History of the Kurdistan Workers' Party
The PKK's origins can be traced back to 1974, when Abdullah Öcalan and a small group of leftist students from Dev-Genç ("Revolutionary Youth") decided to develop a Kurdish-based left wing organization.
In 1971, Öcalan joined the underground movements trying to overthrow the government system, which he saw as oppressive and fascist, while he was a student at the Ankara University Political Sciences Faculty.
[2] As a result of the military coup of 1971, many militants of the revolutionary left were deprived of a public appearance, movements like the People's Liberation Army of Turkey (THKO) or the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist (TKP-ML) were cracked down upon and forbidden.
What made Apocus, later PKK, different was that it decided to move its activities from Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, to Turkish Kurdistan, near the Syria-Turkey border.
In 1979 Mehmet Celal Bucak a high-ranking member of the conservative Justice Party (AP) was condemned for "exploiting the peasants," and "collaborating with government" against the Kurdish right.
His initial accommodations were covered through the already established Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) structure and Fatah camps, in part of ex-Syrian-controlled Lebanon.
On 10 November 1980, the PKK bombed the Turkish consulate in Strasbourg, France, in a joint operation with the ASALA, which they described as the beginning of a "fruitful collaboration" in a statement claiming responsibility.
[11] Besides, Öcalan managed to compel Qais Abd al Karim, the leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), to support the military training of PKK militants in Lebanon.
[13] An alliance was also reached with Masoud Barzani's KDP, who permitted the PKK to operate in the valleys of the Lolan region in Iraqi Kurdistan close to the borders to Iran and Turkey.
[10] The links extended to groups which shared its left-wing nationalist ideology such as the Palestine Liberation Organisation, ETA, and, to a lesser degree, the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
1984 marked the beginning of sustained paramilitary action by the PKK, attacking government mainly personnel and infrastructure associated with Southeastern Anatolia Project, as well as some civilian (collaborators) targets.
In 1989, the organization concluded an alliance with a number of extreme left wing guerrilla groups to exchange ability and methods to strike in big cities.
In October 1997, Eva Juhnke a German guerrilla fighter from the armed wing of organization was captured during a military operation[25] by KDP forces in North Iraq.
Later in 1993, the PKK supporters allegedly launched coordinated attacks involving firebombs and vandalism on Turkish diplomatic and commercial offices in six West European, 3 Middle-East and 2 African countries.
In order to adapt to the end of the Soviet System (1991) and gain Iran's support the organization amended or abandoned its communist secular ideology to better accommodate and accept Islamic beliefs.
With inclusion of the solution for elimination of the PKK's ability to use North Iraq, Turkey joined the US-led coalition to bring truce among the Iraqi Kurds.
US-brokered Drogheda talks on August 9–11, 1995 appeared to be leading to a settlement of the KDP-PUK fight as well as to security guarantees in the form of the KDP controlling the Turkish border.
On February 15, 1999, while being transferred from the Greek embassy to Nairobi international airport, Öcalan was captured in an operation by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) with the support of CIA.
[36] In August 1999, Öcalan from the jail announced his second peace initiative, ordering members to refrain from armed conflict and requesting dialogue with the government of Turkey on all issues.
In October 1997, Eva Juhnke a German guerrilla fighter from the armed wing of organization was captured during a military operation[25] by KDP forces in North Iraq.
From April 2, 2002, to November 11, 2003, the same day as the European Union updated its list of terrorists, the organization declared that it terminated "Kurdistan Workers Party" and with the same organisational structure formed the Turkish: Kürdistan Demokratik ve Özgürlük Kongresi (KADEK).
In 2004, the armed wing of PKK, HPG (People's Forces of Defence) announced an end to the unilateral truce they had sustained since the time of Öcalan's capture.
Later in 2004, from request of Turkey, US Treasury amended its regulations to include all the aliases and offshoots of the PKK in its sanctions list maintained by OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control).
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic security agency, revealed in its annual report that despite claims of Turkish authorities and US designation, there is no single evidence that the PKK has involved in drug trafficking.
[41] In Diyarbakir, on 6 July 2005, unknowns killed Hikmet Fidan, the former vice-president of the People's Democratic Party (HADEP), who formed an alternative organization to the PKK called PWD with Osman Ocalan.
The total armed militants captured was 1325, of which 359 were dead, 377 live, and 589 through an amnesty granted through this period, of which 116 were "exchange of criminals" with Iran, Iraq, Syria, Greece, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.
"[55] The prospect of armed Kurdish forces in northern Iraq threatens to increase tensions between the region and Baghdad who are already at odds over certain oil producing territory.
[59] Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani backed the initiative saying, alongside Erdogan: "This is a historic visit for me ... We all know it would have been impossible to speak here 15 or 20 years ago.
[64] In September 2014, during the Siege of Kobanî, some PKK fighters engaged with Islamic State forces in Syria who were attacking Kurdish city Kobane, which resulted in conflicts with Turks on the border and an end to a cease-fire that had been in place over a year.
[66] A number of Turkish Kurds rallied in large-scale street protests, demanding that the government in Ankara take more forceful action to combat IS and to enable Kurdish militants already engaged against IS to more freely move and resupply.
