Political conflict:international"},"result":{"wt":"''[[List of ongoing armed conflicts|Ongoing]]''\n* Military:inconclusive. \n* Political:ongoing."},"combatant1":{"wt":"{{flag|Israel}}\n
The Israel–PKK conflict refers to the clashes between Israel and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) during the 1980s, as well as the remarks they made about each other in the previous years and the years after the clashes. Throughout its existence, the PKK maintained its Anti-Zionist stance and an opposition to Israel, as part of Abdullah Öcalan's teachings. [1]
The PKK's ideology started off as a Marxism–Leninism with a blend of Kurdish nationalism. Marxist-Leninists have a long history of hostility towards Zionism. [7] However, the PKK's ideology later shifted to Democratic confederalism, a left-wing, libertarian socialist, anti-capitalist, and internationalist ideology which also goes against Zionism. [8] Democratic confederalism aims to replace ethnostates and capitalism with administrative councils elected by locals, allowing the people to have autonomous control over themself while linking themself to other communities via a network of confederal councils. Democratic confederalism also hopes to dissolve the United Nations. [9] Abdullah Öcalan frequently stated his Anti-Zionist stance and also made negative statements towards the existence of Israel. [10] Various leading members of the PKK, such as Mustafa Karasu, Duran Kalkan, Cemîl Bayik, and Besê Hozat, have also made negative statements towards Zionism and Israel. [11] [12] [13]
In a comment submitted to Internationalist Commune, Mustafa Karasu confirmed the PKK's official stance on Israel:
Since the emergence of the PKK, we have been against Zionism. We compared the genocide of the Kurds in Turkey with Israeli Zionism and the Apartheid regime of South Africa. Since its founding, the PKK has fought side by side with the Palestinians. In 1982, 13 of our cadres fell in the fight against the occupation of Lebanon by Israel. The Israeli state also participated in the international conspiracy against Abdullah Öcalan, and murdered four of our comrades in Berlin. No doubt, we will never forget the support the Palestinians gave to the Kurdish people in the 1980s. Our attitude towards Zionism has always been ideological. Until today, we stand on the side of the Palestinians and all those who are fighting for a democratic solution in the region. [1]
After their expulsion from Turkey, the PKK relocated to the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon with the support of Hafiz al-Assad's Syrian government. [14] The PKK initially received training in PLO camps, although they established small training camps later. After the 1982 Lebanon War broke out, the PKK fought alongside their allied PLO and ASALA and other militants against Israel and its allied Lebanese Christian militias. The PKK ordered all of its armed units to fight against the Israeli forces, who launched an invasion in southern Lebanon. A total of 11 PKK fighters were killed during the war. [4] [5] In 1986, the PKK established the Mahsum Korkmaz Academy, their largest training camp in Beqaa. [15] [16] The Mahsum Korkmaz Academy remained a training camp for PKK recruits until Turkey pressured the Syrian government to make the PKK close it. The PKK eventually closed it and relocated to Damascus in 1992, [17] which it also left in 1998 when they relocated to Qandil Mountains. [18] The PLO's DFLP and PFLP deciding to shelter the PKK in Beqaa Valley had a huge impact on the ideology of the PKK's founding generation. The PKK fighters learned guerrilla warfare and had a much stronger feeling of internationalism because of their experience in Beqaa Valley. [6]
An additional 15 PKK members were captured by the Israeli army and taken to an Israeli prison built on occupied Ansar, Lebanon. Serxwebûn (PKK's official magazine) in its June 1984 edition, featured drawings and poetry from the imprisoned PKK fighters, in which they told their experiences of being beaten by an Israeli interrogators who equated Kurdistan to Arabs and Iran. The PKK claimed that Israeli interrogators had invited Turkish interrogators to abuse the PKK prisoners. [6]
After the move to Qandil, the PKK became more focused on the Kurdish-Turkish conflict against Turkey and the Kurdistan Region–PKK conflict against the KDP-dominated Kurdistan Region. Israel later confirmed their support for the KRG and a Kurdish state, but also confirmed their opposition to the PKK. [19] [20]
Abdullah Öcalan later began traversing various countries, and on 15 February 1999, he was captured in Kenya on his way to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after coming back from the Greek embassy. His arrest was done by the MİT and CIA, and allegedly with help from Mossad. [21] The CIA reportedly transferred him to the MIT, who flew him to Turkey for arrest and trial. [22] [23] Duran Kalkan accused the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel of working together to capture Öcalan. [24]
After his arrest, the Government of Greece entered a period of crisis, and witnessed Theodoros Pangalos, Alekos Papadopoulos, and Philipos Petsalnikos resign from their posts. [25] It was also alleged that Kenyans had warned Pangalos about the arrest four days before it happened, although Pangalos assured them that Öcalan was safe. [26]
Öcalan's arrest led to havoc across the Kurdish community and diaspora, in which they held protests in front of Greek and Israeli embassies worldwide condemning his capture. A group of PKK-supporting Kurds attempted to attack the Israeli consulate in Berlin as revenge. Israeli guards killed 3 of the Kurds and injured 16 of them. Kurds in Germany were threatened with deportation by German authorities if they continued the protests. [27] [28] It was this attack which prompted Israel to increase security on all of its embassies and consulates. [29]
Israeli political Avigdor Lieberman allegedly recommended that Israel could establish relations with the PKK and arm them and fund them. The PKK rejected it and reiterated its opposition to Israel. The PKK's new leader, Murat Karayılan, also demanded that Israel apologise for their alleged involvement in the capture of Abdullah Öcalan. [30]
In 2017, Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel rejects the PKK and considers it a terrorist organization, and called on Turkey to return the favor by considering Hamas a terrorist organization. [31] Mustafa Karasu, a PKK leader, condemned the United States recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel, and said that Jerusalem cannot be a Jewish city, but should be a city with special status in which all 3 Abrahamic religions are respected. [1] In May 2018, after the United States moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, protests happened at the Gaza border, in which Israeli troops killed several Palestinians. The PKK, along with HDP, condemned the killings and called for an end to using violence. [32]
About the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Murat Karayılan stated that he supports whatever ends it, even if it was a two-state solution. He also claimed that democratic confederalism could solve the conflict as well as many conflicts of the entire Middle East. [33] Duran Kalkan stated that he supports democratic confederalism to solve the conflict, not a one-state or two-state solution. He also stated his belief that democratic confederalism is the only system which will guarantee peace between all the different ethnicities and religions in the Middle East. [24]
In late 2022, a settlement was built in Afrin, a city occupied by Turkey, previously under SDF control. The settlement was made to house Palestinians, it included 75 housing complexes to house 220 families, built in the Jindires district. It drew much criticism from Syrian Kurds, especially supporters of the YPG, a group allied with the PKK. [34] Riyad Al-Malki, the Foreign Minister for the Palestinian National Authority, stated: "we reject the settlement of any Palestinian in Afrin and other Kurdish areas". He also said that the State of Palestine was uninvolved in the construction of the settlement, and that they are against anything which abuses Kurds and their land. [35] It was later discovered that an Israeli bank was helping fund the settlement of Palestinians in Afrin. [36] [37]
In 2023, PKK leader Duran Kalkan compared Israel with Turkey. He said,
Three years after World War I, Turkey was established, through which the capitalist imperialist system attempted to dominate the Middle East. Three years after World War II, Israel was established, again under the lead of Britain, and Israel was included in the hegemony war waged in the region. [24]
He then said that Israel and Turkey cooperate “on the basis of a racist, chauvinist and genocidal understanding and policies”. Kalkan denied the Israeli-Turkish political tension by saying “sometimes it looks like there is contradiction and conflict between the Israeli and Turkish states, but this is a game they play to mask the reality and deceive the people.” He stated that Israel plays an active role in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict “because Jewish nationalism considers Kurdistan to be Israeli territory”. He denied that he is antisemitic. [24]
In a reaction to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's stance on the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Murat Karayılan called Erdoğan a "self-serving figure", and also claimed that Erdoğan would support anyone as long as it benefits him. He stated: "Neither our Arab people nor our Palestinian people should believe him. He is a businessman. He plays both sides. When it suits him, he is with Israel, when it suits him, he is with Palestine." Karayılan claimed that Erdoğan's stance is caused by a lack of sincerity, a lack of commitment to Islamic principles, and overall selfishness and opportunism. [38]
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. It was founded in Ziyaret, Lice on 27 November 1978 and 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.
Abdullah Öcalan, also known as Apo, is a political prisoner and founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
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.
Murat Karayılan, also nicknamed Cemal, is one of the co-founders of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). He became the PKK's acting leader after its original founder and leader, Abdullah Öcalan, was captured in 1999 by Turkish intelligence agents. On 2014, he left the PKK leader position and was assigned as the new commander-in-chief of the PKK's armed wing, the People's Defence Forces.
TRT Kurdî is the first national television station that broadcasts in the Kurdish dialect of Kurmanji and in Zazaki. On the channels sixth anniversary it changed its name from TRT 6 into TRT Kurdi. The channel has been mostly met with criticism from the Kurdish population in Turkey on various grounds, including accusations of being a government propaganda tool. A 2018 survey asking Kurds about TRT Kurdî showed that a majority (59%) did not trust the channel.
Osman Öcalan was a Kurdish militant and ex-commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
The Kurdistan Communities Union is a Kurdish political organization committed to implementing Abdullah Öcalan's ideology of democratic confederalism. The KCK also serves as an umbrella group for several confederalist political parties of Kurdistan, including the Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Democratic Union Party (PYD), Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), and Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (PÇDK). Finland and Sweden's alleged support for the KCK, is one of the points which caused Turkey to oppose Finland and Sweden's NATO accession bid.
Cemîl Bayik is one of the five founders of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and is among the organization's top leadership. He is a member of the 12-man leadership council of the Kurdistan Communities Union, a Kurdish political umbrella organisation that the PKK is part of. He is also part of the three-man Executive Committee of the PKK, the leading body of the organisation, which consists of himself, acting PKK leader Murat Karayilan and Fehman Huseyin from Rojava, the PKK's commander.
Hüseyin Velioğlu was the leader of the Turkish Hezbollah, a militant extremist organization established by the Turkish state as a counterterrorism organization against the PKK in the early 1990s. He was killed in the Beykoz Operation.
Mazlum Doğan was a journalist and a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). He was a Kurdish Alevi which was often told to attract new recruits to PKK. He was the first chief editor of the propaganda newspaper Serxwebûn of PKK. In 1979, he had planned to leave Turkey towards Syria, but was arrested and served time in the infamous Diyarbakir No. 5 prison. Mazlum Doğan committed suicide in protest of the Turkish coup d'état and the inhumane conditions he and other prisoners were facing inside of the penitentiary. Today he is presented as a hero and a martyr by PKK and related organisations.
Mustafa Karasu also known as Huseyin Ali is a deputy chairman Turkish founder 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.
Duran Kalkan, also known as Selahattin Abbas, or Selahattin Erdem is a senior commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The Democratic Union Party is a Kurdish left-wing political party established on 20 September 2003 in northern Syria. It is a founding member of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change. It is the leading political party among Syrian Kurds. The PYD was established as a Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 2003, and both organizations are still closely affiliated through the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK).
The Women's Protection Units or Women's Defense Units is an all-female militia involved in the Syrian civil war. The YPJ is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the armed forces of Rojava, and is closely affiliated with the male-led YPG. While the YPJ is mainly made up of Kurds, it also includes women from other ethnic groups in Northern Syria.
Democratic confederalism, also known as Kurdish communalism or Apoism, is a political concept theorized by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan about a system of democratic self-organization with the features of a confederation based on the principles of autonomy, direct democracy, political ecology, feminism, multiculturalism, self-defense, self-governance and elements of a cooperative economy. Influenced by social ecology, libertarian municipalism, Middle Eastern history and general state theory, Öcalan presents the concept as a political solution to Kurdish national aspirations, as well as other fundamental problems in countries in the region deeply rooted in class society, and as a route to freedom and democratization for people around the world.
Jineology is a form of feminism and of gender equality advocated by Abdullah Öcalan, the representative leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the broader Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) umbrella. From the background of honor-based religious and tribal rules that confine women in Middle East societies, Öcalan said that "a country can't be free unless the women are free", and that the level of women's freedom determines the level of freedom in society at large.
Besê Hozat is a leader in the Kurdistan Workers' Party and is the co-chair of the Kurdistan Communities Union alongside Cemil Bayik. She is the sixth member of the General Presidential Council, the highest authoritative body in the PKK.
Ali Haydar Kaytan, also known as Fuad, is a co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and a member of the executive council of the Kurdistan Communities Union.
The Kurdistan Region–PKK conflict is a series of battles and clashes in Iraqi Kurdistan between the ruling Kurdistan Regional Government against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its allied groups. It started in 1983 and is still ongoing in the form of an insurgency. The PKK's primary method is using guerrilla warfare against the Peshmerga.
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.
Öcalan yakalandığında ABD, bağımsız bir devlet kurma isteğindeydi. Öcalan, konumu itibariyle, araç olma işlevi bakımından buna engel bir isimdi. ABD bölgede yeni bir Kürt devleti kurabilmek için Öcalan'ı Türkiye'ye teslim etti.
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