peace. In September Turkey's Erdoğan-government launched the Kurdish initiative which included plans to re-name Kurdish villages which had been given Turkish names, expand scope of freedom of expression, restore Turkish citizenship to Kurdish refugees, strengthening of local governments and a partial amnesty for PK fighters. The plans for the Kurdish initiative where however heavily hurt after the DTP was banned by the Turkish constitutional court on 11 December 2009 and its leaders were subsequently trialed for terrorism. A total of 1,400 DTP members were arrested and 900 detained in the government crackdown against the party. The move sparked major riots by Kurds all over Turkey and resulted in violent clashes between pro-Kurdish and security forces as well as pro-Turkish demonstrators, which resulted in several injuries and fatalities. On December 7, the PKK launched an ambush
in Reşadiye
which killed 7 and injured 3 Turkish soldiers, which became the deadliest PKK attack in that region since the 90s.
By May 1, 2010, the PKK declared an end to its cease-fire, launching an attack in Tunceli that killed 4 and injured 7 soldiers. On May 31, Abdullah Öcalan declared an end to his attempts at re-approachment and establishing dialogue with the Turkish government, leaving PKK top commanders in charge of the conflict. The PKK then stepped up its armed activities, starting with a missile attack on a navy base in İskenderun
, killing 7 and wounding 6 soldiers. On June 18 and 19, heavy fighting broke out that resulted in the death of 12 PKK fighters, 12 Turkish soldiers and injury of 17 Turkish soldiers, as the PKK launched three separate attacks in Hakkari and Elazig provinces. Another major attack in Hakkari occurred on July 20, killing 6 and wounding 17 Turkish soldiers, with 1 PKK fighter being killed. The next day, PKK leader Murat Karayilan announced that the PKK would lay down its arms if the Kurdish issue would be resolved through dialogue and threatened to declare independence if this demand was not met. Turkish authorities claimed they had killed 187 and captured 160 PKK fighters by July 14. By July 27, Turkish news sources reported the deaths of over 100 security forces, which exceeded the entire 2009 toll.
On August 12 however, a ramadan
cease-fire was declared by the PKK. In November the cease-fire was extended until Turkey's June 12, 2011 elections
, despite alleging that that Turkey had launched over 80 military operations against them during this period. Despite the truce, the PKK responded to these military operations by launching retaliatory attacks in Siirt and Hakkari provinces, killing 12 Turkish soldiers.
The cease-fire was however revoked early, on February 28, 2011. Soon afterwards 3 PKK fighters were killed while trying to infiltrate into Turkey, via Northern Iraq. In May, counter-insurgency operations left 12 PKK fighters and 5 soldiers dead. This then resulted in major Kurdish protests across Turkey
as part of a civil disobedience campaign launched by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party
(BDP), during these protests 2 people were killed, 308 injured and 2,506 arrested by Turkish authorities.
The June 12 elections saw a historical performance for the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party
(BDP) which won 36 seats in the South-East, which was more than the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which won only 30 seats in Kurdish areas. However, six of the 36 elected BDP deputies remain in Turkish jails as of June 2011. One of the six jailed deputies, Hatip Dicle, was was then stripped of his elected position by the constitutional court, after which the 30 free MPs declared a boycott of Turkish parliament. The PKK intensified its campaign again, in July killing 20 Turkish soldiers in two weeks, during which at least 10 PKK fighters were killed.
On August 17, 2011, the Turkish Armed Forces launched multiple raids against Kurdish rebels, striking 132 targets. Turkish military bombed PKK targets in northern Iraq in six days of air raids, according to General Staff, where 90-100 PKK Soldiers were killed, and at least 80 injured. On October 19, 26 Turkish soldiers were killed and 18 injured in 8 simultaneous PKK attacks in Cukurca and Yuksekova, in Hakkari province. This marked the deadliest day for the Turkish military since May 24, 1993 when the PKK killed 33 unarmed troops in an ambush.
According to human rights organisations since the beginning of the uprising 4,000 villages have been destroyed, in which between 380,000 and 1,000,000 Kurdish villagers have been forcibly evacuated from their homes. Some 5,000 Turks and 35,000 Kurds, including 18,000 civilians have been killed, 17,000 Kurds have disappeared and 119,000 Kurds have been imprisoned by Turkish authorities. According to the Humanitarian Law Project
, 2,400 Kurdish villages were destroyed and 18,000 Kurds were executed, by the Turkish government. Other estimates have put the number of destroyed Kurdish villages at over 4,000. In total up to 3,000,000 people (mainly Kurds) have been displaced by the conflict, an estimated 1,000,000 of which are still internally dispalced as of 2009.
According to pro-PKK sources, the real casualties from August 1984 to August 1994, were that 11,750 Turkish security, 6,443 PKK fighters and 3,330 civilians had been killed. Sebahat Tuncel
, an elected MP from the BDP put the PKK's casualties at 18,000 as of July 2011.
According to the International Crisis Group, the conflict's confirmed casualties for the last 3 years of the conflict were as following:
The conflict's casualties between 1984 and March 2009 according to the General Staff of the Republic of Turkey, Turkish Gendarmerie, General Directorate of Security and since then until June 2010 according to Milliyet's analysis of the data of the General Staff of the Republic of Turkey and Turkish Gendarmerie were as following:
abuses during the conflict.
Former French ambassador to Turkey Eric Rouleau states:
has stated the following about the tactics of the PKK::
According to Amnesty International
, the PKK killed and tortured Kurdish peasants and its own members in the 1980s. A number of Kurds have been abducted and killed because they were suspected of being "collaborators" or "informers" and it was a common practice for the PKK to kill their whole families.
According to a 1996 report by Amnesty International, "in January 1996 the [Turkish] government announced that the PKK had massacred 11 men near the remote village of Güçlükonak. Seven of the victims were members of the local village guard force".
In 2006 it was stated by the former ambassador Rouleau that the continuing human rights abuses of ethnic Kurds is one of the main obstacles to Turkish membership of the E.U.
Human Rights Watch
notes that:
According to an article printed in the November 2002 issue of the International Socialist, monthly paper of the International Socialists
, during the conflict (and still [as of 2002]), the Turkish army killed and “disappeared” members of the PKK.
In 1997, Amnesty International (AI) reported that, "'Disappearances' and extrajudicial executions have emerged as new and disturbing patterns of human rights violations ..." by the Turkish state.
Turkish-Kurdish human right activists in Germany accused Turkey of Using Chemical Weapons against PKK. Hans Baumann, a German expert on photo forgeries investigated the authenticity of the photos and claimed that the photos were authentic. A forensics report released by the Hamburg University Hospital has backed the allegations. Claudia Roth from Germany's Green Party demanded an explanation from the Turkish government. The Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selçuk Ünal commented on the issue. He said that he did not need to emphasize that the accusations were groundless. He added that Turkey signed to the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997, and Turkey did not possess chemical weapons. Turkey has been a signatory to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction since 1997, and has passed all inspections required by such convention.
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
– Kurdistan Workers' Party
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , 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...
conflict, also referred to as the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey, the Kurdish Conflict, the Kurdish insurgency, the Kurdish rebellion or PKK-terrorism and has also been described as the latest Kurdish uprising or as a civil war, is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and various Kurdish
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
insurgent groups, which have demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or to have autonomy
Autonomy
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...
and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey. The main rebel group is the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK , which is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. Although insurgents have carried out attacks in Western-Turkey, the insurgency is mainly in South-Eastern Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. The PKK's military presence in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
's Kurdistan Region, which it uses as launchpad for attacks on Turkey, has resulted in the Turkish military carrying out frequent ground incursions and air and artillery strikes in the region, as the Kurdistan Regional Government
Kurdistan Regional Government
The Kurdistan Regional Government , , is the official ruling body of the predominantly Kurds-populated Kurdistan Region in Northern Iraq...
claimed they do not have sufficient military forces to prevent the PKK from operating. The conflict has particularly affected Turkey's tourism industry.
Since the PKK was founded on November 27, 1978, it has been involved in armed clashes with Turkish security forces. The full-scale insurgency
Insurgency
An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...
however, did not being until August 15, 1984 when the PKK announced a Kurdish uprising. The first insurgency lasted until September 1, 1999 when the PKK declared a unilateral cease-fire. The armed conflict was later resumed on June 1, 2004, when the PKK declared an end to its cease-fire.
The PKK was estimated to have between 10,000 and 15,000 fighters, 5,000 to 6,000 of which inside Turkey (the rest in neighbouring countries) as well as 60,000 to 70,000 part-time guerillas, as of 1994. In 2004, the Turkish government estimated the amounth of PKK fighters at approximately 4,000 to 5,000, of whom 3,000 to 3,500 were located in northern Iraq. By 2007 the number was said to have increased to more than 7,000. The PKK's leader Murat Karayılan
Murat Karayilan
Murat Karayılan is the current acting leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party.He has been the PKK's acting leader ever since its original founder and leader, Abdullah Öcalan, was captured in 1999....
claimed the group had between 7,000 and 8,000 fighters, 30 to 40% were in Iraq, and rest in Turkey where they were backed by an additional 20,000 part-time guerillas. High estimates put the number of active PKK fighters at 10,000.
Background
The Kurdistan Workers PartyKurdistan Workers Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , 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...
(PKK) began in 1974 as a Marxist-Leninist organization under the leadership of Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan
Abdullah Öcalan , Kurdish founder of the terrorist organization called Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1978.Öcalan was captured in Nairobi and extradited to the Turkish security force, and sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed gangs...
. In 1978 the organization adapted the name "Kurdistan Workers Party" and waged Urban War
Urban warfare
Urban warfare is combat conducted in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat is very different from combat in the open at both the operational and tactical level...
between 1978 and 1980. The organization restructured itself and moved the organization structure to Syria between 1980 and 1984 just after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état.
The campaign of armed violence began in 1984. The rural-based insurgency
Insurgency
An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...
lasted between 1984 and 1992. The PKK shifted its activities to include urban warfare between 1993 and 1995 and 1996 to 1999. The leader of the party was captured in Kenya in early 1999, following an international campaign by US, Israel, Greece, UK and Italy. After a unilaterally declared peace initiative in 1999, PKK was forced to resume the conflict due to Turkish military offensive in 2004. Since 1974, it had been able to evolve, adapt, gone through a metamorphosis, which became the main factor in its survival. It had gradually grown from a handful of political students to a dynamic organization, and became part of the target on the War on Terrorism
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
.
With the aftermath of the failed 1991 uprisings in Iraq
1991 uprisings in Iraq
The 1991 uprisings in Iraq were a series of anti-governmental rebellions in southern and northern Iraq during the aftermath of the Gulf War. The revolt was fueled by the perception that the power of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was vulnerable at the time; as well as by heavily fueled anger at...
against Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
the UN established no-fly zone
No-fly zone
A no-fly zone is a territory or an area over which aircraft are not permitted to fly. Such zones are usually set up in a military context, somewhat like a demilitarized zone in the sky, and usually prohibit military aircraft of a belligerent nation from operating in the region.-Iraq,...
s in Kurdish areas of Iraq giving those areas de facto independence. The PKK soon found a safe haven from which they could launch attacks against Turkey, which responded with Operation Steel
Operation Steel
Operation Steel was a cross-border operation by the Turkish Armed Forces into northern Iraq between 20 March and 4 May 1995 against the Kurdistan Workers' Party.- The battle :...
(1995) and Operation Hammer
Operation Hammer
A Los Angeles Police Department C.R.A.S.H. initiative that began in April 1987, Operation Hammer was a large scale attempt to crack down on gang violence in Los Angeles, California. After a group of people at a birthday party were shot down on their front lawn in a drive-by shooting, Chief of...
(1997) in an attempt to crush the PKK.
In 1992, General Kemal Yilmaz, declared that the Special Warfare Department (the seat of the Counter-Guerrilla
Counter-Guerrilla
Counter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...
) was still active in the conflict against the PKK. The U.S. State Department echoed concerns of Counter-Guerrilla involvement in its 1994 Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Turkey.
Öcalan was captured by CIA, agents in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
on February 15, 1999, who turned him over to the Turkish authorities. After the trial he was sentenced to death, but this sentence was commuted to life-long aggravated imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished in Turkey in August 2002.
With the invasion of Iraq in 2003 much of the arms of the former Iraqi army fell into the hands of the Kurdish Peshmerga
Peshmerga
Peshmerga or Peshmerge is the term used by Kurds to refer to armed Kurdish fighters. Literally meaning "those who face death" the Peshmerga forces of Kurdistan have been in existence since the advent of the Kurdish independence movement in the early 1920s, following the collapse of the Ottoman...
militias. The Peshmerga became the de facto army of northern Iraq and Turkish sources claim many of its weapons found their way into the hands of other Kurdish groups such as the PKK and the PJAK (a PKK offshoot which operated against Iran). This has been the pretext for numerous Turkish attacks on the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
As of June 2007, over 3,000 PKK fighters are believed to be in Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr...
, by Turkey.
1974–1984: Start of the conflict
In 1973, a small group, under leadership of Abdullah Öcalan, released a declaration about the Kurdish identity in Turkey. The group, which called itself the Revolutionaries of Kurdistan also included Ali Haydar Kaytan, Cemil BayikCemil Bayik
Cemil Bayik , also known as Cuma, is one of the five founders of the Kurdish separatist movement Kurdistan Workers' Party , who are still alive and is among the organisation's top leadership as he is a member of the 12-man leadership council of the Koma Civaken Kurdistan , a Kurdish political...
, Haki Karer and Kemal Pir. The group decided in 1974 to start a campaign for Kurdish rights. Cemil Bayik was sent to Urfa, Kemal Pir was sent to Mus
Mus
-Computing:* Mus, a file extension used by Finale * MUS, the internal music format used in Doom -Three-letter acronyms:* Mitsubishi UFJ Securities * MUS, the NATO country code for Mauritius...
, Hakki Karer to Batman
Batman, Turkey
Batman is a city in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey and the capital of Batman Province. It lies on a plateau, 540 meters above sea level, near the confluence of the Batman River and the Tigris. The Batı Raman oil field, which is the largest oil field in Turkey, is located just outside...
and Ali Haydar Kaytan to Tunceli, they then started student organisations which talked to local workers and farmers about Kurdish rights.
In 1977, an assembly was held to evaluate the political activities. The assembly included 100 people, from different backgrounds and several representatives from other Leftist organisations. In Spring 1977, Abdullah Öcalan travelled through whole Kurdistan on a campaign to make the public aware of the Kurdish issue. During his campaign he travelled to Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat is a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey. It has two peaks: Greater Ararat and Lesser Ararat .The Ararat massif is about in diameter...
, Erzurum
Erzurum
Erzurum is a city in Turkey. It is the largest city, the capital of Erzurum Province. The city is situated 1757 meters above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 361,235 in the 2000 census. .Erzurum, known as "The Rock" in NATO code, served as NATO's southeastern-most air force post during the...
, Tunceli, Elazig
Elazig
Elâzığ is a city in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey and the seat of Elâzığ Province. It has a population of331,479 according to the 2010 census, and the plain on which the city extends has an altitude of 1067 metres....
, Antep and other cities. This was followed by a Turkish government crackdown against the organisation. On 18 March 1977, Haki Karer was assassinated in Antep. During this period, the group was also targeted by the MHP
Nationalist Movement Party
The Nationalist Movement Party , is a far-right political party in Turkey.In the 2002 general elections, the party had lost its 129 seats as it had won only 8.34% of the national vote...
's Grey Wolves
Grey Wolves
The Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
. They were also targeted by Kurdish landowners who on 18 May 1978, killed Halil Çavgun, which resulted in large Kurdish meetings in Erzurum, Dersim, Elazig and Antep.
The founding Congress of the PKK was held on 27 November 1978 in Fis, a village nearby the city of Lice
Lice, Turkey
Lice is a district of Diyarbakır Province in Turkey. The population is 9,644 as of 2010. It is located from the capital, Diyarbakır....
. During this congress the 25 people, present decided to found the Kurdistan Workers' Party. The Turkish state, rightist groups and Kurdish landowners, continued their attacks on the group, in response the employed armed members to protect itself which got involved in the fighting between leftist and rightist groups in Turkey (1978–1980) at the side of the leftists. In Summer 1979, Öcalan travelled to Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
where he made contacts with Syrian and Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
leaders. After 12 September 1980 Turkish coup d'état and a crackdown which was launched on all political organisations, during which half a million people were imprisoned and 51 officially executed, most of the PKK withdrew into Syria and Lebanon. Öcalan himself going to Syria in September 1980, Kemal Pir, Mahsum Korkmaz
Mahsum Korkmaz
Mahsum Korkmaz or Mazlum Korkmaz, also known as Agit, was the first commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party 's military forces. He is known to have led the 15 August 1984 PKK attacks which was the start of the PKK's armed rebellion against Turkey. He was killed on Nowruz, 1986, by Turkish...
and Delil Dogan being sent to set up an organisation in Lebanon. PKK fighters took part in the 1982 Lebanon War
1982 Lebanon War
The 1982 Lebanon War , , called Operation Peace for Galilee by Israel, and later known in Israel as the Lebanon War and First Lebanon War, began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon...
at the Syrian side.
The Second PKK Party Congress was then held in Daraa, Syria from 20 August to 25 August 1982. Here it was decided that the organisation would return to Turkey to start an armed guerilla war there for the creation of an independent Kurdish state. Meanwhile they prepared guerilla forces in Syria and Lebanon to go to war. Many PKK leaders however were arrested in Turkey and sent to Diyarbakir
Diyarbakir
Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...
Prison. The prison became the site of much political protest.
In Diyarbakır Prison
Diyarbakır Prison
Diyarbakır Prison is a prison located in Diyarbakır, southeastern Turkey. It was built in 1980 as an E-type prison by the Ministry of Justice. After the September 12, 1980 Turkish coup d'état, the facility was transferred to military administration and became a Martial Law Military Prison...
the PKK member Mazlum Doğan
Mazlum Doğan
Mazlum Doğan was a member of the Central Committee of the Kurdistan Workers' Party....
burned himself to death on 21 March 1982 in protest at the treatment in prison. Ferhat Kurtay, Necmi Önen, Mahmut Zengin and Eşref Anyık followed his example on 17 May 1982. On 14 July 1982 the PKK members Kemal Pir, M. Hayri Durmuş, Ali Çiçek and Akif Yılmaz started a hunger strike in Diyarbakır Prison. Kemal Pir died on 7 September 1982, M. Hayri Durmuş on 12 September 1982, Akif Yılmaz on 15 September 1982 and Ali Çiçek on 17 September 1982. On 13 April 1984 a 75-day hunger-strike started in Istanbul. As a result four prisoners – Abdullah Meral, Haydar Başbağ, Fatih Ökütülmüş and Hasan Telci – died.
1984–1999: First insurgency
The PKK launched its armed insurgency on 15 August 1984 with armed attacks on Eruh and Semdinli15 August 1984 PKK attacks
The 15 August 1984 PKK attacks, which were led by Mahsum Korkmaz , marked the start of the Turkey-PKK conflict.Since the PKK's second party Congress, which was held from 20 to 25 August 1982 in Daraa, Syria, it was decided that the PKK would start preparing for an insurgency inside Turkey...
. During these attacks 1 gendarmerie soldier was killed, 7 soldiers, 2 policemen and 3 civilians were injured. It was followed by a PKK raid on a police station in Siirt
Siirt
- External links :* * * *...
, two days later. At first, Turkish authorities did not take the attacks seriously, however within the next two months the group was responsible for an attack that killed 3 of General Kenan Evren
Kenan Evren
Ahmet Kenan Evren was the seventh President of Turkey; a post he assumed by leading the 1980 military coup. He was also the last president to be born in the Ottoman Empire.- Biography :...
's Preidential Guards in Yüksekova
Yüksekova
Yüksekova is a district of Hakkari Province of Turkey, situated close to the border with Iran. Its location on the trade route between Iranian Azarbaijan and eastern Turkey made it an important juncture for travelers and the location of several ethnic groups that were active in regional trade....
and an ambush which killed 8 Turkish soldiers in Çukurca
Çukurca
Çukurca is a district of Hakkari Province of Turkey. The mayor is Mehmet Kanar . The population is 5283 as of 2010....
. During the next 5 years some 2,500 people would be killed in the conflict.
The Turkish state responded by deploying 350,000 soldiers and gendarmes and 35,000 police to the region, while setting up pro-government Kurdish militia named the Village Guards with a strength of 70,000 men, to combat the PKK. On 19 July 1987 they created a region of emergency rule called the OHAL region
Martial law and state of emergency in Turkey
Since 1940 Turkey has frequently been under extraordinary rule, either the whole of the country or specific provinces. According to Articles 119-122 of the 1982 Constitution the four types of extraordinary rule are martial law , state of emergency , mobilization and situation of war .-History:On...
. This included the provinces of Bingöl
Bingöl Province
Bingöl Province is a province of Turkey in Eastern Anatolia. The province was created in 1946 out of parts of Elazığ and Erzincan. The new province was known as Çapakçur Province until 1950. Its neighbouring provinces are Tunceli, Erzurum, Muş, Diyarbakır, Erzincan and Elazığ. The province covers...
, Diyarbakır
Diyarbakir Province
Diyarbakır Province is a province in eastern Turkey. The province covers an area of 15,355 km² and the population is 1,528,958. The provincial capital is Diyarbakir...
, Elazığ
Elazig Province
Elâzığ Province is a province of Turkey with its seat in the city of Elâzığ. The source of the Euphrates river is located in this province.The province has a population of 552,646 as of 2010...
, Hakkari
Hakkari Province
Hakkâri Province is a province in the south east corner of Turkey. The administrative centre is located in the city of Hakkâri . The province covers an area of 7,121 km² and has a population of 251,302 . The province had a population of 236,581 in 2000.The province was created in 1936 out of...
, Mardin
Mardin Province
Mardin Province is a province of Turkey with a population of 744,606. The population was 835,173 in 2000. The capital of the Mardin Province is Mardin...
, Siirt
Siirt Province
Siirt Province is a province of Turkey, located in the southeast. The province borders Bitlis to the north, Batman to the west, Mardin to the southwest, Şırnak to the south, and Van to the east. It has an area of 5,406 km² and a total population of 300,695...
, Tunceli
Tunceli Province
The Tunceli Province is a province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The province was named Dersim Province and was changed to Tunceli Province on January 4, 1936. with the "Law on Administration of the Tunceli Province" , no...
and Van
Van Province
Van Province is a province in eastern Turkey, between Lake Van and the Iranian border. It is 19,069 km2 in area and had a population of 1,035,418 at the end of 2010....
with Adıyaman
Adiyaman Province
Adıyaman Province is a province in south-central Turkey. The province was created in 1954 out of part of Malatya Province. Area 7,614 km². Population 590,935 , up from 513,131 in 1990. The capital is Adıyaman....
, Bitlis
Bitlis Province
Bitlis Province is a province of eastern Turkey, located to the west of Lake Van.-History:Bitlis was formed as an administrative district in the 17th Century...
and Muş
Mus Province
Muş Province is a province in eastern Turkey. It is 8,196 km² in area, and has a population of 406,886 . The population was 453,654 in 2000. The provincial capital is the city of Muş...
as neighbouring provinces. They later added the newly created Batman
Batman Province
Batman Province is a Turkish province southeast of Anatolia. The province's population exceeded 500,000 in 2010.The province is important because of its reserves and production of oil which was started in the 1940s. There is a 494-km long oil pipeline from Batman to the Turkish port of İskenderun....
and Şırnak Province
Şırnak Province
The Şırnak Province is a Turkish province in southeastern Anatolia. It has a population of 430,109 . The population was 353,197 in 2000....
s. Starting in 1994 the region was slowly narrowed down until it was disbanded on 30 November 2002.
In the 1990s the campaign intensified, with major protests called Serhildan
Serhildan
Serhildan designate several Kurdish public rebellions since the 1990s with the slogan "Êdî Bese" against Turkey. The protestors use mainly stones, concrete paving stones, Molotov cocktails, slingshots and other materials as throwing objects and since the end of November 2009 also skyrockets...
breaking out in 1990 in Nusaybin and spreading to most Kurdish cities. The PKK also stepped up its attacks resulting in the confirmed deaths of at least 15,000 people between 1991 and 1995, which is 6x as much as in the preceding 5 years. The Özal
Turgut Özal
Halil Turgut Özal was Prime Minister of Turkey and President of Turkey . As Prime Minister, he transformed the economy of Turkey by paving the way for the privatization of many state enterprises.-Early life and career:...
government had started an anti-PKK offensive in 1992, this was however halted after the PPK's September 1992 Tasdelen attack which killed 20 Turkish soldiers. The PKK had established bases in Northern Iraq after the 1991 uprisings in Iraq
1991 uprisings in Iraq
The 1991 uprisings in Iraq were a series of anti-governmental rebellions in southern and northern Iraq during the aftermath of the Gulf War. The revolt was fueled by the perception that the power of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was vulnerable at the time; as well as by heavily fueled anger at...
had resulted in Kurdish control of the area and expulsion of Saddam's Army. In response Turkey launched Operation Northern Iraq
Operation Northern Iraq
Operation Northern Iraq was a cross-border operation by the Turkish Armed Forces into North of Iraq between 5 October and 15 November 1992 against the Kurdistan Workers Party which is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and organizations, including the USA,...
from 5 October 1992 to 15 November 1992, which they claim resulted in the death of 1,551 and capture of 1,232 PKK militants as well as the death of 28 killed and injury of 125 security forces, but was proved to be false.
In 1993, the two sides came closest to reconciliation as Turkish President Turgut Özal wanted to establish dialogue with the PKK’s leaders and said that he would be prepared to allow the broadcasting of Kurdish language and would even be prepared to discuss a federal system in Turkey to solve the problem. The PKK responded by announcing a cease-fire on March 20, 1993. However, Özal's death on April 17, 1993 brought a halt to such efforts from the Turkish government. The PKK responded by breaking the cease-fire with an ambush
May 24, 1993 PKK ambush
The May 24, 1993 PKK ambush on Turkish soldiers was carried out against unarmed Turkish military recruits on the Elazığ-Bingöl highway, killing 33 off-duty Turkish soldiers and 5 civilians and breaking the first ever PKK cease-fire with the Turkish government...
that killed 33 Turkish soldiers on a road between the eastern provinces of Elazığ and Bingöl. After the Turkish government started a new crackdown which included the banning of Turkey's only Kurdish party the People's Work Party
People's Work Party
People's Labor Party or People's Work Party was a pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey. It was founded on 7 June 1990 by seven members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly expelled from the Social Democratic Populist Party . HEP was led by Ahmet Fehmi Işıklar...
, on June 16, 1994 and the arrest and imprisonment of several of their members. Part of the crackdown was also the evacuation of thousands of Kurdish villages. The PKK launched attacks on Turkish diplomatic and commercial facilities in many Western European cities in 1993 and repeated these attacks in spring 1995. A second, one-sided cease-fire was declared by the PKK on December 15, 1995 but this was ended on May 6, 1996 after talks between Turkey and Israel declared Öcalan a terrorist.
Due to the PKK's claim to be the only true spokesman for Kurdish nationalism in Turkey, a violent conflict also erupted with rival Kurdish group Hezbollah
Kurdish Hezbollah
Hizbullah , often referred to as the Turkish Hezbollah or Kurdish Hezbollah , to avoid confusion with the completely unrelated Lebanese Shi'a group called Hezbollah, is a Kurdish Sunni Islamist militant organization, active against the Government of Turkey...
(a Kurdish group with an Islamist character), between 1992 and 1995, in which an estimated 500 PKK and 200 Hezbollah militants were killed. During this period, clashes between factions of Hezbollah led by Hüseyin Velioğlu
Hüseyin Velioğlu
Huseyin Velioglu was the leader of the Turkish Hezbollah, a militant extremist organization in the early 1990s. Velioglu led one of the wings of this organization. He was killed in a police operation in Beykoz on 17 January 2000.- Life :Huseyin Velioglu was of Kurdish origin He was born as Hüseyin...
and Fidan Güngör also took place, in which the Veliğlu faction emerged victorious. These clashed took part without interference of Turkish security forces. Links between the Kurdish Hezbollah and Turkish security forces during this period have been alleged.
During the mid-1990s the conflict reached its peak in violence, in 1994 the PKK had between 10,000 and 15,000 full-time and 60,000 to 75,000 part-time guerrillas, which is the highest it has ever been. To counter the growing force of the PKK the Turkish military started new counter insurgency strategies between 1992 and 1995. To deprive the rebels of a logistical base of operations the military carried out de-forestation of the country-side and destroyed over 3,000 Kurdish villages, causing at least 2 million refugees. Most of these villages were evacuated, however other villages were burned, bombed, or shelled by government forces and several entire villages were obliterated from the air. While some villages were destroyed or evacuated, many villages were brought to the side of the Turkish government, which offered salaries to local farmers and shepherds to join the Village Guards which would prevent the PKK from operating in these villages, while villages which refused were evacuated by the military. These tactics managed to drive the rebels from the cities and villages into the mountains, although they still often launched reprisals on pro-government villages, which included attacks on civilians.
However, the turning point in the conflict came in 1998, when, after political pressure and military threats from Turkey, the PKK's leader: Abdullah Öcalan was forced to leave Syria, where he had been in exile since September 1980. He first went to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, then to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Greece. He was eventually brought to the Greek embassy in Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, where he was arrested on February 15, 1999 at the airport in a joint MİT-CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
operation and brought to Turkey, which resulted in major protests by Kurds world-wide. Three Kurdish protestors were shot dead when trying to enter the Israeli consulate in Berlin to protest alleged Israeli involvement in the capture of Abdullah Öcalan. Although the capture of Öcalan ended a third cease-fire which Öcalan had declared on August 1, 1998, on September 1, 1999 the PKK declared a unilateral cease-fire which would last until 2004.
1999–2004: Ceasefire
After the unilateral cease-fire the PKK declared in September 1999, their forces fully withdrew from the Republic of Turkey and set up new bases in the Qandil MountainsQandil Mountains
The Qandil Mountains are a mountainous area of northern Iraq near the Iraq–Iran border, and approximately 50 km south of the Turkey–Iraq–Iran tripoint. The region belongs to the Zagros mountain range and is difficult to access...
of Iraq and in February 2000 they declared the formal end of the war. After this, the PKK said it would switch its strategy to using peaceful methods to achieve their objectives. In April 2002 the PKK changed its name to KADEK (Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress), claiming the PKK had fulfilled its mission and would now move on as purely political organisation. In October 2003 the KADEK announced its dissolution and declared the cration of a new organisation: KONGRA-GEL (Kurdistan Peoples Congress).
PKK offers for negotiations were ignored by the Turkish government, which claimed, the KONGRA-GEL continued to carry out armed attacks in the 1999–2004 period, although not on the same scale as before September 1999. They also blame the KONGRA-GEL for Kurdish riots which happened during the period. The PKK argues that they only defended themselfes as they claim the Turkish military launched some 700 raids against their bases militants, including in Northern Iraq. Also, despite the KONGRA-GEL cease-fire, other groups continued their armed activities, the PŞK
Revolutionary Party of Kurdistan
Revolutionary Party of Kurdistan, known as Kürdistan Devrim Partisi in Turkish and Partiya Şoreşa Kürdistan in Kurdish is an illegal political party active in Turkey...
for instance, tried to use the cease-fire to attract PKK fighters to join their organisation. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons
Kurdistan Freedom Falcons
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons , also known as the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks or the Kurdish Vengeance Brigade, is a militant group that has committed attacks throughout Turkey, operating in southern Turkey and northern Iraq with a goal of securing Kurdish secession from Turkey...
(TAK) were formed during this period by radical KONGRA-GEL commanders, dissatisfied with the cease-fire. The period after the capture of Öcalan was used by the Turkish government to launch major crackdown operations against the Kurdish Hizbullah, arresting 3,300 Hizbullah members in 2000, compared to 130 in 1998, and killing the group's leader Hüseyin Velioğlu on January 13, 2000. During this phase of the war at least 145 people were killed during fighting between the PKK and security forces.
After AK Party came to power in 2002, the Turkish state started to ease restrictions on the Kurdish language and culture.
From 2003 to 2004 there was a power struggle inside the KONGRA-GEL between a reformist wing which wanted the organisation to disarm completely and a traditionalist wing which wanted the organisation to resume its armed insurgency once again. The conservative wing of the organisation won this power struggle forcing reformist leaders such as Kani Yilmaz, Nizamettin Tas
Nizamettin Tas
Nizamettin Tas , also known as Botan Rojhilat , was one of the oldest and military commanders of the PKK. He was born in Varto, Turkey and joined the PKK in 1986 and became the military commander of the organisation in the 1995. He headed the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan, the military wing...
and Abdullah Öcalan's younger brother Osman Öcalan
Osman Ocalan
Osman Öcalan is a former Kurdish militant leader.The younger brother of Abdullah Öcalan, Osman studied at teachers’ training college before joining the PKK when it was founded in 1978 and spending two years in Libya...
to leave the organisation. The three major traditionalist leaders, Murat Karayilan
Murat Karayilan
Murat Karayılan is the current acting leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party.He has been the PKK's acting leader ever since its original founder and leader, Abdullah Öcalan, was captured in 1999....
, Cemil Bayik
Cemil Bayik
Cemil Bayik , also known as Cuma, is one of the five founders of the Kurdish separatist movement Kurdistan Workers' Party , who are still alive and is among the organisation's top leadership as he is a member of the 12-man leadership council of the Koma Civaken Kurdistan , a Kurdish political...
and Fehman Huseyin formed the new leadership committee of the organisation. The new administration decided to re-start the insurgency, because they claimed that without guerillas the PKK's political activities would remain unsuccessful. This came as the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party
People's Democracy Party
People’s Democracy Party was a Kurdish nationalist political party in Turkey. It was founded in May 1994 by lawyer Murat Bozlak. The party adopted a moderate course and kept its distance from the issue of the PKK....
(HADEP) was banned by the Turkish Supreme Court om March 13, 2003 and its leader Murat Bolzak was imprisoned.
In April 2005, KONGRA-GEL reverted its name back to PKK. Because not all of the KONGRA-GEL's elements reverted back, the organisation has also been referred to as the New PKK. The KONGRA-GEL has since become the Legislative Assembly of the Koma Civakên Kurdistan
Koma Civakên Kurdistan
Koma Civakên Kurdistan is a Kurdish organization founded by Abdullah Öcalan as formerly named Koma Komalên Kurdistan to put in practice his ideology of democratic confederalism.Abdullah Öcalan is the group's honorary leader , however due to his...
, an umbrella organisation which includes the PKK and is used as the group's urban and political wing. Ex-DEP
Democracy Party
Democracy Party was a pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey. It was founded in May 1993 by several prominent members of the People's Labor Party . The party became divided over the issue of the PKK, two factions - moderate and radical - appeared. Due to the promotion of Kurdish nationalism the...
member Zübeyir Aydar
Zübeyir Aydar
Zübeyir Aydar is a Kurdish politician and President of the Kongra-Gel, which is the parliament of the Koma Civakên Kurdistan , making him the de facto political leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party....
is the President of the KONGRA-GEL.
2004–present: Renewed insurgency
On June 1, 2004, the PKK resumed its armed activities because they claimed Turkish government was ignoring their calls for negotiations and was still attacking their forces. The government claimed that in that same month some 2,000 Kurdish guerrillas entered Turkey via Iraqi Kurdistan. The PKK, lacking a state sponsor or the kind of manpower they had in the 90s, was however forced to take up new tactics. As result, the PKK reduced the size of its field units from 15–20 militants to 6–8 militants. It also avoided direct confrontations and relied more on the use of mines, snipers and small ambushes, using hit and run tactics. Another change in PKK-tactics was that the organisation no longer attempted to control any territory, not even after dark. Nonetheless, violence increased throughout both 2004 and 2005 during which the PKK was said to be responsible for dozens of bombings in Western Turkey throughout 2005. Most notably the 2005 Kuşadası minibus bombing, which killed 5 and injured 14 people, although the PKK denied responsibility.In March 2006 heavy fighting broke out around Diyarbakir between the PKK and Turkish security forces, as well as large riots by PKK supporters, as result the army had to temporary close the roads to Diyarbakır Airport
Diyarbakir Airport
Diyarbakır Airport is a military airbase and public airport located in Diyarbakır, Turkey.Diyarbakır Airport is home to the 8th Air Wing of the 2nd Air Force Command of the Turkish Air Force...
and many schools and businesses had to be shut down. In August, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons
Kurdistan Freedom Falcons
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons , also known as the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks or the Kurdish Vengeance Brigade, is a militant group that has committed attacks throughout Turkey, operating in southern Turkey and northern Iraq with a goal of securing Kurdish secession from Turkey...
(TAK), which vowed to "turn Turkey into hell," launched a major bombing campaign. On August 25 two coordinated low-level blasts targeted a bank in Adana
Adana
Adana is a city in southern Turkey and a major agricultural and commercial center. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, 30 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean, in south-central Anatolia...
, on August 27 a school in Istanbul was targeted by a bombing, on August 28 there were three coordinated attacks in Marmaris
Marmaris
Marmaris is a port city and a tourist resort on the Mediterranean coast, located in southwest Turkey, in Muğla Province.Marmaris' main source of income is tourism. Little is left of the sleepy fishing village that Marmaris was just a few decades ago after a construction boom in the 1980s...
and one in Antalya
Antalya
Antalya is a city on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey. With a population 1,001,318 as of 2010. It is the eighth most populous city in Turkey and country's biggest international sea resort.- History :...
targeting the tourist industry and on August 30 there was a TAK bombing in Mersin
Mersin
-Mersin today:Today, Mersin is a large city spreading out along the coast, with Turkey's second tallest skyscraper , huge hotels, an opera house, expensive real estate near the sea or up in the hills, and many other modern urban...
. These bomnings were condemned by the PKK, which declared its fifth cease-fire on October 1, 2006, which slowed down the intensity of the conflict. Minor clashes, however, continued in the South East due to Turkish counter-insurgency operations. In total, the conflict claimed over 500 lives in 2006. 2006 also saw the PKK assassinate one of their former commanders, Kani Yilmaz, in February, in Iraq.
In May 2007, there was a bombing in Ankara
2007 Ankara bombing
The 2007 Ankara bombing was a suicide attack that occurred in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, on 22 May 2007. Six people were reported killed, including one of Pakistani origin, and 121 people were wounded. A seventh person died from his injuries on 7 June and another on 17 June raising the death...
that killed 6 and injured 121 people. The Turkish government alleged the PKK was responsible for the bombing. On June 4, a PKK suicide bombing in Tunceli killed seven soldiers and wounded six at a military base. Tensions across the Iraqi border also started playing up as Turkish forces entered Iraq several times in pursuit of PKK fighting and In June, as 4 soldiers were killed by landmines, large areas of Iraqi Kurdistan were shelled which damaged 9 villages and forced residents to flee. On October 7, 2007, 40–50 PKK fighters ambushed a 18-man Turkish commando unit
October 2007 clashes in Hakkari
The October 2007 clashes in Hakkari were a series of clashes between the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Turkish Armed Forces.-7–8 October attacks:On 7–8 October, the Kurdistan Workers' Party killed 15 Turkish soldiers....
in the Gabar mountains, killing 15 commandos and injuring three, which made it the deadliest PKK attack since the 1990s. In response a law was passed allowing the Turkish military to take action inside Iraqi territory. Than on October 21, 2007, 150–200 militants attacked an outpost, in Dağlıca, Yüksekova
Daglica, Yüksekova
Dağlıca is a village in Yüksekova District, Hakkâri Province, Turkey. It has a population of 770 .Its distance to Yüksekova is 60 km and to Hakkari is 134 km.- References :...
, manned by a 50-strong infantry battalion. The outpost was overrun and the PKK killed 12, wounded 17 and captured 8 Turkish soldiers. They then withdrew into Iraqi Kurdistan, taking the 8 captive soldiers with them. The Turkish military claimed to have killed 32 PKK fighters in hot pursuit operations, after the attack, however this was denied by the PKK and no corpses of PKK militants were produced by the Turkish military. The Turkish military responded by bombing PKK bases on October 24 and started preparing for a major cross-border military operation.
This major cross-border offensive, dubbed Operation Sun, started on February 21, 2008 and was preceded by an aerial offensive against PKK camps in northern Iraq, which began on December 16, 2007. Between 3,000 and 10,000 Turkish forces took part in the offensive. According to the Turkish military around 230 PKK fighters were killed in the ground offensive, while 27 Turkish forces were killed. According to the PKK, over 125 Turkish forces were killed, while PKK casualties were in the tens. Smaller scale Turkish operations against PKK bases in Iraqi Kurdistan continued afterwards. On July 27, 2008, Turkey blamed the PKK for an Istanbul double-bombing
2008 Istanbul bombings
The 2008 Istanbul bombings occurred on July 27, 2008 when two explosions hit a busy shopping street in the Güngören district of Istanbul, killing seventeen people, five of them children, and injuring 154. The attacks occurred at 9:45 p.m. local time, 18:45 UTC, on a pedestrian street closed to...
which killed 17 and injured 154 people. The PKK however denied any involvement. On October 4, the most violent clashes since the October 2007 clashes in Hakkari
October 2007 clashes in Hakkari
The October 2007 clashes in Hakkari were a series of clashes between the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Turkish Armed Forces.-7–8 October attacks:On 7–8 October, the Kurdistan Workers' Party killed 15 Turkish soldiers....
erupted as the PKK attacked the Aktutun border post in Şemdinli
Semdinli
Şemdinli is a district located in the Hakkari Province of southeastern Turkey.The population is 11,211 as of 2010.It was previously in the Ottoman vilayet of Van and the district centre was called Nevşehir...
in the Hakkâri Province
Hakkari Province
Hakkâri Province is a province in the south east corner of Turkey. The administrative centre is located in the city of Hakkâri . The province covers an area of 7,121 km² and has a population of 251,302 . The province had a population of 236,581 in 2000.The province was created in 1936 out of...
, at night. 15 Turkish soldiers were killed and 20 were injured, meanwhile 23 PKK fighters were said to be killed during the fighting.
At the start of 2009 Turkey opened its first Kurdish language TV-channel: TRT 6
TRT 6
TRT 6, part of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, is Turkey's first national Kurdish language television station.It broadcasts in the Kurmanji and Sorani dialects of the Kurdish language and in the Zaza language, offering programs aimed at all ages and promoting the perspective of the...
. and on March 19, 2009, local elections
Turkish local elections, 2009
Turkey held local elections on 29 March 2009. The overal winner was the ruling party Justice and Development Party, although the party saw a decline in its vote relative to the 2007 general election...
were held in Turkey in which the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party
Democratic Society Party
The Democratic Society Party was a Kurdish Kurdish nationalist political party in Turkey. The party considered itself social democratic, and had observer status in the Socialist International. It was considered to be the successor of the Democratic People's Party...
(DTP) won majority of the vote in the South East. Soon after on April 13, 2009, the PKK declared its 6th ceasefire, after Abdullah Öcalan called on them to end military operations and prepare for peace. In September Turkey's Erdoğan-government launched the Kurdish initiative which included plans to re-name Kurdish villages which had been given Turkish names, expand scope of freedom of expression, restore Turkish citizenship to Kurdish refugees, strengthening of local governments and a partial amnesty for PK fighters. The plans for the Kurdish initiative where however heavily hurt after the DTP was banned by the Turkish constitutional court on 11 December 2009 and its leaders were subsequently trialed for terrorism. A total of 1,400 DTP members were arrested and 900 detained in the government crackdown against the party. The move sparked major riots by Kurds all over Turkey and resulted in violent clashes between pro-Kurdish and security forces as well as pro-Turkish demonstrators, which resulted in several injuries and fatalities. On December 7, the PKK launched an ambush
Reşadiye shooting
The Reşadiye shooting was an ambush that took place on December 7, 2009, at Reşadiye, Tokat Province, Turkey. Unidentified gunmen ambushed a Turkish patrol, killing seven soldiers and wounding three others...
in Reşadiye
Resadiye
Reşadiye is a town and a district of Tokat Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The mayor is Rafet Erdem . It is near the town of Doğanşehir....
which killed 7 and injured 3 Turkish soldiers, which became the deadliest PKK attack in that region since the 90s.
By May 1, 2010, the PKK declared an end to its cease-fire, launching an attack in Tunceli that killed 4 and injured 7 soldiers. On May 31, Abdullah Öcalan declared an end to his attempts at re-approachment and establishing dialogue with the Turkish government, leaving PKK top commanders in charge of the conflict. The PKK then stepped up its armed activities, starting with a missile attack on a navy base in İskenderun
Iskenderun
İskenderun is a city and urban district in the province of Hatay on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The current mayor is Yusuf Hamit Civelek .-Names:...
, killing 7 and wounding 6 soldiers. On June 18 and 19, heavy fighting broke out that resulted in the death of 12 PKK fighters, 12 Turkish soldiers and injury of 17 Turkish soldiers, as the PKK launched three separate attacks in Hakkari and Elazig provinces. Another major attack in Hakkari occurred on July 20, killing 6 and wounding 17 Turkish soldiers, with 1 PKK fighter being killed. The next day, PKK leader Murat Karayilan announced that the PKK would lay down its arms if the Kurdish issue would be resolved through dialogue and threatened to declare independence if this demand was not met. Turkish authorities claimed they had killed 187 and captured 160 PKK fighters by July 14. By July 27, Turkish news sources reported the deaths of over 100 security forces, which exceeded the entire 2009 toll.
On August 12 however, a ramadan
Ramadan
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...
cease-fire was declared by the PKK. In November the cease-fire was extended until Turkey's June 12, 2011 elections
Turkish general election, 2011
Turkey's 17th general election was held on 12 June 2011 to elect 550 new members of Grand National Assembly. They were Turkey's first non-early elections in 34 years.-Background:...
, despite alleging that that Turkey had launched over 80 military operations against them during this period. Despite the truce, the PKK responded to these military operations by launching retaliatory attacks in Siirt and Hakkari provinces, killing 12 Turkish soldiers.
The cease-fire was however revoked early, on February 28, 2011. Soon afterwards 3 PKK fighters were killed while trying to infiltrate into Turkey, via Northern Iraq. In May, counter-insurgency operations left 12 PKK fighters and 5 soldiers dead. This then resulted in major Kurdish protests across Turkey
2011 Kurdish protests in Turkey
The 2011 Kurdish protests in Turkey are ongoing protests by members of Turkey's Kurdish minority to demonstrate against restrictions of their rights by the Turkish authorities...
as part of a civil disobedience campaign launched by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party
Peace and Democracy Party
The Peace and Democracy Party ) is a political party in the Republic of Turkey. It succeeded the Democratic Society Party following the closure of the latter party for its alleged connections with the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the EU.The BDP has observer status in the...
(BDP), during these protests 2 people were killed, 308 injured and 2,506 arrested by Turkish authorities.
The June 12 elections saw a historical performance for the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party
Peace and Democracy Party
The Peace and Democracy Party ) is a political party in the Republic of Turkey. It succeeded the Democratic Society Party following the closure of the latter party for its alleged connections with the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the EU.The BDP has observer status in the...
(BDP) which won 36 seats in the South-East, which was more than the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which won only 30 seats in Kurdish areas. However, six of the 36 elected BDP deputies remain in Turkish jails as of June 2011. One of the six jailed deputies, Hatip Dicle, was was then stripped of his elected position by the constitutional court, after which the 30 free MPs declared a boycott of Turkish parliament. The PKK intensified its campaign again, in July killing 20 Turkish soldiers in two weeks, during which at least 10 PKK fighters were killed.
On August 17, 2011, the Turkish Armed Forces launched multiple raids against Kurdish rebels, striking 132 targets. Turkish military bombed PKK targets in northern Iraq in six days of air raids, according to General Staff, where 90-100 PKK Soldiers were killed, and at least 80 injured. On October 19, 26 Turkish soldiers were killed and 18 injured in 8 simultaneous PKK attacks in Cukurca and Yuksekova, in Hakkari province. This marked the deadliest day for the Turkish military since May 24, 1993 when the PKK killed 33 unarmed troops in an ambush.
Casualties
According to official figures released by the Turkish military for the 1984–2008 period, the conflict has resulted in the capture of 14,000 PKK members, and the death of 32,000 PKK members, 6,482 soldiers, and 5,560 civilians, among which 157 teachers. From August 1984 to June 2007, the Turkish government put the total casualties at 37,979. The Turkish military was said to be responsible for the deaths of 26,128 PKK fighters and the PKK was said to be responsible for the other 11,851 people deaths. A total of 13,327 soldiers and 7,620 civilians are said to have been wounded and an additional 20,000 civilians killed by unknown assailants. Only 2,500 people were said to have been killed between 1984 and 1991, while over 17,500 were killed between 1991 and 1995. The number of murders committed by Village Guards from 1985–1996 is put at 296 by official estimates. The Turkish government claims that the total casualties from 2003 to 2009 is around 2,300, which includes 172 civilians, 556 security forces and 1380 rebels. In June 2010 new casualty figures were released in which the Turkish government claimed a total of 6,653 security forces including 4,015 soldiers, 217 police officers and 1,335 village guards had been killed. They claimed to have killed 29,704 PKK fighters as of 2009. According to these figures the amounth of casualties since the second insurgency in 2004 started is 2,462.According to human rights organisations since the beginning of the uprising 4,000 villages have been destroyed, in which between 380,000 and 1,000,000 Kurdish villagers have been forcibly evacuated from their homes. Some 5,000 Turks and 35,000 Kurds, including 18,000 civilians have been killed, 17,000 Kurds have disappeared and 119,000 Kurds have been imprisoned by Turkish authorities. According to the Humanitarian Law Project
Humanitarian Law Project
The Humanitarian Law Project is a U.S.-based non-profit organization organization, working to protect human rights and promote "the peaceful resolution of conflict by using established international human rights laws and humanitarian law."...
, 2,400 Kurdish villages were destroyed and 18,000 Kurds were executed, by the Turkish government. Other estimates have put the number of destroyed Kurdish villages at over 4,000. In total up to 3,000,000 people (mainly Kurds) have been displaced by the conflict, an estimated 1,000,000 of which are still internally dispalced as of 2009.
According to pro-PKK sources, the real casualties from August 1984 to August 1994, were that 11,750 Turkish security, 6,443 PKK fighters and 3,330 civilians had been killed. Sebahat Tuncel
Sebahat Tuncel
Sebahat Tuncel is a Kurdish politician, women’s rights advocate, former nurse and member of Parliament in Turkey.She was born in Malatya and studied Cartography and Land Surveying in Mersin University and began her political career through the Women’s Branch of the Party of People’s Democracy in...
, an elected MP from the BDP put the PKK's casualties at 18,000 as of July 2011.
According to the International Crisis Group, the conflict's confirmed casualties for the last 3 years of the conflict were as following:
| Year | Security Forces | Insurgents | Civilians | Total: |
| 2008 | 143 | 657 | 49 | 849 |
| 2009 | 44 | 78 | 67 | 189 |
| 2010 | 80–150 | 60–130 | 20 | 160 – 300 |
| Total: | 267 – 337 | 795 – 865 | 136 | 1198–1338 |
The conflict's casualties between 1984 and March 2009 according to the General Staff of the Republic of Turkey, Turkish Gendarmerie, General Directorate of Security and since then until June 2010 according to Milliyet's analysis of the data of the General Staff of the Republic of Turkey and Turkish Gendarmerie were as following:
| Year | Security Forces | Civilians | Insurgents | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | 26 | 43 | 28 | 97 |
| 1985 | 58 | 141 | 201 | 4,000 |
| 1986 | 51 | 133 | 74 | 258 |
| 1987 | 71 | 237 | 95 | 403 |
| 1988 | 54 | 109 | 123 | 286 |
| 1989 | 153 | 178 | 179 | 510 |
| 1990 | 161 | 204 | 368 | 733 |
| 1991 | 244 | 233 | 376 | 853 |
| 1992 | 629 | 832 | 1,129 | 2,590 |
| 1993 | 715 | 1,479 | 3,050 | 5,244 |
| 1994 | 1,145 | 992 | 2,510 | 4,647 |
| 1995 | 772 | 313 | 4,163 | 5,248 |
| 1996 | 608 | 170 | 3,789 | 4,567 |
| 1997 | 518 | 158 | 7,558 | 8,234 |
| 1998 | 383 | 85 | 2,556 | 3,024 |
| 1999 | 236 | 83 | 1,458 | 1,787 |
| 2000 | 29 | 17 | 319 | 365 |
| 2001 | 20 | 8 | 104 | 132 |
| 2002 | 7 | 7 | 19 | 33 |
| 2003 | 31 | 63 | 87 | 181 |
| 2004 | 75 | 28 | 122 | 225 |
| 2005 | 105 | 30 | 188 | 323 |
| 2006 | 111 | 38 | 132 | 281 |
| 2007 | 146 | 37 | 315 | 498 |
| 2008 | 171 | 51 | 696 | 918 |
| 2009 | 62 | 18 | 65 | 145 |
| 2010 | 72 | |||
| Total: | 6,653 | 5,687 | 29,704 |
Human rights abuses
Both Turkey and the PKK have committed numerous human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
abuses during the conflict.
Former French ambassador to Turkey Eric Rouleau states:
According to the Turkish Ministry of JusticeMinistry of Justice (Turkey)The Ministry of Justice is a government ministry office of the Republic of Turkey, responsible for justice affairs in Turkey....
, along with the 30,000 people killed in military campaigns, 22,500 Turkish Politicians were assassinated between 1984, when the conflict began, and 1998. An additional 1,000 people were reportedly assassinated in the first nine months of 1999.
Abuses by the PKK
Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
has stated the following about the tactics of the PKK::
- Consequently, all economic, political, military, social and cultural organizations, institutions, formations—and those who serve in them—have become targets. The entire country has become a battlefield.
- The PKK also promised to "liquidate" or "eliminate" political parties, "imperialist" cultural and educational institutions, legislative and representative bodies, and "all local collaborators and agents working for the Republic of Turkey."
- Many who died were unarmed civilians, caught in the middle between the PKK and security forces, targeted for attacks by inevitably, PKK suicide bombers.
According to Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, the PKK killed and tortured Kurdish peasants and its own members in the 1980s. A number of Kurds have been abducted and killed because they were suspected of being "collaborators" or "informers" and it was a common practice for the PKK to kill their whole families.
According to a 1996 report by Amnesty International, "in January 1996 the [Turkish] government announced that the PKK had massacred 11 men near the remote village of Güçlükonak. Seven of the victims were members of the local village guard force".
Abuses by the Turkish side
In response to the activities of the PKK, the Turkish government placed Southeastern Anatolia, where citizens of Kurdish descent are in the majority, under military rule. The Turkish Army and the Kurdish village guards loyal to it have abused Kurdish civilians, resulting in mass migrations to cities. However martial law and military rule was lifted in the last provinces in 2002.In 2006 it was stated by the former ambassador Rouleau that the continuing human rights abuses of ethnic Kurds is one of the main obstacles to Turkish membership of the E.U.
Accession of Turkey to the European Union
Turkey's application to accede to the European Union was made on 14 April 1987. Turkey has been an associate member of the European Union and its predecessors since 1963...
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
notes that:
- As Human Rights Watch has often reported and condemned, Turkish government forces have, during the conflict with the PKK, also committed serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including tortureTortureTorture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, extrajudicial killings, and indiscriminate fire. We continue to demand that the Turkish government investigate and hold accountable those members of its security forces responsible for these violations. Nonetheless, under international law, the government abuses cannot under any circumstances be seen to justify or excuse those committed by Ocalan's PKK.
- The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), a separatist group that espouses the use of violence for political ends, continues to wage guerrilla warfare in the southeast, frequently in violation of international humanitarian law, or the laws of war. Instead of attempting to capture, question and indict people suspected of illegal activity, Turkish security forces killed suspects in house raids, thus acting as investigator, judge, jury and executioner. Police routinely asserted that such deaths occurred in shoot-outs between police and "terrorists." In many cases, eyewitnesses reported that no firing came from the attacked house or apartment. Reliable reports indicated that while the occupants of raided premises were shot and killed, no police were killed or wounded during the raids. This discrepancy suggests that the killings were summary, extrajudicial executions, in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.
According to an article printed in the November 2002 issue of the International Socialist, monthly paper of the International Socialists
International Socialists (Scotland)
The Socialist Party Scotland is the Scottish platform of the Committee for a Workers International in Solidarity . The group is descended from the Scottish Militant Labour which formed the Scottish Socialist Alliance in 1996 after a debate amongst CWI members in Scotland on what sort of...
, during the conflict (and still [as of 2002]), the Turkish army killed and “disappeared” members of the PKK.
In 1997, Amnesty International (AI) reported that, "'Disappearances' and extrajudicial executions have emerged as new and disturbing patterns of human rights violations ..." by the Turkish state.
Turkish-Kurdish human right activists in Germany accused Turkey of Using Chemical Weapons against PKK. Hans Baumann, a German expert on photo forgeries investigated the authenticity of the photos and claimed that the photos were authentic. A forensics report released by the Hamburg University Hospital has backed the allegations. Claudia Roth from Germany's Green Party demanded an explanation from the Turkish government. The Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selçuk Ünal commented on the issue. He said that he did not need to emphasize that the accusations were groundless. He added that Turkey signed to the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997, and Turkey did not possess chemical weapons. Turkey has been a signatory to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction since 1997, and has passed all inspections required by such convention.
See also
- List of incidents in the Turkey–Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict
- List of Turkish Armed Forces operations in Northern Iraq
- Effects of the Turkish-PKK conflict
- List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
External links
- Victims of the Conflict
- The Drums of War – slideshow by The First PostThe First PostThe First Post is a British daily online news magazine based in London. It was launched in August 2005. It publishes news, current affairs, lifestyle, opinion, arts and sports pages, and it features an online games arcade and a cinema featuring short films, virals, trailers and eyewitness news...
- Turkish Gov’t Pushes to Disarm Kurdish Fighters by Cindy Jaquith, The Militant, April 13, 2009