The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement which historically operated throughout Kurdistan but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Since 1984, the PKK has been involved in asymmetric warfare in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. Although the PKK initially sought an independent Kurdish state, in the 1990s its official platform changed to seeking autonomy and increased political and cultural rights for Kurds within Turkey.
The history of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) began in 1974 as a Marxist–Leninist organization under the leadership of Abdullah Öcalan. In 1978 the organization adopted the name "Kurdistan Workers Party" and waged its low-level Urban War in Turkish Kurdistan between 1978 and 1980. The PKK restructured itself and moved the organization structure to Syria between 1980 and 1984, after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. The Kurdish-Turkish conflict began in earnest in 1984. The rural-based insurgency lasted between 1984 and 1992. The PKK shifted its activities to include urban attacks against Turkish military bases between 1993–1995 and later 1996–1999. Öcalan was captured in Kenya in early 1999. After a "self declared peace initiative of 1999", hostilities resumed in February 2004. 2013 saw another ceasefire, but the conflict resumed again in 2015 and has continued since.
The Kurdistan Free Life Party, or PJAK, is a Kurdish leftist anti-Islamic Republic of Iran armed militant group. It has waged an intermittent armed struggle since 2004 against the Iranian Government, seeking self-determination through some degree of autonomy for Kurds in Iran.
Şemdinli is a town located in the Şemdinli District of Hakkari Province in Turkey and had a population of 18,220 in 2023. The current mayor is Tahir Saklı from the Justice and Development Party (AKP), elected in 2019.
The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks or TAK, is a Kurdish nationalist militant group in Turkey seeking an independent Kurdish state in Turkish Kurdistan. The group also opposes the Turkish government's policies towards Kurds in Turkey. It has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US, UK and Australian governments.
The 2008 Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, code-named Operation Sun by the Turkish Armed Forces, began on February 21, 2008, when the Turkish Army sent troops into northern Iraq to target the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The ground offensive was preceded by Turkish Air Force bombardments of PKK camps in northern Iraq, which began on December 16, 2007. It was the "first confirmed ground incursion" of Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The Iran–PJAK conflict is an armed conflict between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), which began in 2004. The group has carried out numerous attacks in the Kurdistan Province of Iran and provinces of Western Iran. PJAK is closely affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the primary opponent of the Republic of Turkey in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. PJAK has been designated as a terrorist organization by Iran, Japan, Turkey, and the United States.
This is the timeline of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. The Kurdish insurgency 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 in Turkey. The main rebel group is the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, which was founded on November 27, 1978, and started a full-scale insurgency on August 15, 1984, when it declared a Kurdish uprising. Apart from some extended ceasefires, the conflict has continued to the present day.
Mustafa Karasu also known as Huseyin Ali is a deputy chairman of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Kurdish rebel group fighting an armed insurgency against the government of Turkey for an independent Kurdistan. The group is recognised as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and EU.
The June 2012 Hakkari clashes were a series of clashes between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish Army near Şemdinli in Hakkâri Province in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. The clashes began on June 19, with a coordinated PKK attack on a Turkish Army post in Yuksekova town near the Iraq-Turkey border. On July 20–21, the PKK made an attempt to capture territory in Şemdinli, resulting in a Turkish counter-offensive which, according to Turkish security forces, resulted in eight Turkish security forces and 130 Kurdish militants killed. The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) recorded over 400 incidents of shelling, air bombardment and other armed clashes during August 2012. The events were described as the "heaviest fighting in Turkey in years".
The Firat News Agency (ANF) is a Kurdish news agency that gathers and broadcasts news from the Middle East, broadly concerning Kurdish matters. The news agency has offices in Amsterdam and journalists around the world.
The Free Women's Units, shortened from the Kurdish name as YJA STAR, is the women's military wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). YJA STAR operates according to jineology, the feminist philosophy developed by the Kurdish ideological leader, Abdullah Öcalan.
Operation Martyr Yalçın was a military operation conducted by the Turkish Air Force against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) positions in Syria, and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq, on 24 and 25 July 2015.
In late July 2015, the third phase of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict between various Kurdish insurgent groups and the Turkish government erupted, following a failed two and a half year-long peace process aimed at resolving the long-running conflict.
The Civil Protection Units, also known as Civil Defense Units, is a primarily Kurdish rebel group and main armed force in Turkish Kurdistan. The YPS was formed by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to better organize and train the youth fighters in the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement, otherwise known as the YDG-H. In 2015 the YDG-H reorganized themselves in to what is known as the YPS today.
The 2015–2016 Şırnak clashes were a series of armed clashes in the southeastern Şırnak province, between Turkish government forces and Kurdish armed groups, as part of the Turkish–Kurdish conflict.
The May 2016 Dürümlü bombing was a truck bombing that took place in Dürümlü hamlet in Diyarbakir's Sur district, Turkey on 12 May 2016 at approximately 22:30 local time. As a result of the attack 16 villagers were killed and 23 villagers were wounded. The People's Defence Forces (HPG), the military wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), accepted that the truck was driven by members of the HPG, but the HPG also claimed that the explosives should have detonated elsewhere and that the truck only detonated as villagers opened fire on the truck.
The Asayish, officially the Ezidkhan Asayish, are the police force in the regions controlled by the Sinjar Resistance Units, which is backed by the PKK. The force aims to protect the rights of the Yazidi people as well as maintain law and order in the Sinjar District where they are located. It has a training post in Sinjar, where the policemen are trained by senior PKK militants. The force also gets official financial aid from Iraq.
The joint Claw-Eagle and Claw-Tiger operations was a Turkish Armed Forces external operation in northern Iraq. The operation took place in the Qandil Mountains, the Sinjar District, and Makhmur, against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets, as part of the ongoing Kurdish–Turkish and Kurdish–Iranian conflicts. Claw-Eagle, the air campaign, began on 15 June 2020. Claw-Tiger, the ground campaign, was launched on 17 June.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers' Party, as well as its allied insurgent groups, both Kurdish and non-Kurdish, who have either demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or attempted to secure autonomy, and/or greater political and cultural rights for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey.
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Mehmet Erden