Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency
.svg/11px-Logo_of_General_Directorate_of_Security_(Turkey).svg.png){kind=spacer}
.svg/23px-Flag_of_Iraq_(1991–2004).svg.png){kind=small}
.svg/23px-Flag_of_Libya_(1977–2011).svg.png){kind=small}
.svg/23px-Flag_of_the_Kurdistan_Workers%27_Party_(1995-2002).svg.png){kind=small}
.svg/23px-Flag_of_the_Kurdistan_Workers%27_Party_(1978-1995).svg.png){kind=small}
The Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency[note 2] 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,[111] who have either demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan,[51] or attempted to secure autonomy,[112] and/or greater political and cultural rights for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey.[113]
The main rebel group is the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)[114] (Kurdish: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê). Although the Kurdish-Turkish conflict has spread to many regions,[115] most of the conflict has taken place in Northern Kurdistan, which corresponds with southeastern Turkey.[116] The PKK's presence in Iraqi Kurdistan has resulted in the Turkish Armed Forces carrying out frequent ground incursions and air and artillery strikes in the region,[117][118][119] and its influence in Syrian Kurdistan has led to similar activity there. The conflict has cost the economy of Turkey an estimated $300 to 450 billion, mostly in military costs. It has also affected tourism in Turkey.[120][121][122]
A revolutionary group, the PKK was founded in 1978 in the village of Fis, Lice by a group of Kurdish students led by Abdullah Öcalan.[123] The initial reason given by the PKK for this was the oppression of Kurds in Turkey.[124][125] At the time, the use of Kurdish language, dress, folklore, and names were banned in Kurdish-inhabited areas.[126] In an attempt to deny their existence, the Turkish government categorized Kurds as "Mountain Turks" during the 1930s and 1940s.[126][127][128] The words "Kurds", "Kurdistan", or "Kurdish" were officially banned by the Turkish government.[129] Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life until 1991.[130] Many who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned.[131]
The PKK was formed in an effort to establish linguistic, cultural, and political rights for Turkey's Kurdish minority.[132] However, the full-scale insurgency did not begin until 15 August 1984, when the PKK announced a Kurdish uprising. Since the conflict began, more than 40,000 have died, the vast majority of whom were Kurdish civilians.[133] Both sides were accused of numerous human rights abuses during the conflict. The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Turkey for thousands of human rights abuses.[134][135] Many judgments are related to the systematic executions of Kurdish civilians,[136] torture,[137] forced displacements,[138] destroyed villages,[139][140][141] arbitrary arrests,[142] and the forced disappearance or murder of Kurdish journalists, activists and politicians.[143][144][145] Teachers who provided and students who demanded education in Kurdish language were prosecuted and sentenced for supporting terrorism of the PKK.[146] On the other hand, the PKK has faced international condemnation, mainly by Turkish allies, for using terrorist tactics, which include civilian massacres, summary executions, suicide bombers, and child soldiers, and involvement in drug trafficking.[147][148] The organization is historically to blame for the burning of schools and killing of teachers who they accused of "destroying Kurdish identity", attacks on hospitals which resulted in the death of doctors and nurses, and allegedly the kidnapping of foreign tourists for ransom.[citation needed][149][150]
In February 1999, PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was arrested in Nairobi, Kenya by a group of special forces personnel[151] and taken to Turkey, where he remains in prison on an island in the Sea of Marmara.[152] The first insurgency lasted until March 1993, when the PKK declared an unilateral ceasefire.[153] Fighting resumed the same year.[154] In 2013, the Turkish government started talks with Öcalan. Following mainly secret negotiations, a largely successful ceasefire was put in place by both the Turkish state and the PKK. On 21 March 2013, Öcalan announced the "end of armed struggle" and a ceasefire with peace talks.[38]
The conflict resumed following the Ceylanpınar incidents, in which the PKK killed two Turkish policemen in the Suruç bombing.[155][156] With the resumption of violence, hundreds of Kurdish civilians have been killed by both sides and numerous human rights violations have occurred, including torture and widespread destruction of property.[157][158] Substantial parts of many Kurdish-majority cities including Diyarbakır, Şırnak, Mardin, Cizre, Nusaybin, and Yüksekova were destroyed in the clashes.[159]
History
Beginnings
In 1977, a small group under Öcalan's leadership released a declaration on Kurdish identity in Turkey. The group, which called itself the Revolutionaries of Kurdistan also included Ali Haydar Kaytan, Cemil Bayik, Haki Karer and Kemal Pir.[160] The group decided in 1974[107] to start a campaign for Kurdish rights. Cemil Bayik was sent to Urfa, Kemal Pir to Mus, Haki Karer to Batman, and Ali Haydar Kaytan to Tunceli. They then started student organisations that contacted local workers and farmers to raise awareness about Kurdish rights.[160]
In 1977, an assembly was held to evaluate these political activities. The assembly included 100 people from different backgrounds and several representatives of other leftist organisations. In spring 1977, Öcalan travelled to Mount Ararat, Erzurum, Tunceli, Elazig, Antep, and other cities to make the public aware of the group's activities. This was followed by a Turkish government crackdown against the organisation. On 18 May 1977, Haki Karer was assassinated in Antep. During this period, the group was also targeted by the Turkish ultranationalist organization, the Nationalist Movement Party's Grey Wolves. Some wealthy Kurdish landowners targeted the group as well, killing Halil Çavgun on 18 May 1978, which resulted in large protest meetings in Erzurum, Dersim, Elazig, and Antep.[160]
The founding Congress of the PKK was held on 27 November 1978 in Fis, a village near the city of Lice. During this congress, the 25 people present decided to found the Kurdistan Workers' Party. The Turkish state, Turkish rightist groups, and some Kurdish landowners continued their attacks on the group. In response, the PKK organised and armed members to protect itself, thus becoming more involved in the fighting between leftist and rightist groups in Turkey (1978–1980).[160] During this time, the right-wing Grey Wolves militia killed 109 and injured 176 Alevi Kurds in the town of Kahramanmaraş on 25 December 1978 in what would become known as the Maraş Massacre.[161] In Summer 1979, Öcalan travelled to Syria and Lebanon where he made contacts with Syrian and Palestinian leaders.[160] After the Turkish coup d'état on 12 September 1980 and a crackdown which was launched on all political organisations,[162] during which at least 191 people were killed[163] and half a million were imprisoned,[164][note 3] most of the PKK withdrew into Syria and Lebanon. Öcalan went to Syria in September 1980 with Kemal Pir, Mahsum Korkmaz, and Delil Dogan being sent to set up an organisation in Lebanon. Some PKK fighters took part in the 1982 Lebanon War on the Syrian side.[166]
The Second PKK Party Congress was then held in Daraa, Syria, from 20 to 25 August 1982. Here it was decided that the organisation would return to Turkish Kurdistan to start an armed guerilla war there for the creation of an independent Kurdish state. Meanwhile, they prepared guerrilla forces in Syria and Lebanon to go to war. However, many PKK leaders were arrested in Turkey and sent to Diyarbakır Prison. Because of the treatment of the prisoners, the prison became the site of much political protest.[160] (See also Torture in Turkey#Deaths in custody.)
In Diyarbakır Prison, PKK member Mazlum Doğan burned himself to death on March 21, 1982, in protest at the treatment in prison. Ferhat Kurtay, Necmi Önen, Mahmut Zengin and Eşref Anyık followed his example on May 17. On July 14, PKK members Kemal Pir, M. Hayri Durmuş, Ali Çiçek and Akif Yılmaz started a hunger strike in Diyarbakır Prison.[167] In 1983, the conflict reached Iraqi Kurdistan as the Kurdistan Region–PKK conflict. Kemal Pir died on September 7, M. Hayri Durmuş on the 12th, Akif Yılmaz on the 15th, and Ali Çiçek on the 17th. On April 13, 1984, a 75-day hunger strike started in Istanbul. As a result, four prisoners—Abdullah Meral, Haydar Başbağ, Fatih Ökütülmüş, and Hasan Telci—died.[168]
On 25 October 1986, the third Congress was held in Beqaa Valley, Lebanon. Issues raised included lack of discipline, growing internal criticism, and splinter groups within the organization. This had led the organisation to execute some internal critics, especially ex-members who had joined Tekosin, a rival Marxist–Leninist organization. Öcalan strongly criticized the leaders responsible for the guerrilla forces during the early 1980s and threatened others with the death penalty, if they joined rival groups or refused to obey orders. The PKK's military defeats meant they were no closer to their primary goal of an independent Kurdistan. Cooperation with criminals and dictators had tarnished the organization's image. During the Congress, the leaders decided to advance the armed struggle, increase the number of fighters, and dissolve the HRK, which was replaced by the Kurdistan Popular Liberation Army (ARGK). A newly established Mahsum Korkmaz Academy, a politico-military academy, replaced the Helve Camp, and a new military conscription policy was approved, which obliged every family to send someone to the guerrilla forces.[169][170][171]
The decisions that were taken during the third Congress transformed the PKK from a Leninist organization into one in which power was more concentrated, as Öcalan accrued more Önderlik (leadership). Some of the reasons why Öcalan took power from the other leaders, such as Murat Karayilan, Cemil Bayik and Duran Kalkan, were growing internal conflict and the organization's inability to stop it. According to Michael Gunter, Öcalan, even before this time, had already carried out a purge of many rival PKK members, who were tortured and forced to confess they were traitors before being executed. Ibrahim Halik, Mehmet Ali Cetiner, Mehmet Result Altinok, Saime Askin, Ayten Yildirim and Sabahattin Ali were some of the victims. Later in 2006, Öcalan denied these accusations and stated in his book that both Mahsum Korkmaz, the first supreme military commander of the PKK, and Engin Sincer, a high-ranking commander, likely died as a result of internal conflicts and described the perpetrators as "gangs". Leaked reports, however, revealed the authoritarian personality of Öcalan, who had brutally suppressed dissent and purged opponents since the early 1980s. According to David L. Philips, up to sixty PKK members were executed in 1986, including Mahsum Korkmaz, who he believes was murdered on 28 March 1986. Between the 1980 and 1990, the organization targeted defectors, assassinating two of them in Sweden, two in the Netherlands, three in Germany and one in Denmark.[170][172]
In 1990, during the fourth Congress, the PKK ended its unpopular conscription policy. The organization's attempts to take into the account the demands and criticism of its support base had helped it to increase its popularity. According to Stanton, the PKK's improved relationship with its civilian base likely created incentives for the government to engage in state terrorism against some of its Kurdish citizens. The PKK was rarely able to prevent this.[173]
First insurgency
1984–1993
The PKK launched its insurgency against the Turkish state on 15 August 1984[160][174] with armed attacks on Eruh and Semdinli. During these attacks, one Turkish Gendarmerie soldier was killed and seven soldiers, two policemen and three civilians injured. It was followed by a PKK raid on a police station in Siirt, two days later.[175]
In the early 1990s, President Turgut Özal agreed to negotiations with the PKK, after the 1991 Gulf War changed the geopolitical dynamics in the region. Apart from Özal, himself half-Kurdish, few Turkish politicians were interested in a peace process, nor was more than a part of the PKK itself.[176] In February 1991, during the presidency of Özal, the prohibition of Kurdish music was ended.[177]
In 1992, Hakkari Mountain and Commando Brigade, under the command of Osman Pamukoğlu, launched a cross-border operation into Northern Iraq, to rescue 2 Turkish soldiers who had been captured by the PKK, between 9 October and 1 November against the PKK. 2,512 commandos and 36 Special Forces personnel, with the support of helicopters, assaulted the PKK's heavily defended Hakurk Region, which had well over 10,000 experienced PKK fighters, including the surrounding areas. Despite lacking resources and manpower and being heavily outnumbered, outgunned, and encircled, the result of the operation was a decisive victory for Turkey, as the Hakurk Camp was completely destroyed and occupied by Turkish forces, and the 2 captured soldiers were rescued. During this operation, PKK had gotten 1,551 of their experienced PKK fighters killed and another 2,600 experienced PKK fighters getting captured, all whom had been trained for multiple years for such attacks. Despite such odds, only 14 Turkish personnel were killed during the operation, boasting a whopping 1:300 casualty rate.
In 1993, Özal returned to working on a peace plan with the former finance minister Adnan Kahveci and the General Commander of the Turkish Gendarmerie, Eşref Bitlis.[178]
Unilateral cease-fire (1993)
Negotiations led to a unilateral cease-fire by the PKK on 17 March 1993. Accompanied by Jalal Talabani at a press conference in Barelias, Lebanon, Öcalan stated that the PKK no longer sought a separate state, but peace,[179] dialogue, and free political action for Kurds in Turkey within the framework of a democratic state. Süleyman Demirel, the prime minister of Turkey at the time, refused to negotiate with the PKK, but also stated that forced Turkification was the wrong approach towards the Kurds.[180] Several Kurdish politicians supported the ceasefire, and Kemal Burkay and Ahmet Türk of the People's Labor Party (HEP) were also present at the press conference.[179]
With the PKK's ceasefire declaration in hand, Özal was planning to propose a major pro-Kurdish reform package at the next meeting of the National Security Council. The president's death on 17 April led to the postponement of that meeting, and the plans were never presented.[181] A Turkish army attack on the PKK on 19 May 1993 in Kulp[182] brought the ceasefire to an end. Five days later, the PKK carried out the Çewlik massacre. Former PKK commander turned whistleblower Şemdin Sakık has said that the massacre had been allowed to go ahead by the Turkish military, and was part of the Doğu Çalışma Grubu's coup plans.[183] On the 8 June 1993, Öcalan announced the end of the PKK ceasefire.[154]
Insurgency (1993–1995)
Under the new Presidency of Süleyman Demirel and Premiership of Tansu Çiller, the Castle Plan (to use any and all violent means to solve the Kurdish question), which Özal had opposed, was enacted, and the peace process abandoned.[184] Some journalists and politicians maintain that Özal's death (allegedly by poison), along with the assassination of a number of political and military figures supporting his peace efforts, was part of a covert military coup in 1993 aimed at stopping the peace plans.
To counter the PKK, the Turkish military started new counter-insurgency strategies between 1992 and 1995. To deprive the rebels of a logistical base of operations and punish local people supporting the PKK, the military carried out deforestation of the countryside and destroyed over 3,000 Kurdish villages, causing at least 2 million refugees. Most of these villages were evacuated, but other villages were burned, bombed, or shelled by government forces, and several villages were obliterated from the air. While some were destroyed or evacuated, other villages agreed to join the side of the government. The state offered salaries to local farmers and shepherds to join the Village Guards, to prevent the PKK from operating in these villages. Villages which refused to cooperate 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.[185] Turkish armed forces reported that on 26 May 1994, the Turkish Air Force targeted the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants by bombing North Iraq, and killing 79 militants.[186] During Newroz (the Kurdish New Year) on 20 March 1995, the Turkish military launched another cross-border operation against the PKK in Iraq to prevent further border station ambushes conducted by the PKK. A force of 35,000 personnel (in which most were there for pulling security, a very small portion took part in the actual fighting) went into Iraqi Kurdistan, assisted by planes, helicopters, tanks and APCs. The operation ended in a Turkish victory as the Zap Camp was captured and destroyed by Turkish forces. 555 PKK members were killed and another were 13 captured.[187]
Unilateral ceasefire (1995–1996)
In December 1995, the PKK announced a second unilateral ceasefire, ahead of the general elections on 24 December 1995. This was aimed at giving the new Turkish government time to articulate a way of resolving the conflict. During the ceasefire, civil society groups organized several peace initiatives in support of a solution to the conflict. But in May 1996, there was an attempt to assassinate Abdullah Öcalan in Damascus, and in June of the same year the Turkish military began to pursue the PKK into Iraqi Kurdistan.[188] The PKK announced the end of the unilateral ceasefire on 16 August 1996, stating that it was still ready for peace negotiations as a political solution.[188]
Insurgency (1996–1999)
One of the turning points in the conflict was when Turkey did the largest cross-border mission in its history. Operation Hammer was done in May 1997 and over fifty thousand Turkish soldiers and ten thousand village guards took part in the operation. The operation was successful as the Turkish military killed over 3,000 insurgents and captured more than 400 in just two months and destroyed almost all of the Kurdish camps in Northern Iraq with just 114 casualties.
Another turning point in the conflict[189] came in 1998, when, after political pressure and military threats[190] from the Turkish government against Syria, 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. After leaving the embassy on 15 February 1999 for the airport, he was kidnapped in a joint MİT-CIA operation and brought to Turkey,[191] which resulted in major protests by Kurds worldwide.[190] Three Kurdish protestors were shot dead when trying to enter the Israeli consulate in Berlin to protest alleged Israeli involvement in his capture.[192] Although the capture of Öcalan ended a third cease-fire which Öcalan had declared on 1 August 1998, on 1 September 1999[153] the PKK declared a unilateral cease-fire which would last until 2004.[107]
Unilateral cease-fire (1999–2003)
After the unilateral cease-fire the PKK declared in September 1999, their forces fully withdrew from Turkish Kurdistan, set up new bases in the Qandil Mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan,[175] and in February 2000 they declared the formal end of the war.[190] 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.[193] In October 2003 the KADEK announced its dissolution and declared the creation of a new organisation: KONGRA-GEL (Kurdistan Peoples Congress).[194]
Offers by the PKK for negotiations were ignored by the Turkish government,[193] which claimed that 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.[175] The PKK argues that all of its military activity during this period was defensive, as the Turkish military launched some 700 raids against their bases, including in Northern Iraq.[174] Despite the KONGRA-GEL cease-fire, other groups continued their armed activities. For example, the Revolutionary Party of Kurdistan (PŞK) tried to use the cease-fire to attract PKK fighters to join their organisation.[195] The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) were formed during this period by radical KONGRA-GEL commanders dissatisfied with the cease-fire.[196] The period after the capture of Öcalan was used by the Turkish government to launch major crackdown operations against the Turkish Hezbollah (Kurdish Hezbollah), arresting 3,300 Hizbullah members in 2000, compared to 130 in 1998, and killing the group's leader Hüseyin Velioğlu on 13 January 2000.[197][198][199] During this phase of the war at least 145 people were killed during fighting between the PKK and security forces.[200]
After the AK Party came to power in 2002, the Turkish state started to ease restrictions on the Kurdish language and culture.[201]
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.[175][202] The conservative wing of the organisation won this power struggle[175] forcing reformist leaders such as Kani Yilmaz, Nizamettin Tas and Abdullah Öcalan's younger brother Osman Öcalan to leave the organisation.[202] The three major traditionalist leaders, Murat Karayilan, Cemil Bayik and Bahoz Erdal formed the new leadership committee of the organisation.[203] The new administration decided to restart the insurgency, because they claimed that without guerillas the PKK's political activities would remain unsuccessful.[193][175] This came as the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) was banned by the Turkish Supreme Court on 13 March 2003[204] and its leader Murat Bozlak was imprisoned.[205]
In April 2005, KONGRA-GEL changed its name back to PKK.[194] Because not all of the KONGRA-GEL's elements accepted this, the organisation has also been referred to as the New PKK.[206] The KONGRA-GEL has since become the Legislative Assembly of the Kurdistan Communities Union, a pan-Kurdish umbrella organisation which includes the PKK. Ex-DEP member Zübeyir Aydar is the President of the KONGRA-GEL.[207]
Through the cease-fire years 2000–2003, some 711 people were killed, according to the Turkish government.[208] The Uppsala Conflict Data Program put casualties during these years at 368 to 467 killed.[209]
Insurgency (2004–2012)
2003–2005
In September 2003, the PKK declared an end to its cease-fire, but waited until mid-2004 before going on the offensive again.[210] In June 2004, the PKK resumed its armed activities because they claimed the Turkish government was ignoring their calls for negotiations and was still attacking their forces.[193][175] The government claimed that in that same month, some 2,000 Kurdish guerrillas entered Turkey via Iraqi Kurdistan.[107] The PKK, now lacking Syrian government support and the manpower they had in the 1990s, took up new tactics. It reduced the size of its field units from 15 to 20 fighters to teams of 6–8, and avoided direct confrontations, relying more on the use of landmines, snipers and small ambushes, using hit and run tactics.[211] Another change in PKK tactics was that the organisation no longer attempted to control any territory, not even after dark.[212] Violence increased throughout 2004 and 2005[107] during which the PKK was blamed for dozens of bombings in Western Turkey throughout 2005,[47] including the 2005 Kuşadası minibus bombing (which killed five),[213] although the PKK denied responsibility.[214]
2006
In March 2006 heavy fighting broke out around Diyarbakir between the PKK and Turkish security forces, as well as large riots because of "local anger over high unemployment, poverty and Ankara's reluctance to grant more autonomy to the mainly Kurdish region".[215] The army closed the roads to Diyarbakır Airport and shut down many schools and businesses.[107] In August, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), which vowed to "turn Turkey into hell",[216] launched a major bombing campaign. On 25 August two coordinated low-level blasts targeted a bank in Adana, on 27 August a school in Istanbul was targeted by a bombing, on 28 August there were three coordinated attacks in Marmaris and one in Antalya targeting the tourist industry[107] and on 30 August there was a TAK bombing in Mersin.[217] These bombings were condemned by the PKK,[51] which declared its fifth cease-fire on 1 October 2006,[153] which lessened the intensity of the conflict. Minor clashes continued due to Turkish military operations. In total, the conflict claimed over 500 lives in 2006.[107] 2006 also saw the PKK assassinate one of their former commanders, Kani Yilmaz, in February, in Iraq.[175]
2007
In May 2007, there was a bombing in Ankara that killed 6[218][219][220][221] and injured 121 people.[218] The Turkish government alleged the PKK was responsible for the bombing.[222] On 4 June, a PKK suicide bombing in Tunceli killed seven soldiers and wounded six at a military base.[223] 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.[224] On 7 October 2007, 40–50 PKK fighters[211] ambushed an 18-man Turkish commando unit in the Gabar mountains, killing 15 commandos and injuring three,[225] which made it the deadliest PKK attack since the 1990s.[211] In response a law was passed allowing the Turkish military to take action inside Iraqi territory.[226] Then on 21 October 2007, 150–200 militants attacked an outpost, in Dağlıca, Yüksekova, manned by a 50-man infantry unit. The outpost was almost overrun and the PKK killed 12, wounded 17 and captured 6 Turkish soldiers which were released later. They then withdrew into Iraqi Kurdistan. The Turkish military killed 32 PKK fighters in hot pursuit operations, after the attack, however this was denied by the PKK.[211] The Turkish military responded by bombing PKK bases on 24 October, which resulted in many camps and caves being destroyed, along with 200 PKK insurgents dying in the process.[227] and started preparing for a major cross-border military operation.[225]
2008
This major cross-border offensive, dubbed Operation Sun, started on 21 February 2008[228] and was preceded by an aerial offensive against PKK camps in northern Iraq, which began on 16 December 2007.[229][230] Between 3,000 and 10,000 Turkish forces took part in the offensive.[228] Around 230 PKK fighters were killed in the ground offensive, while 27 Turkish forces were killed. According to the PKK however, this was completely false and that over 125 Turkish forces were killed, while PKK casualties were in the tens.[231][better source needed] Smaller scale Turkish operations against PKK bases in Iraqi Kurdistan continued afterwards.[232] On 27 July 2008, Turkey blamed the PKK for an Istanbul double-bombing which killed 17 and injured 154 people. The PKK denied any involvement.[233] On 4 October, the most violent clashes since the October 2007 clashes in Hakkari erupted as the PKK attacked the 2008 Aktütün attack post in Şemdinli in the Hakkâri Province, at night. 17 Turkish soldiers were killed and 20 were injured, meanwhile 123 PKK fighters were killed during the fighting.[234] On 10 November, the Iranian Kurdish insurgent group PJAK declared it would be halting operations inside Iran to start fighting the Turkish military.[235]
2009
At the start of 2009 Turkey opened its first Kurdish-language TV-channel, TRT 6,[236] and on 19 March 2009 local elections were held in Turkey in which the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) won a majority of the vote in the South East. Soon after, on 13 April 2009, the PKK declared its sixth ceasefire, after Abdullah Öcalan called on them to end military operations and prepare for peace.[153] The following day the Turkish authorities arrested 53 Kurdish politicians of the Democratic Society Party (DTP).[237] In September Turkey's Erdoğan-government launched the Kurdish initiative, which included plans to rename Kurdish villages that had been given Turkish names, expand the scope of the freedom of expression, restore Turkish citizenship to Kurdish refugees, strengthen local governments, and extend a partial amnesty for PKK fighters.[238] But the plans for the Kurdish initiative where heavily hurt after the DTP was banned by the Turkish constitutional court[239] on 11 December 2009 and its leaders were subsequently put on trial for terrorism.[240] A total of 1,400 DTP members were arrested and 900 detained in the government crackdown against the party.[241] This caused 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.[239] On 7 December the PKK launched an ambush in Reşadiye which killed seven and injured three Turkish soldiers, which became the deadliest PKK attack in that region since the 1990s.[242]
2010
On 1 May 2010 the PKK declared an end to its cease-fire,[243] launching an attack in Tunceli that killed four and injured seven soldiers.[244] On 31 May, 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,[245] starting with a missile attack on a navy base in İskenderun, killing 7 and wounding 6 soldiers.[246] On 18 and 19 June, 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.[247][248]
Another major attack in Hakkari occurred on 20 July 2010, killing six and wounding seventeen Turkish soldiers, with one PKK fighter being killed.[249] The next day, Murat Karayilan, the leader of the PKK, 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.[250] Turkish forces had killed 187 and captured 160 PKK members by 14 July, and killed another 227 by the end of the year.[251] By 27 July, Turkish news sources reported the deaths of 72 security forces, which exceeded the 2009 toll. On 12 August, however, a ramadan cease-fire was declared by the PKK. In November the cease-fire was extended until the Turkish general election on 12 June 2011, despite alleging that Turkey had launched over 80 military operations against them during this period.[153] Despite the truce, the PKK responded to these military operations by launching retaliatory attacks in Siirt and Hakkari provinces, killing 12 Turkish soldiers.[252]
2011
The cease-fire was revoked early, on 28 February 2011.[253] Soon afterwards three PKK fighters were killed while trying to get into Turkey through northern Iraq.[254] 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),[255] during these protests 2 people were killed, 308 injured and 2,506 arrested by Turkish authorities.[256] The 12 June 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.[257] However, six of the 36 elected BDP deputies remain in Turkish jails as of June 2011.[258] One of the six jailed deputies, Hatip Dicle, was then stripped of his elected position by the constitutional court, after which the 30 free MPs declared a boycott of Turkish parliament.[259] The PKK intensified its campaign again, in July killing 20 Turkish soldiers in two weeks, during which at least 10 PKK fighters were killed, the most of these occurring in a single ambush.[260] On 17 August 2011, the Turkish Armed Forces launched multiple raids against Kurdish rebels, striking 132 targets.[261] 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.[262] From July to September Iran carried out an offensive against the PJAK in Northern Iraq, which resulted in a cease-fire on 29 September. After the cease-fire the PJAK withdrew its forces from Iran and joined with the PKK to fight Turkey. Turkish counter-terrorism operations reported a sharp increase of Iranian citizens among the insurgents killed in October and November, such as the six PJAK fighters killed in Çukurca on 28 October.[263] On 19 October, twenty-six Turkish soldiers were killed[264] and 18 injured[265] in 8 simultaneous PKK attacks in Cukurca and Yuksekova, in Hakkari provieen 10,000 and 15,000 full-time, which is the highest it has ever been.[266]
2012
In summer 2012, the conflict with the PKK took a violent curve, in parallel with the Syrian civil war[267] as President Bashar al-Assad ceded control of several Kurdish cities in Syria to the PYD, the Syrian affiliate of the PKK, and Turkey armed ISIS and other Islamic groups against Kurds.[268] Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused the Assad government of arming the group.[269] In June and August there were heavy clashes in Hakkari province, described as the most violent in years.[270] as the PKK attempted to seize control of Şemdinli and engage the Turkish army in a "frontal battle" by blocking the roads leading to the town from Iran and Iraq and setting up DShK heavy machine guns and rocket launchers on high ground to ambush Turkish motorized units that would be sent to re-take the town. However the Turkish army avoided the trap by destroying the heavy weapons from the air and using long range artillery to root out the PKK. The Turkish military declared operation was ended successfully on 11 August, claiming to have killed 115 guerrillas and lost only six soldiers and two village guards.[271] On 20 August, eight people were killed and 66 wounded by a deadly bombing in Gaziantep.[272] According to the KCK 400 incidents of shelling, air bombardment and armed clashes occurred in August.[122] On 24 September, Turkish General Necdet Özel claimed that 110 Turkish soldiers and 475 PKK militants had been killed since the start of 2012.[citation needed]
Peace process 2012–2015
On 28 December 2012, in a television interview upon a question of whether the government had a project to solve the issue, Erdoğan said that the government was conducting negotiations with jailed rebel leader Öcalan.[273] Negotiations were initially named as Solution Process (Çözüm Süreci) in public. While negotiations were going on, there were numerous events that were regarded as sabotage to derail the talks: The assassination of the PKK administrators Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Söylemez in Paris,[274] revealing Öcalan's talks with the pro-Kurdish party Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to the public via the Milliyet newspaper[275] and finally, the bombings of the Justice Ministry of Turkey and Erdoğan's office at the Ak Party headquarters in Ankara.[276] However, both parties vehemently condemned all three events as they occurred and stated that they were determined anyway. Finally on 21 March 2013, after months of negotiations with the Turkish Government, Abdullah Ocalan's letter to people was read both in Turkish and Kurdish during Nowruz celebrations in Diyarbakır. The letter called a cease-fire that included disarmament and withdrawal from Turkish soil and calling an end to armed struggle. PKK announced that they would obey, stating that the year of 2013 is the year of solution either through war or through peace. Erdoğan welcomed the letter stating that concrete steps will follow PKK's withdrawal.[156]
On 25 April 2013, PKK announced that it would be withdrawing all its forces within Turkey to northern Iraq.[277] According to the Turkish government[278] and the Kurds[279] and most of the press,[280] this move marks the end of 30-year-old conflict. Second phase which includes constitutional and legal changes towards the recognition of human rights of the Kurds starts simultaneously with withdrawal.
Escalation
On 6 and 7 October 2014, riots erupted in various cities in Turkey for protesting the Siege of Kobane. The Kurds accused the Turkish government of supporting ISIS and not letting people send support for Kobane Kurds. Protesters were met with tear gas and water cannons. 37 people were killed in protests.[281] During these protests, there were deadly clashes between PKK and Hizbullah sympathizers.[282] 3 soldiers were killed by PKK in January 2015,[283] as a sign of rising tensions in the country.
2015–present
In June 2015, the main Syrian Kurdish militia, YPG, and the Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party, HDP, accused Turkey of allowing Islamic State (ISIL) soldiers to cross its border and attack the Kurdish city of Kobanî in Syria.[284] The conflict between Turkey and PKK escalated following the 20 July 2015 Suruç bombing attack on progressive activists, which was claimed by ISIL. During the 24–25 July 2015 Operation Martyr Yalçın, Turkey bombed alleged PKK bases in Iraq and PYD bases in Syria's Kurdish region Rojava, purportedly retaliating the killing of two policeman in the town of Ceylanpınar (which the PKK denied carrying out) and effectively ending the cease-fire (after many months of increasing tensions).[285][286][287] Turkish warplanes also bombed YPG bases in Syria.[288]
Violence soon spread throughout Turkey. Many Kurdish businesses were destroyed by mobs.[289] The headquarters and branches of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) were also attacked.[290] There are reports of civilians being killed in several Kurdish-populated towns and villages.[291] The Council of Europe raised their concerns over the attacks on civilians and the 4 September 2015 blockade of Cizre.[292]
But also the Kurdish rebel fighters did not sit still: a Turkish Governor claimed that Kurdish assailants had fired on a police vehicle in Adana in September 2015, killing two officers, and some unspecified "clash" with PKK rebels purportedly took place in Hakkâri Province. President Erdogan claimed that between 23 July and late September, 150 Turkish officers and 2,000 Kurdish rebels had been killed.[293] In December 2015, Turkish military operations in the Kurdish regions of southeastern Turkey had killed hundreds of civilians, displaced hundreds of thousands and caused massive destruction in residential areas.[294] According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, "Local human rights groups have recorded well over 100 civilian deaths and multiple injuries."[295]
The spring of 2016 saw the seasonal uptick in combat activity. In May, a Turkish Bell AH-1 SuperCobra helicopter was documented shot down by a PKK-fired Russian made MANPADS.[296]
On 6 May 2016, HBDH, an umbrella organization built around the Kurdish PKK, attacked a Gendarmerie General Command base in Giresun Province in northeastern Turkey. According to news reports, a roadside bomb exploded, targeting a Gendarmerie vehicle.[297] HDBH claimed responsibility for the attack on May 8, stating that three gendarmes died in the attack, as well as the Base Commander, who was the intended target.[298] the Joint Command of the HBDH has claimed responsibility for several more attacks in the region, primarily targeting Turkish soldiers or gendarmes. The tactics employed by the alliance are very similar to those used by the PKK. The most notable attack came on 19 July 2016, just 4 days after the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt. HBDH reported that they had killed 11 Turkish riot police in Trabzon Province at 08:30 that morning.[299] The HBDH report is consistent in time and location to an attack reported by Doğan News Agency, in which "unknown assailants" fired on a police checkpoint. This report states that 3 officers were killed and 5 were injured, along with a civilian.[300]
In January 2018, the Turkish military and its Free Syrian Army and Sham Legion allies began a cross-border operation in the Kurdish-majority Afrin Canton in Northern Syria, against the Kurdish-led Democratic Union Party in Syria (PYD) and the U.S.-supported YPG Kurdish militia.[301][302] In March 2018, Turkey launched military operations to eliminate the Kurdish PKK fighters in northern Iraq.[303] This failed however, as the PKK has expanded its operations in Iraq.[304]
.jpg)
In October 2019, the Turkish force launched an operation against Syrian Kurds in the Northern Syria which has been termed Operation Peace Spring.[305][306]
On 14 February 2021, Turkish Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar claimed that 13 soldiers and police officers, who had been held hostage by the PKK since 2015 and 2016, were executed during an attempted rescue operation.[307] Erdoğan blamed the United States and Kurdish politicians for the failed operation,[308] while CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu accused Erdoğan of being responsible for the deaths.[309] The PKK claimed the hostages were killed by Turkish airstrikes during the operation.[308][310] The father of one deceased hostage Semih Özbey was summoned to identify his son, and according to the Turkish Human Rights Association president, stated he saw a bullet wound in his son's head.[311] In an interview with Sözcü, the father noted he believed the hostages were executed, but was only shown a picture of his son's face and was refused seeing his body. He added that during his sons imprisonment he spoke repeatedly to both HDP MPs and Erdoğan to no avail.[312] The Turkish Human Rights Association, which had previously helped return hostages from the PKK, stated their offers to help negotiate were rejected by state officials.[313]
On 17 April 2022, Operation Claw-Lock began involving a cross border offensive operation into Iraqi Kurdistan allegedly (PKK claim) with the support of the KDP and targeted areas including Metina, Zap and Avashin. The operation is currently ongoing.
In May 2022, while calls for Finland and Sweden were made to join the NATO alliance, Turkey opposed their adhesion unless these countries crack down on local Kurdish and Gulenist networks. The move has been commented as a political card to distract from ongoing economic crisis in Turkey and better engage in upcoming elections, taking an aggressive posture against foreign powers and Kurds being favorable to AKP.[314] On 28 June, the first day of the 2022 NATO summit in Madrid, the Turkish delegation dropped their opposition to Finland and Sweden's NATO membership applications and signed a tripartite memorandum addressing Turkey's concerns regarding arms exports and the Kurdish–Turkish conflict.[315] On 30 June 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Sweden had made a "promise" to extradite "73 terrorists" wanted by Turkey.[316]
On 13 November 2022, a bombing in Istanbul killed six people. Turkey says the bomb was planted by a Kurdish Syrian separatist whom they arrested. On 20 November, Turkey launched Operation Claw-Sword – airstrikes on PKK positions in Iraq and Syrian Democratic Forces positions in Syria.
Serhildan
The Serhildan, or people's uprising,[317] started on 14 March 1990, Nusaybin during the funeral of[318] 20-year-old PKK fighter Kamuran Dundar, who along with 13 other fighters was killed by the Turkish military after crossing into Turkey via Syria several days earlier. Dundar came from a Kurdish nationalist family which claimed his body and held a funeral for him in Nusaybin in which he was brought to the city's main mosque and 5000 people which held a march. On the way back the march turned violent and protesters clashed with the police, during which both sides fired upon each other and many people were injured. A curfew was then placed in Nusaybin, tanks and special forces were brought in and[317] some 700 people were arrested.[318] Riots spread to nearby towns[317] and in Cizre over 15,000 people, constituting about half the town's population took part in riots in which five people were killed, 80 injured and 155 arrested.[318] Widespread riots took place throughout the Southeast on Nowruz, the Kurdish new-year celebrations, which at the time were banned.[318] Protests slowed down over the next two weeks as many started to stay home and Turkish forces were ordered not to intervene unless absolutely necessarily[317] but factory sit-ins, go-slows, work boycotts and "unauthorized" strikes were still held although in protest of the state.[318]
Protests are often held on 21 March, or Nowruz.[319] Most notably in 1992, when thousands of protesters clashed with security forces all over the country and where the army allegedly disobeyed an order from President Suleyman Demirel not to attack the protest.[318] In the heavy violence that ensued during that year's Nowroz protest some 55[318] people were killed, mainly in Şırnak (26 killed), Cizre (29 killed) and Nusaybin (14 killed) and it included a police officer and a soldier. Over 200 people were injured[320] and another 200 were arrested.[318] According to Governor of Şırnak, Mustafa Malay, the violence was caused by 500 to 1,500 armed rebels which he alleged, entered the town during the festival. However, he conceded that "the security forces did not establish their targets properly and caused great damage to civilian houses."[321]
Since Abdullah Öcalan's capture on 15 February 1999, protests are also held every year on that date.[319]
Casualties
According to figures released by the Anadolu Agency, citing a Turkish security source, from 1984 to 2016, there were 36,345 deaths in the conflict. This included 6,741 civilians, 6,833 security forces (5,347 soldiers, 1,466 village guards and 283 policemen) and over 40 thousand PKK fighters by 2016 in Turkey alone.[54][55][322][323] Among the civilian casualties, till 2012, 157 were teachers.[324] From August 1984 to June 2007, a total of 13,327 soldiers and 7,620 civilians were said to have been wounded.[325] About 2,500 people were said to have been killed between 1984 and 1991, while over 17,500 were killed between 1991 and 1995.[326] The number of murders committed by Village Guards from 1985 to 1996 is put at 296 by official estimates.[327]
Contrary to the newest estimate, earlier figures by the Turkish military put the number of PKK casualties much higher, with 26,128 PKK dead by June 2007,[325] and 29,704 by March 2009. Between the start of the second insurgency in 2004, and March 2009, 2,462 PKK militants were claimed killed.[208] However, later figures provided by the military for the 1984–2012 period, revised down the number of killed PKK members to 21,800.[328]
Both the PKK and Turkish military have accused each other of civilian deaths. Since the 1970s, the European Court of Human Rights has condemned Turkey for the thousands of human rights abuses against Kurdish people.[134][135] The judgments are related to systematic executions of Kurdish civilians,[136] torturing,[329] forced displacements,[330] thousands of destroyed villages,[139][140][141] arbitrary arrests,[142] murdered and disappeared Kurdish journalists, politicians and activists.[143] Turkey has been also condemned for killing Kurdish civilians and blaming the PKK in the ECHR (Kuskonar massacre).[136]
According to human rights organisations since the beginning of the uprising 4,000 villages have been destroyed,[331] in which between 380,000 and 1,000,000 Kurdish villagers have been forcibly evacuated from their homes, mainly by the Turkish military.[332] According to the Los Angeles Times some 5,000 Turks and 35,000 Kurds, have been killed, 17,000 Kurds have disappeared and 119,000 Kurds have been imprisoned as a result of the conflict.[331] According to the Humanitarian Law Project, 2,400 Kurdish villages were destroyed and 18,000 Kurds were executed.[332][333] In total up to 3,000,000 people (mainly Kurds) have been displaced by the conflict,[334] an estimated 1,000,000 of which are still internally displaced as of 2009.[335] The Assyrian Minority was heavily affected as well, as now most (50–60 thousand/70,000) of its population is in refuge in Europe.
Sebahat Tuncel, an elected MP from the BDP, put the PKK's casualties at 18,000 as of July 2011.[336]
Before 2012 ceasefire
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program recorded 25,825–30,639 casualties to date, 22,729–25,984 of which having died during the first insurgency, 368–467 during the cease-fire and 2,728–4,188 during the second insurgency. Casualties from 1989 to 2011, according to the UCDP are as following:[209]
| Year | Low estimate | High estimate |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 227 | 234 |
| 1990 | 245 | 303 |
| 1991 | 304 | 310 |
| 1992 | 1,518 | 1,598 |
| 1993 | 2,099 | 2,394 |
| 1994 | 4,000 | 4,488 |
| 1995 | 3,076 | 3,951 |
| 1996 | 3,533 | 3,578 |
| 1997 | 4,247 | 5,483 |
| 1998 | 1,952 | 2,039 |
| 1999 | 1,403 | 1,481 |
| 2000 | 173 | 189 |
| 2001 | 81 | 96 |
| 2002 | 35 | 100 |
| 2003 | 79 | 82 |
| 2004 | 180 | 322 |
| 2005 | 324 | 611 |
| 2006 | 210 | 274 |
| 2007 | 458 | 509 |
| 2008 | 501 | 1,068 |
| 2009 | 128 | 149 |
| 2010 | 328 | 433 |
| 2011 | 599 | 822 |
| Total: | 25,825 | 30,639 |
The conflict's casualties between 1984 and 2012 according to the General Staff of the Republic of Turkey, Turkish Gendarmerie, General Directorate of Security and since then until 2012 according to multiple analysis' of the data of the General Staff of the Republic of Turkey and Turkish Gendarmerie were as following:[67][68][69]
| Year | Security forces | Civilians | Insurgents | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | 26 | 43 | 116 | 195 |
| 1985 | 58 | 141 | 386 | 605 |
| 1986 | 51 | 133 | 143 | 339 |
| 1987 | 71 | 237 | 113 | 427 |
| 1988 | 54 | 109 | 228 | 426 |
| 1989 | 153 | 178 | 327 | 681 |
| 1990 | 161 | 204 | 592 | 952 |
| 1991 | 244 | 233 | 799 | 1,319 |
| 1992 | 629 | 832 | 2,793 | 4,297 |
| 1993 | 715 | 1,479 | 5,083 | 7,262 |
| 1994 | 1,145 | 992 | 6,295 | 8,310 |
| 1995 | 772 | 313 | 6,285 | 7,362 |
| 1996 | 608 | 170 | 6,181 | 6,974 |
| 1997 | 518 | 158 | 9,451 | 10,138 |
| 1998 | 383 | 85 | 3,295 | 3,633 |
| 1999 | 236 | 83 | 1,811 | 1,907 |
| 2000 | 29 | 17 | 452 | 471 |
| 2001 | 20 | 8 | 226 | 236 |
| 2002 | 7 | 7 | 97 | 107 |
| 2003 | 31 | 63 | 443 | 509 |
| 2004 | 75 | 28 | 379 | 412 |
| 2005 | 105 | 30 | 408 | 445 |
| 2006 | 111 | 38 | 517 | 563 |
| 2007 | 146 | 37 | 653 | 712 |
| 2008 | 171 | 51 | 1,110 | 1,295 |
| 2009 | 62 | 18 | 534 | 607 |
| 2010 | 72 | - | 414 | 502+ |
| 2011 | 96 | - | 825 | 921+ |
| 2012 | 128 | - | 1,495 | 1,623+ |
| Total: | 6,877 | 5,454+ | 50,169 | 62,500+ |
Since 2013: from ceasefire to new confrontations
The Belgium-based Crisis Group keeps track of casualties linked to the Kurdish–Turkish conflict.[56] The data about PKK casualties are limited to proper Turkey, and does not include casualties from preemptive operations in Syria or Iraq.[57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][70][81]
| Year | Security forces | Civilians | Unknown youth | Insurgents | Total | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 435 | 441 | Ceasefire known as Solution process agreed by both Turkey (AKP) and PKK. |
| 2014* | 4 | 53 | 0 | 950 | 1,007 | |
| 2015, Jan. to June: ceasefire | 2 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 11 | |
| War resumed here due to July 2015's 2 security forces killed in the Ceylanpınar incident. Attackers unidentified so far. | ||||||
| 2015, Jul. to Dec.: war | 733 | 43 | 87 | 3,764 | 4,712 | Ceasefire and peace process broke down on 20 July 2015. Military confrontation resumed. |
| 2016 | 645 | 163 | 136 | 10,772 | 11,822 | |
| 2017 | 157 | 33 | 0 | 1,233 | 1,423 | |
| 2018 | 121 | 19 | 0 | 1,366 | 1,506 | |
| 2019 | 86 | 34 | 0 | 1,668 | 1,788 | |
| 2020 | 41 | 35 | 0 | 3,646 | 3,722 | |
| 2021 | 138 | – | 0 | 2,360 | 2,498+ | |
| 2022 | 162 | – | 0 | 1,220 | 1,382+ | |
| 2023 | 73 | – | 0 | 2,000+ | 2,066+ | |
| Total: | 2,161 | 387+ | 223 | 28,420+ | 31,004+ | |
*: mainly due to the 6–8 October 2014 Kurdish riots where 42 civilians were killed by State Forces during anti-government protests by Kurdish groups throughout Turkey. The protesters denouncing Ankara position during Islamic State's siege of Kobani. This is the main incident out of the ceasefire period.[56]
The ceasefire agreement broke down in July 2015, dividing 2015 in two sharply different periods.
External operations
Turkey has led numerous airstrikes and ground operations in Syria, Iraq and Iran,[337][338][339][340][341][342][343][344] in order to attack groups Turkey classifies as PKK-related.
| Date | Place | Type | Operation | Turkish forces dead (wounded) | Turkish allies dead (injured) | Kurdish forces dead (captured) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 May 1983 | Northern Iraq | Hot pursuit | May 1983 Cross-border Operation | None | — | Unknown, all militants in the region neutralized | Operation successful |
| 15 August 1986 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | August 1986 Cross-border Operation | None | — | 165 | Operation successful |
| 4 March 1987 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | March 1987 Cross-border Operation | None | — | Unknown, 3 camps destroyed | Operation successful |
| 5 – 13 August 1991 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | August 1991 Clean-up Operation | 2 (13) | — | Unknown, multiple camps destroyed | Operation successful |
| 30 August 1992 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | August 1992 Cross-border operation | None | — | 100+ | Operation successful |
| 5 October – 15 November 1992 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | October 1992 Cross-border operation | 28 (125) | — | 1,452 (1,232) | Operation successful |
| 12 October – 5 November 1992 | Northern Iraq | Rescue Operation | October 1992 Turkish attack on Hakurk Camp | 14 | — | 1,551 (2,600), Hakurk Camp destroyed | Decisive Turkish Victory |
| 13 – 19 August 1993 | Northern Iraq and Hakkâri | Land and Air | Operation Kirpi | None | — | 350+, İki Yaka Camp destroyed | Operation successful |
| 23 – 26 September 1993 | Northern Iraq and Hakkâri | Land and Air | Operation Govent | None | — | 400+, Balkaya Camp destroyed | Operation successful |
| 5 November 1993 – 28 January 1994 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | December 1993 Cross-border operation | None | — | 167, 10 camps destroyed | Operation successful |
| 6 – 13 November 1993 | Northern Iraq | Land and Air | Operation Mezi-Karyaderi | None | — | 201 (21), Avaşin Camp destroyed | Operation successful |
| 27 January – 2 February 1994 | Northern Iraq and Hakkâri | Land and Air | Operation Alandüz | None | — | 64, Camp in Buzul Mountain destroyed | Operation successful |
| 19 March – 26 April 1994 | Northern Iraq | Land and Air | Operation Ejder | 19 | — | 459 (23), Berçela, Zap and Metina Camp destroyed | Operation successful |
| 26 July – 3 August 1994 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | July 1994 Cross-border operation | None | — | 190, Haftanin Camp heavily damaged | Operation successful |
| 20 March – 4 May 1995 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | Operation Steel | 64 (185) | — | 555 (13), Zap Camp destroyed | Operation successful |
| 23 March 1995 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | March 1995 Turkish attack on Haftanin Camp | None | — | 89, Haftanin Camp destroyed | Operation successful |
| 20 – 21 May 1995 | Northwestern Iran | Land and air | Operation Jerma-Betkar | None | — | 358, Betkar Camp destroyed | Operation successful |
| 14 June 1996 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | Operation Tokat | 6 | — | 90 | Operation successful |
| 12 May – 7 July 1997 | Iraq, Erbil-Mosul | Land and air | Operation Hammer | 114 (338) | — | 2,730 (415) | Operation successful |
| 25 September – 15 October 1997 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | Operation Dawn | 31 (91) | — | 865 (37) | Operation successful |
| 21–29 February 2008 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | Operation Sun | 27 | — | 240[345][346][347] | Operation successful |
| 24–25 July 2015 | Northern Iraq | Airstrikes | Operation Martyr Yalçın | None | – | 160 | Airstrikes successful |
| 24 August 2016 – 29 March 2017 | Syria | Land and air | Operation Euphrates Shield* | 71 | 614 | 131 (37) | Operation successful |
| 25 April 2017 | Syria and Northern Iraq | Airstrikes | 2017 Turkish airstrikes in Syria and Iraq | 0 | — | 70 | Airstrikes successful |
| 20 January – 24 March 2018 | Syria | Land and air | Operation Olive Branch | 45 | 616[348] | 4,500-7,100+[80][349][350] | Operation successful |
| 19 March 2018 – 27 May 2019 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | Operation Tigris Shield | None | — | 234[351][352] or 379 | Operation successful |
| 15 August 2018 | Iraq, Sinjar | Airstrikes | Turkish strikes on Sinjar (2018) | — | — | 5 | Airstrikes successful |
| 27 May - 12 June 2019 | Northern Iraq | Land and Air | Operation Claw-1 | None | — | 143 | Operation successful |
| 13 June - 23 August 2019 | Northern Iraq | Land and Air | Operation Claw-2 | None | — | 102 | Operation successful |
| 24 August 2019 - 4 May 2020 | Northern Iraq | Land and Air | Operation Claw-3 | 2 | — | 102 | Operation successful |
| 9 October - 25 November 2019 | Syria | Land and air | Operation Peace Spring | 16 | 251 | 508 (73) | Operation successful |
| 15 June 2020 | Northern Iraq | Airstrikes | Operation Claw-Eagle | None | — | 81[353] | Airstrikes successful |
| 16 June 2020 – 5 September 2020 | Northern Iraq | Airstrikes | Operation Claw-Tiger | None | — | 228 | Operation successful |
| 10 – 14 February 2021 | Northern Iraq | Rescue operation | Operation Claw-Eagle 2 | 3[354] | — | 65 | Ground and clearing operations successful. Rescue operation failed; 13 civilian hostages killed by PKK |
| 23 April 2021 – present | Northern Iraq | Land and air | Operations Claw-Lightning and Thunderbolt | 11 | — | 387 | Operation successful |
| 17 April 2022 – 4 May 2022 | Northern Iraq | Land and air | Operation Claw-Lock | 84 | - | 995 | Operation successful |
| 20 - 28 November 2022 | Syria and Northern Iraq | Airstrikes | Operation Claw-Sword | 1 | 1 | 254 | Airstrikes successful |
| Total : | 538 (769) | 1,481 | 20,750+ (3,219), 40+ camps destroyed | ||||
*: Most of Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield combats were between TSK & TFSA against IS on one side, and between YPG against IS on the other, while the Turkish forces and US-allied YPG avoided full scale clashed. Turkey strategic objective was to prevent Afrin canton from connecting with YPG Manbij and other Rojava regions. Accordingly, only a minor part of these operations casualties were from Turkey forces vs YPG forces.
Demographic effect
The Turkification of predominantly Kurdish areas in Turkey's East and South-East were also bound in the early ideas and policies of modern Turkish nationalism, going back to as early as 1918 to the manifesto of Turkish nationalist Ziya Gökalp "Turkification, Islamization and Modernization".[355] The evolving Young Turk conscience adopted a specific interpretation of progressism, a trend of thought which emphasizes the human ability to make, improve and reshape human society, relying on science, technology and experimentation.[356] This notion of social evolution was used to support and justify policies of population control.[356] The Kurdish rebellions provided a comfortable pretext for Turkish Kemalists to implement such ideas, and in a Settlement Law was issued in 1934. It created a complex pattern of interaction between state of society, in which the regime favored its people in a distant geography, populated by locals marked as hostile.[356]
During the 1990s, a predominantly Kurdish-dominated Eastern and South-Eastern Turkey (Kurdistan) was depopulated due to the Kurdish–Turkish conflict.[355] Turkey depopulated and destroyed rural settlements on a large scale, resulting in massive resettlement of a rural Kurdish population in urban areas and leading to development and re-design of population settlement schemes across the countryside.[355] According to Dr. Joost Jongerden, Turkish settlement and re-settlement policies during the 1990s period were influenced by two different forces – the desire to expand administration to rural areas and an alternative view of urbanization, allegedly producing "Turkishness".[355]
Human rights abuses
Both Turkey and the PKK have committed numerous human rights abuses during the conflict. Former French ambassador to Turkey Eric Rouleau states:[357]
According to the Ministry of Justice, in addition to the 35,000 people killed in military campaigns, 17,500 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. According to the Turkish press, the authors of these crimes, none of whom have been arrested, belong to groups of mercenaries working either directly or indirectly for the security agencies.
Abuses by the Turkish side
Since the 1970s, the European Court of Human Rights has condemned Turkey for thousands of human rights abuses against Kurdish people.[134][135] The judgments are related to systematic executions of Kurdish civilians,[136] forced recruitments,[136] torturing,[329][137] forced displacements,[358] thousands of destroyed villages,[359] arbitrary arrests,[360] murdered and disappeared Kurdish journalists.[361] The latest judgments are from 2014.[136] According to David L. Philips, more than 1,500 people affiliated with the Kurdish opposition parties and organizations were murdered by unidentified assailants between 1986 and 1996. The government-backed mercenaries assassinated hundreds of suspected PKK sympathizers.[169] The Turkish government is held responsible by Turkish human rights organizations for at least 3,438 civilian deaths in the conflict between 1987 and 2000.[362]
Massacres
In November 1992, the Turkish gendarmerie officers forced the leader of the Kelekçi village to evacuate all of the inhabitants, before shooting at them and their houses with heavy weapons. The soldiers set up fire to nine houses and forced all villagers to flee. Later soldiers burned the rest of the village and destroyed all 136 houses.[363]
In 1993, Mehmet Ogut, his pregnant wife and all their seven children were burned to death by Turkish special forces soldiers. The Turkish authorities initially blamed the PKK and refused to investigate the case until it was opened again 17 years later. The investigations eventually came to an end in late 2014 with sentences of life imprisonment for three gendarme officers, a member of the special forces and nine soldiers.[364]
In August 1993, Turkish security forces opened fire during the protest, killing 10 people and wounding 51.[365]
On 8 September 1993, the Turkish Air Force dropped a bomb near the Munzur mountains, killing 2 women. In the same year, Turkish security forces attacked the town of Lice, destroying 401 houses, 242 shops and massacring more than thirty civilians, and leaving one hundred wounded.[366]
On 26 March 1994 the Turkish military planes (F-16's) and a helicopter circled two villages and bombed them, killing 38 Kurdish civilians.[136] The Turkish authorities blamed the PKK and took pictures of the dead children and spread in the press. The European Court of Human rights condemned Turkey to pay 2,3 million euros to the families of victims.[136] The event is known as the Kuşkonar massacre.
In 1995, a fifty-two year old woman claimed that Turkish soldiers killed her husband and her husbands brother and took pictures of their corpses with weapons. She said that the two killed people were laughed upon as PKK members.[367]
In 1995, The European newspaper published in its front-page pictures of Turkish soldiers who posed for camera with the decapitated heads of the Kurdish PKK fighters. Kurdish fighters were beheaded by Turkish special forces soldiers.[368][369]
In late March 2006, the Turkish security forces who tried to prevent the funerals of the PKK fighters clashed with the demonstrators, killing at least eight Kurdish protesters, including four children under the age of 10.[370]
In August 2015, Amnesty International reported that the Turkish government airstrikes killed eight residents and injured at least eight others – including a child – in a flagrantly unlawful attack on the village of Zergele, in the Kandil Mountains in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.[371]
On 21 January 2016, a report published by Amnesty International stated that more than 150 civilians had been killed in Cizre. According to Amnesty International, the curfews had been imposed in more than 19 different towns and districts, putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people at risk. Additionally, the report stated that the government's disproportionate restrictions on movement and other arbitrary measures were resembling collective punishment, a war crime under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.[372][373]
In 2019, Turkish soldiers killed 11 Kurdish civilians, 8 of them children in artillery attack.[374]
Human Rights Watch notes in 1992 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 torture, 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.[375]
- 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.[376]
Turkish–Kurdish human rights 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.[377] 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.[378]
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.[110] The Government claimed that the displacement policy aimed to remove the shelter and support of the local population and consequently, the population of cities such as Diyarbakır and Cizre more than doubled.[379] However, martial law and military rule was lifted in the last provinces in 2002.
State terrorism
Since its foundation, the Republic of Turkey has pursued variously assimilationist and repressive policies towards the Kurdish people.[380] At the beginning of the conflict, the PKK's relationship with its civilian supporters created incentives for the Turkish government to use terrorism against the Kurdish citizens in the Kurdish dominated southeast region of Turkey.[173] Since the early 1980s, the authorities have systematically used arbitrary arrests, executions of suspects, excessive force, and torture to suppress the opponents. In 1993, the report published by Human Rights Watch stated:[381]
Kurds in Turkey have been killed, tortured and disappeared at an appalling rate since the coalition government of Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel took office in November 1991. In addition, many of their cities have been brutally attacked by security forces, hundreds of their villages have been forcibly evacuated, their ethnic identity continues to be attacked, their rights to free expression denied and their political freedom placed in jeopardy.
According to Human Rights Watch, the authorities even executed the Kurdish civilians and took the pictures of their corpses with the weapons, they carried for staging the events, in order to show them as Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) "terrorists" to press. In 1995, another report published by Human Rights Watch stated:[382]
Based on B.G.'s statement and substantial additional evidence, Human Rights Watch believes that the official government casualty estimates severely misrepresent the true number of civilians slain by government forces. It is likely that many of the persons referred to in the official estimates as "PKK casualties" were in fact civilians shot by mistake or deliberately killed by security forces. Witness testimony also demonstrates that many of the Turkish government's denials of wrong-doing by the Turkish security forces are fabrications manufactured by soldiers or officials somewhere along the government's chain of command.
Shooting and killing peaceful demonstrators was one of the methods the security forces used to spread fear. In 1992, the security forces killed more than 103 demonstrators, 93 of them during the celebration of Newroz in three Kurdish cities. No security force member was ever charged with any of the deaths.[381]
In the early 1990s, hundreds of people had disappeared after they had been taken into custody by security forces. Only in 1992, more than 450 people had been reportedly killed. Among those killed were journalists, teachers, doctors, human rights activists and political leaders. The security forces usually denied to have detained the victims but sometimes they claimed that they had released the victims after "holding them briefly".[381] According to the Human Rights Association (İHD), there have been 940 cases of enforced disappearance since the 1990s. In addition to that, more than 3,248 people who were murdered in extrajudicial killings are believed to have been buried in 253 separate burial places. On 6 January 2011, the bodies of 12 people were found in a mass grave near an old police station in Mutki, Bitlis. A few months later, three other mass graves were reportedly found in the garden of Çemişgezek police station.[383][384][385]
In 2006, the former ambassador Rouleau stated that the continuing human rights abuses of ethnic Kurds is one of the main obstacles to Turkish membership of the EU.[386]
Illegal abductions and enforced disappearances
During the 1990s and onward Turkish security services have detained Kurds, in some cases they were never seen again with only eyewitnesses coming forward to tell the story.[387] In 1997, Amnesty International (AI) reported that disappearances and extrajudicial executions had emerged as new and disturbing patterns of human rights violations by the Turkish state.[388][389]
The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) documented eleven cases since 2016 in which people have been abducted by men identifying themselves as police officers. It appears to be mostly in the Turkish capital of Ankara as victims are forced into transit vans. Family members were unable to find out their locations from the state, indicating that they were detained secretly or by clandestine groups. In a case where one was finally located after 42 days missing, he was tortured for days, forced to sign a confession and handed over to police.[390]
Torture
In August 1992, Human Rights Watch reported the vile practice of torture by security forces in Turkey. The victims of torture interviewed by Helsinki Watch had revealed the systematic practice of torture against detainees in police custody. Sixteen people had died in suspicious circumstances in police custody, ten of them Kurds in the Southeast.[381]
In 2013, The Guardian reported that the rape and torture of Kurdish prisoners in Turkey are disturbingly commonplace. According to the report, published by Amnesty International in 2003, Hamdiye Aslan, a prisoner accused of supporting the Kurdish group, the PKK, had been detained in Mardin Prison, south-east Turkey, for almost three months in which she was reportedly blindfolded, anally raped with a truncheon, threatened and mocked by officers.[391]
In February 2017, a report published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stated the Turkish authorities had beaten and punched detainees, using sexual violence, including rape and threat of rape. In some cases, the detainees were photographed nude and threatened with public humiliation after being tortured by Turkish authorities.[392]
Executions
On 24 February 1992, Cengiz Altun, the Batman correspondent for the weekly pro-Kurdish newspaper, Yeni Ülke, was killed.[393] More than 33 Kurdish journalists working for different newspapers were killed between 1990 and 1995. The killings of Kurdish journalists had started after the pro-Kurdish press had started to publish the first daily newspaper by the name of "Özgür Gündem" (Free Agenda). Musa Anter, a prominent Kurdish intellectual and journalist of Özgur Gundem, was assassinated by members of Gendarmerie Intelligence Organization in 1992.
In 1992, Turkish security forces executed seventy-four people in house raids and more than a hundred people in demonstrations.[381]
In October 2016, amateur footage emerged showing Turkish soldiers executing two female PKK members they had captured alive.[394]
In February 2017, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights published a report condemning the Turkish government for carrying out systematic executions, displacing civilians, and raping and torturing detainees in Southeastern Turkey.[392]
In October 2019, nine people were executed, including Hevrin Khalaf, a 35-year-old Kurdish woman who was secretary-general of the Future Syria Party and who worked for interfaith unity.[395]
Drug trafficking
The Turkish state has similarly involved itself with drug trafficking through the conflict. During the Susurluk scandal in the mid-1990s, it was revealed the government of Tansu Çiller had employed contract killers from the Grey Wolves and Turkish mafia to assassinate between 2,500 and 5,000 members of and businessmen accused of supporting the PKK.[396][397] Later on, state officials used the organizations to collect profits from the heroin trade, an industry larger than the state budget at the time.[398][399] In 2021, the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army was reported to be planting cannabis in the countryside of Afrin, an area captured from Kurdish forces during Operation Euphrates Shield.[400]
Abuses by the Kurdish side
,_Eylül_2015.jpg)
The Kurdistan Workers' Party has faced international condemnation for using terrorist tactics, which include kidnapping, civilian massacres, summary executions, suicide bombers, and child soldiers, and for its involvement in drug trafficking.[147][148][401] The organization has targeted civilians, doctors, teachers, schools, hospitals, and other government institutions on a mass scale since the 1984, and is responsible for thousands of civilian deaths.[169][402] The number of total civilian deaths perpetrated by the PKK between 1989 and 1999 was determined as 1,205 by the independent Uppsala One-Sided Violence Dataset.[362][403][404][405] In 1999, a report published by HRW, stated that the PKK was believed to have been responsible for more than 768 executions only between 1992 and 1995. The organization had also reportedly committed 25 massacres between 1992 and 1995, killing 360 innocent people, including 39 women and 76 children.[406] According to Nil Satana, the author of the Kurdish Issue in June 2011 Elections, PKK attacks on civilians persisted until the organization realized that these were damaging their international prestige.[405]
In the early 1980s, Abdullah Öcalan, the organization's leader, demanded the civilians to choose between loyalty to the government and support for the PKK, which reportedly led to a campaign against civilians, doctors, nurses, Kurdish elites, government institutions, schools and even hospitals.[citation needed] Additionally, hundreds of schools were burned and only between 1984 and 1987, more than 217 teachers were murdered.[citation needed] The PKK saw schools as "emblems of Turkish imperialism" that belonged to the "colonial assimilation system" and a justification for the killing of teachers was that they taught Turkish to Kurdish children.[169][page needed]
In the early 1990s, the organization allegedly began to bomb civilian targets and commit massacres against innocent civilians after the government refused to negotiate. According to Jessica Stanton, an associate professor in the global policy area, the shift in PKK tactics was a direct response to government behavior. Abdullah Öcalan, the organization's leader, has been claimed to have stated publicly:
If attacks on military and police targets could not force the government to negotiate, then perhaps attacks on civilian targets would.[407]
According to Amnesty International reports in 1997, the PKK has tortured and killed Kurdish peasants and its own members that were against them in the 1980s. Dozens of Kurdish civilians have been abducted and killed because they were suspected of being collaborators or informers.[408] 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 forces".[409][410] The organization's 'suicide guerrilla teams', mainly made up of women, were responsible for 21 suicide attacks in Turkey between 1995 and 1999.[169] The same number was 11 between 2 August 2015 and 25 August 2016.[411]
Massacres
On 23 January 1987, PKK militias committed a massacre in Ortabağ, Şırnak Province killing 8 civilians including 4 women and 2 children.[412][413][414]
On 20 June 1987, the organization committed a massacre in the village of Pınarcık in the Mardin Province of Turkey, killing more than 30 people, mainly women and children.[415][416]
On 18 August 1987, PKK fighters massacred 14 children, including one three-day-old and one six-day-old baby, and 11 adults in Kılıçkaya village, Siirt.[417]
On 10 June 1990, a group of guerrillas raided on Çevrimli village in Şırnak's Güçlükonak district, killing more than 27 people, most of them women and children. The event is known as Çevrimli massacre.[418]
On 21 March 1990, PKK members blocked a road where they killed 9 engineers and a worker.[citation needed]
On 15 July 1991, PKK guerrillas burned nine villagers to death in their houses in the villages of Pazarcık and Çağlayancerit districts.[citation needed]
On 25 December 1991, PKK attacked a store in the Bakırköy district with Molotov cocktails, resulting in 11 deaths, including 7 women and 1 child.[419]
Between 1992 and 1995 the organisation has committed 25 massacres killing 360 innocent people, including 39 women and 76 children.[406]
On 11 June 1992, the guerrillas executed more than 13 people from a bus they stopped in Tatvan.[citation needed]
On 22 June 1992, a group of PKK members killed fourteen villagers, nine of them children, and wounded eight others in raids on the houses of village guards in the village of Seki in Batman Province and in Guroymak in Bitlis Province.[420]
On 26 June 1992, 30 PKK militants raided a mosque in Diyarbakır and killed 10 worshippers.[420]
In late June 1992, PKK militants killed five people, including a member of the village guard, in an attack on Elmasirti village in Bingöl Province.[420]
In late September 1992, PKK militants massacred 29 civilians including many women and children in Cevizdalı village of Bitlis Province.[420]
On 24 May 1993, a group of 150 PKK militants massacred 33 unarmed recruits and 5 civilians on the Elazığ-Bingöl highway.[421][422]
On 21 October 1993, a group of PKK members killed 22 people, including 13 children in the yard of the school in Siirt. The incident is called Derince massacre.[423][page needed]
On 25 October 1993, 4 teachers and a 2-year-old girl were murdered by PKK militants in Yolalan, Bitlis Province.[424]
In 1998, Human Rights Watch stated in a letter to the Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema that in response of Turkeys declaration of an all-out war, the PKK adapted its tactics in the following way:[425]
- All economic, political, military, security institutions, formations and nationalist organizations—and those who serve in them—have become targets.[425] PKK has attacked Turkish authorities outside of Kurdish areas.
- The PKK is against Turkish political parties, cultural and educational institutions, legislative and representative bodies, and "all local collaborators and agents working for the Republic of Turkey".[425]
- Many who died were unarmed civilians, caught in the middle between the PKK and security forces, targeted for attacks by both sides.[376]
On 21 January 1994, PKK militants massacred 21 people including 11 children in Savur, Mardin Province and claimed responsibility for the attack.[426]
On 1 January 1995, PKK guerrillas carried out a massacre in the Hamzali neighborhood of Kulp in Diyarbakir, killing 1 village guard and more than 20 civilians, mainly women and children. The memorial has been created for the victims in the neighborhood.[427]
In September 1995, the PKK members raided on a mine in the Seldiren village, executing nine miners and wounding two. According to the authorities, the PKK members had threatened the miners to bring food before executing them for unknown reasons. The organization later claimed the attack in Serxwebun publication by claiming the killed miners were soldiers and 'fascists'.[citation needed]
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 forces".[409][410]
On 30 June 1996, a suicide bombing targeting a group of 60 unarmed military personnel perpetrated by PKK occurred in Tunceli, killing 8 people and injuring 29 others.
On 25 October 1996, a suicide bombing was carried out when a PKK member detonated the explosives she had with her in front of Adana Riot Control Police Directorate, killing 5 people including a civilian and injuring 18 others.[citation needed]
On 29 October 1996, a suicide bombing occurred in Sivas and killed 6 people including a civilian while injuring 10 others.[citation needed]
On 13 March 1999, 3 PKK militants poured petroleum and threw molotov cocktails at a small sized local department store in Göztepe, Istanbul, 13 civilians, mostly women and employees of the store, were killed and 5 were injured.[428]
On 22 May 2007, a PKK member Güven Akkuş carried out a suicide attack in Ulus, Altındağ killing 9 people and injuring more than 121 others, all civilians.[429][430][431]
On 22 June 2010, the TAK claimed responsibility for a bombing on a bus carrying soldiers and civilians killing 5.[432]
On 20 September 2011, 3 people died and 34 people were injured in a bomb attack in Ankara which was claimed by TAK.[433]
On 18 October 2011, a bomb planted by PKK militants exploded in Güroymak, killing five policemen and three civilians, including a child.[434]
On 17 February 2016, a car bomb perpetrated by TAK detonated in Ankara, killing 15 civilians and 14 soldiers while injuring 60 others.[citation needed]
On 13 March 2016, a member of the TAK carried out a suicide attack in Ankara, killing more than 37 civilians.[435]
On 27 April 2016, Eser Cali, a female member of the TAK, blew herself up near an Ottoman-era mosque in the Turkish city of Bursa, wounding 13 people. Two days later, the Kurdish militant group TAK claimed the responsibility.[436]
On 10 May 2016, 3 people were killed and 33 civilians and 12 police officers were injured in a bombing in Diyarbakır perpetrated by PKK members who targeted an armored police vehicle.[437]
On 12 May 2016, a truck bombing took place in Dürümlü hamlet in Diyarbakir's Sur district. killing 16 people and injuring 23 others, all civilians. The People's Defence Forces (HPG), claimed that the truck was driven by members of the HPG, but that the explosives should have detonated elsewhere and the truck only detonated as villagers opened fire on the truck.[438][439][440]
On 7 June 2016, a bombing targeting security officers perperated by TAK occurred in central Istanbul, killing 12 people including 6 security officers and 6 civilians and injuring 51 others,[441] three of them seriously.[442]
On 5 January 2017, PKK members detonated a car bomb outside a courthouse in Bayraklı, İzmir killing 1 civilian and 1 police officer while injuring 7 others including 3 civilians.[443]
On 26 October 2020, a suicide bombing in İskenderun injured 2 civilians.[444][445][446][447]
Kidnappings
In its early stages, some PKK members and groups systematically recruited children, men and women by kidnapping them.[citation needed] This forced families whose children were already a member of the organization to cooperate and thus turning them into accomplices, which increased the number of women joining the group, according to the publication, published by the Jamestown Foundation. The systematic kidnapping of men, women and even children was at its peak between the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the PKK decided to force every family to send someone to serve their armed wings after the third Congress. Many members who had been kidnapped were described as heroes in Serxwebun, the PKK's monthly magazine, after they were killed in the clashes.[citation needed] Some victims like Esengul Akgul, a child soldier who had been allegedly kidnapped when she was only ten years old in 1990, were described as model 'revolutionary fighters' when they died.[448][449][450][451]
In early September 1992, PKK militants kidnapped five tourists, including three Americans, two Austrians and a British, near the town of Karliova, Bingöl Province, and detained them briefly.[420]
A report published by Federation of American Scientists stated that the PKK's policy of forced recruitment by kidnapping has dramatically increased since the 1994. The organization has used the policy to offset its heavy losses since the early days of the conflict.[452]
In 2014, a group of Kurdish families staged a sit-in in front of the town hall in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakır to protest the forced recruitment of their children by PKK. After two weeks of protesting, the families started hunger strike to demand the return of their kidnapped children.[453][454]
On 28 May 2012, a group of militants kidnapped 10 workers working on a road construction project in Iğdır. A month later, another group of militants blocked the road between Diyarbakır and Bingöl, and kidnapped a British tourist. All of them were released later.[455]
Terrorism
In 1997, the State Department listed the PKK as a foreign terrorist organization for their continuous use of violence during the 1990s.[456] On 6 November 2018, the State Department listed the PKK's three top executives, Murat Karayılan, Cemil Bayik and Duran Kalkan, in its Rewards for Justice Program which is developed by the U.S. Department of State for counter-terrorism. The program lists the names and information of the most wanted US designated terrorists in the world.[457]
Executions
Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the organization, who captured power by brutally suppressing dissent and purging opponents after the PKK's third Congress, consolidated absolute power through a campaign of torture and executions he started against the closest cadres in 1980. Only in 1986, the PKK executed more than sixty of its members, including Mahsum Korkmaz, who is believed to have been murdered during the clashes on 28 March 1986.[169] The organization also targeted the defectors and assassinated at least eight of them in the EU. Hüseyin Yıldırım, a lawyer and the PKK's former spokesman in Brussels, who broke with Öcalan and left the organization in 1987 stated:[458]
The PKK executed many of its members. The revolutionaries I knew, whom I trusted, were shot. Many people, regardless of whether they were women or children, were killed in the country. Öcalan wanted to be accepted through violence. Many people were killed in Bekaa Valley (old training camps). If you dig, you will find corpses.
Many governors and other politicians of AK Party in Kurdish inhabited cities were threatened with death and forced to resign by the PKK, while many politicians who refused to resign were executed and assassinated. Only between August 2016 and October 2016, 6 AK Party politicians were murdered by the organization such as Deryan Aktert. In September 2016, AK Party governors of Doğubayazıt, Özalp and Lice resigned because of the death threats while 3 other AK Party politicians in Ergani resigned in the first week of October 2016.[459]
In March 1984, 4 people from the same family were executed in Çukurca. Serxwebûn accused them of being informers.[460]
On 15 May 1987, İsa Karaaslan, a father of 3 children and a teacher was accused of being a spy for the Turkish Intelligence and was executed.[461][462]
On 21 August 1987, in Yolçatı village of Lice, teacher Asim Özmen[461] and imam Mehmet Bayram were taken from their houses and executed. Serxwebûn accused both of them of being spies.[463]
On 17 July 1987, 5 people were executed by PKK in Şırnak Province. Serxwebûn, a publication of the PKK announced the executions and stated that executed people were all "traitors".[464]
On 31 July 1987, Serxwebûn announced that PKK executed Hıdır Kılıçaslan in Kuyubaşı hamlet of Akören village in Hozat and accused him of being an "ungrained traitor".[464]
Between 1992 and 1995, PKK carried out 768 extrajudicial executions, mostly of civil servants and teachers, political opponents, off-duty police officers and soldiers, and those deemed by the PKK to be "state supporters."[406]
On 12 February 2006, PKK's former representative of Europe, Kani Yılmaz was assassinated by PKK via a bomb that was put into his car. Yılmaz was burned to death in the car with a former PKK militant Sabri Tori.[465]
On 27 September 2017, the organization kidnapped and executed Mahmut Bazancir who was mistakenly accused of being an informer.[466][467]
On 25 November 2017, PKK executed 2 of its own members in Duhok Governorate of Iraq.[468]
On 25 July 2018, Mevlüt Bengi, a father of 6 children, was executed and tied to an electricity tower by guerrillas, who reportedly justified the execution by accusing him of being a collaborator with the AK Party, which he had served as an election observer at the ballot boxes in his district during the 24 June elections.[469] The HPG released a statement that it has killed Mevlüt Bengi, but for having caused serious harm to the Kurdish movement, and not for being a member of a certain party.[470]
Child soldiers
According to the TEPAV think-tank which did research on the identities of 1,362 PKK fighters who lost their lives between 2001 and 2011, 42% of the recruits were under 18, with over a quarter of these being under 15 years of age at the time of recruiting.[471] The organization is still actively recruiting child soldiers and it has been accused of abducting more than 2,000 children by Turkish Security Forces. The latest independent reports by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), the United Nations (UN) and the Amnesty International have confirmed the recruitment and use of child soldiers by the organization and its armed wings since the 1990s. The organization is also believed to have used the children in the drug trade.[148][472][473][474]
In 2008, a report published by Child Soldiers International stated that the PKK was believed in 1998 to have had 3,000 child soldiers in its forces based in Iraq and operating in Southeast Turkey.[citation needed]
The armed wing of the PKK, signed in October 2008 a Deed of Commitment of the Geneva Call, which prohibits the employment of youth below 18 years old to be recruited.[475] Following repeated reports in the international media about child soldiers in PKK ranks, representatives of Geneva Call visited PKK camps in order to monitor the application of the Deed of Commitment.[476] They visited camps in which youths of the age between sixteen and eighteen would be accepted on a voluntary basis and while being there would stay away from armed conflict and be educated.[476]
Drug trafficking
In 2011, the report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) , based on Turkish official reports from The Turkish Addiction Monitoring Centre stated that the instability in Iraq had helped the PKK to develop and use Iraq as a transhipment point for heroin. The PKK was reported by this source to collect taxes per kilogram of heroin trafficked to Turkey from the borders of Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq, with potential profits reaching US$200 million annually.[477] Another report published by European Police Office (EUROPOL) in the same year stated the organization is actively involved in money laundering, illicit drugs and human trafficking, as well as illegal immigration inside and outside the EU for funding and running its activities, without citing any official source or specific investigation by justice or police.[478]
In 2012, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the designation of Zeyneddin Geleri, Cerkez Akbulut (a.k.a. Cernit Murat), and Omer Boztepe as three Moldovan-based specially designated narcotics traffickers for drug trafficking on behalf of the PKK in Europe. According to the OFAC, Zeyneddin Geleri was identified as a high-ranking member of the PKK while two others were reportedly just PKK activists. The OFAC stated that the drug trafficking is one of the PKK's criminal activities it uses to obtain weapons and materials to fight the Turkish government.[479]
See also
- Iraqi–Kurdish conflict
- Iranian–Kurdish conflict
- Syrian-Kurdish conflict
- Iraq–Turkey border
- List of Turkish Armed Forces operations in Northern Iraq
- Maoist insurgency in Turkey
- Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War
- A Modern History of the Kurds by David McDowall
Notes
- ^ Merged with the Revolutionary Communard Party (DKP) in 2017.
- ^ The Turkey–PKK conflict is also known as the Kurdish conflict,[89][90][91][92][93] the Kurdish question,[94] the Kurdish insurgency,[95][96][97][98][99][100] the Kurdish rebellion,[101][102][103][104][105] the Kurdish–Turkish conflict,[106] or PKK-terrorism[107][108][109] as well as the latest Kurdish uprising[110]
- ^ According to official figures, in the period during and after the coup, military agencies collected files on over 2 million people, 650,000 of which were detained, 230,000 of which were put on trial under martial law. Prosecutors demanded the death penalty against over 7 thousand of them, of which 517 were sentenced to death and fifty were actually hanged. Some 400,000 people were denied passports and 30,000 lost their jobs after the new regime classified them as dangerous. 14,000 people were stripped of their Turkish citizenship and 30,000 fled the country as asylum seekers after the coup. Aside from the fifty people that were hanged, some 366 people died under suspicious circumstances (classified as accidents at the time), 171 were tortured to death in prison, 43 were claimed to have committed suicide in prison and 16 were shot for attempting to escape.[165]
References
- ^ Doğan, Zülfikar (5 February 2016). "Erdogan's new Kurdish allies". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
- ^ Jabar, Faleh A; Mansour, Renad, eds. (2019). The Kurds in a Changing Middle East: History, Politics and Representation. I.B. Tauris. doi:10.5040/9781788318907.ch-0007. hdl:1874/420966. ISBN 978-1-78673-549-2. S2CID 204390944.
- ^ {{cite web *
Israel|url=http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/increasing-tensions-see-resurgence-turkeys-far-right-street-movements-923266627 |title=Increasing tensions see resurgence of Turkey's far-right street movements |last=MacDonald |first=Alex |date=14 September 2015 |publisher=Middle East Eye |access-date=7 December 2016 }}
- ^ "Kurds demand answers after battles in Cizre". al-monitor.com. 18 September 2015. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
- ^ "Turkish Government-Associated Death Squads". thesop.org. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
- ^ Metelits, Claire, Inside Insurgency: Violence, Civilians, and Revolutionary Group Behavior, (New York University Press, 2010), 154–155.
- ^ Belge, Ceren (24 January 2011). "State Building and the Limits of Legibility: Kinship Networks and Kurdish Resistance in Turkey". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 43 (1): 95–114. doi:10.1017/S0020743810001212. ISSN 0020-7438. S2CID 145444623.
When it started small-scale attacks in 1978, the PKK... deliberately targeted a number of influential clan leaders, especially those affiliated with right-wing political parties, to underline the class dimension of its struggle.
- ^ Marcus, Aliza (2007). Blood and belief : the PKK and the Kurdish fight for independence. New York: New York University Press. pp. 44–48. ISBN 978-0-8147-5711-6. OCLC 85162306.
The Suleymanlar saw these leftists as a threat to the existing order, while the Kurdistan Revolutionaries viewed oppressive, landowning tribes like the Suleymanlar as much the enemy as the state itself... In Hilvan, the Suleymanlar tribe renewed their attacks on the PKK, kidnapping and killing six villagers.
- ^ "Syrian regime fighters 'heading to Afrin to join Kurds in fight against Turkish forces'". The Daily Telegraph. 19 February 2018. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
- ^ Fehim Tastekin (26 January 2018). "Erdogan's plans for Afrin might not sit well with Syria". al-Monitor. Archived from the original on 29 January 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
- ^ Gonzalez-Perez, Margaret (2008). Women and Terrorism: Female Activity in Domestic and International Terror Groups. Routledge. p. 85. ISBN 9781134040087.
Throughout the 1990s, the PKK was engaged in ongoing guerrilla warfare with the PUK and the Democratic Kurdistan Party (Ahmed and Parker 2007; Harding 2003). In fact, the Iraqi Kurds prefer to see Turkey's PKK not only disbanded but banned from Iraq.
- ^ "Armed Conflicts Report Iraq – Kurds (1961 – first combat deaths)". Project Ploughshares. 2005. Archived from the original on 20 June 2007. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
- ^ "Armed Conflicts Report Turkey (1984–2002)". Project Ploughshares. March 2003. Archived from the original on 5 July 2010. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
- ^ a b c d Faucompret, Erik; Konings, Jozef (2008). Turkish Accession to the EU: Satisfying the Copenhagen Criteria. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis. p. 168. ISBN 9780203928967.
The Turkish establishment considered the Kurds' demand for the recognition of their identity a threat to the territorial integrity of the state, the more so because the PKK was supported by countries hostile to Turkey: Soviet Union, Greece, Cyprus, Iran and especially Syria. Syria hosted the organization and its leader for twenty years, and it provided training facilities in the Beka'a Valley of Syrian-controlled northern Lebanon.
- ^ a b "Syria and Iran 'backing Kurdish terrorist group', says Turkey". The Telegraph. 3 September 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- ^ Bal, İdris (2004). Turkish Foreign Policy In Post Cold War Era. Boca Raton, Fl.: BrownWalker Press. p. 359. ISBN 9781581124231.
With the explicit supports of some Arab countries for the PKK such as Syria...
- ^ Mannes, Aaron (2004). Profiles In Terror: The Guide To Middle East Terrorist Organizations. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 185. ISBN 9780742535251.
PKK has had substantial operations in northern Iraq, with the support of Iran and Syria.
- ^ Shapir, Yiftah (1998). The Middle East Military Balance, 1996. Jerusalem, Israel: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University. p. 114. ISBN 9780231108928.
The PKK was originally established as a Marxist party, with ties to the Soviet Union
- ^ "Armenian animosity rekindled through PKK terror". Al-Monitor. 7 March 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
- ^ "Ocalan: Greeks supplied Kurdish rebels". BBC News. 2 June 1999. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
- ^ "Turkey says Greece supports PKK". Hürriyet Daily News. 1 July 1999. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
- ^ Bilgin, Fevzi; Sarihan. Ali (2013). Understanding Turkey's Kurdish Question. Lexington Books. p. 96. ISBN 9780739184035.
The USSR, and then Russia, also supported the PKK for many years.
- ^ "Russian newspaper: Russia provided money for PKK". Hurriyet Daily News. 28 February 2000. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- ^ "Turkey devises action plan to dry up PKK's foreign support". Today's Zaman. 30 September 2010. Archived from the original on 22 September 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
- ^ Phillips, David L. (2009). From Bullets to Ballots: Violent Muslim Movements in Transition. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. p. 129. ISBN 9781412812016.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran) trained the PKK in Lebanon's Beka'a Valley. Iran supported the PKK despite Turkey's strict neutrality during the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988).
- ^ "Terrorism Havens: Iraq". Council on Foreign Relations. 1 December 2005. Archived from the original on 28 September 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
Saddam has aided...the Kurdistan Workers' Party (known by its Turkish initials, PKK), a separatist group fighting the Turkish government.
- ^ Senbas, Demet (2018). Post-Cold War Relations between Turkey and Syria. p. 28.
KDP and PUK thought that they needed Turkey's support against PKK which had gained Saddam's support.
- ^ Ciment, James (2015), World Terrorism: An Encyclopedia of Political Violence from Ancient Times to the Post-9/11 Era, Routledge, p. 721,
Other groups that have received Libyan support include the Turkish PKK...
- ^ "Are the PKK and Cairo new allies?". Rudaw. 27 June 2016.
Cairo allegedly gave the PKK delegation funds and weapons after the second meeting, the report adds.
- ^ "What does Afrin mean for international security?". Australian Strategic Policy Institute. 2 February 2018.
- ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Iraqi Kurdistan restricts transfers from UAE amid allegations of 'PKK funding'". The New Arab. 15 June 2020.
- ^ a b Toksabay, Ece; Lehto, Essi (13 May 2022). "Erdogan says Turkey not supportive of Finland, Sweden joining NATO". Reuters.
- ^ Martin van Bruinessen, "Zaza, Alevi and Dersimi as Deliberately Embraced Ethnic Identities" in '"Aslını İnkar Eden Haramzadedir!" The Debate on the Ethnic Identity of The Kurdish Alevis' in Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi, Barbara Kellner-Heinkele, Anke Otter-Beaujean, Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East: Collected Papers of the International Symposium "Alevism in Turkey and Comparable Sycretistic Religious Communities in the Near East in the Past and Present" Berlin, 14-17 April 1995, BRILL, 1997, ISBN 9789004108615, p. 13.
- ^ Martin van Bruinessen, "Zaza, Alevi and Dersimi as Deliberately Embraced Ethnic Identities" in '"Aslını İnkar Eden Haramzadedir!" The Debate on the Ethnic Identity of The Kurdish Alevis', p. 14.
- ^ "Turkey: PKK leader calls halt to armed struggle". Ansamed. 21 March 2013. Archived from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ "Cautious Turkish PM welcomes Öcalan's call for end to armed struggle". Hürriyet Daily News. 21 March 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ "Kurdish separatist group leader Öcalan calls to stop armed struggle". Trend AZ. 21 March 2013. Archived from the original on 20 May 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ a b "Ocalan's farewell to arms brings Kurds hope for peace". Euronews. 21 March 2013. Archived from the original on 5 November 2018. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ "Less than 160 PKK terrorists left in Turkey, minister says". Daily Sabah. 9 December 2021.
- ^ "PKK militant on Turkey's 'most-wanted list' killed in southeast: Interior Ministry". Hurriyetdailynews.com. 14 November 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
- ^ "Ali Haydar Kaytan operasyonla etkisiz hale getirildi! PKK, ölümünü gizlemek için cesedi gömenleri infaz etti". www.hurriyet.com.tr. 18 November 2021.
- ^ "Turkey neutralizes most-wanted PKK terrorist in N Iraq". Hürriyet Daily News. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
- ^ "Remzi Kartal ve Zübeyir Aydar tutuklandı". Hukuki Haber.
- ^ "NEWS FROM TURKISH ARMED FORCES". Turkish Armed Forces. Archived from the original on 5 November 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
- ^ "Turkey's Paramilitary Forces" (PDF). Orbat. 25 July 2006. p. 33. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 March 2009.
- ^ "Turkey's 'village guards' tired of conflict". My Sinchew. 19 April 2010. Archived from the original on 21 April 2010. Retrieved 29 August 2010.
- ^ a b Pike, John (21 May 2004). "Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)". Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved 23 July 2008.
- ^ a b "The PKK in Numbers". Sabah News Agency. 28 December 2015.
- ^ ISN Kurdish strike reminder of forgotten war, 26 February 2007
- ^ Iran's Kurdish Threat: PJAK, 15 June 2006
- ^ a b c Brandon, James. "The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons Emerges as a Rival to the PKK". Jamestown Foundation. Jamestown.org. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ a b 14 taken (May 1993),[1] 8 taken (Oct. 2007),[citation needed] 23 taken (2011–12),[2] 8 released (Feb. 2015),[3] 20 taken/released (June–Sep. 2015),[4] 20 held (Dec. 2015),[5] 2 taken (Jan. 2016),[6] total of 95 reported taken
- ^ a b 20 as of Dec. 2015,[7] 2 taken Jan. 2016,[8] total of 22 reported currently held
- ^ a b "How many martyrs did Turkey lost?". Internethaber. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
- ^ a b c Şafak, Yeni. "Nearly 7,000 civilians killed by PKK in 31 years". Yenisafak.com. Archived from the original on 28 August 2018.
- ^ a b c International Crisis Group (2018), Turkey's PKK Conflict Kills almost 3,000 in Two Years. Data : here [9].
- ^ a b "Terörle Mücadelede Verdiğimiz Şehitler (1984–2013)" (PDF). 21. Yüzyıl Türkiye Enstitüsü (in Turkish). Retrieved 18 May 2023.
- ^ a b "İşte yıllara göre etkisiz hale getirilen PKK'lı". Memurlar.Net (in Turkish). 1 January 1999. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
- ^ a b https://openaccess.ihu.edu.tr/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.12154/1853/huseyin_a.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
- ^ a b "2019 yılında 1668 terörist etkisiz hale getirildi". www.aa.com.tr.
- ^ a b https://www.sozcu.com.tr/2020/gundem/2020de-etkisiz-hale-getirilen-terorist-sayisini-acikladi-6189345/
- ^ a b "MSB: Yılbaşından itibaren etkisiz hale getirilen terörist sayısı 2 bin 360 oldu". www.aa.com.tr.
- ^ a b https://medyabar.com/haber/9021289/2021in-en-aci-tablosu-138-sehit-verdik#:~:text=i%C3%A7in%20resme%20t%C4%B1klay%C4%B1n-,www.terorsehitleri.com%20adl%C4%B1%20internet%20sitesinin%20derledi%C4%9Fi%20bilgilere%20g%C3%B6re%2C,%C3%BCzere%20toplam%20138%20%C5%9Fehit%20verdik.
- ^ a b https://medyabar.com/haber/13595169/2022-yilinin-en-aci-tablosu-162-sehit-verdik-116-cocuk-yetim-kaldi#:~:text=2022%20%2D%2021%3A00-,2022%20y%C4%B1l%C4%B1n%C4%B1n%20en%20ac%C4%B1%20tablosu%3A%20162,verdik%2C%20116%20%C3%A7ocuk%20yetim%20kald%C4%B1&text=2022%20y%C4%B1l%C4%B1%20i%C3%A7erisinde%20asker%2C%20polis,olmak%20%C3%BCzere%20162%20%C5%9Fehit%20verdik.
- ^ a b "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 November 2023. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ a b "MSB: Irak'ın ve Suriye'nin kuzeyi dahil son bir haftada 53 terörist etkisiz hale getirilmiştir". www.aa.com.tr.
- ^ a b "İşte Yıllara Göre Etkisiz Hale Getirilen PKK'lı". Memurlar (in Turkish). Retrieved 17 May 2023.
- ^ a b "Köy korucuları: Kürtleri PKK'dan koruyoruz". Ensonhaber (in Turkish). 3 January 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
- ^ a b "26 yılın kanlı bilançosu". 24 June 2010. Archived from the original on 29 October 2019.
- ^ a b "Pençe Kilit Harekatı bölgesinde 3 asker şehit oldu, 1 asker yaralandı - Gündem Haberi | Yirmidort". www.yirmidort.tv/. 27 November 2023.
- ^ https://www.ntv.com.tr/galeri/turkiye/sehit-tegmen-eril-alperen-emire-veda,Kw8YSvq_LEGqmHN2PIq9wQ/3gqz_G_30UaqbKxUJNmWxg
- ^ https://www.bbc.com/turkce/articles/cq51dnyrq5ro
- ^ https://www.trthaber.com/haber/gundem/pence-kilit-bolgesinde-6-asker-sehit-oldu-823252.html
- ^ "İşte Yıllara Göre Etkisiz Hale Getirilen PKK'lı - Foto Galeri - Memurlar.Net". www.memurlar.net.
- ^ 22,374 killed (1984–2015),[10] Archived 11 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine 9,500 killed (2015–2016), [11] 600 killed (2017),[12], 203,000 arrested (1984–2012),[13], 62,145 captured from 2003 to 2011, total of 31,874 reported killed and 203,000 arrested
- ^ "Erdoğan'dan 'milli seferberlik' ilanı". Bbc.com. 15 December 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
- ^ "İçişleri Bakanı Soylu: Son 9 ayda bin 68 terörist etkisiz hale getirildi – Haberler – Son Dakika Haberleri – AKŞAM". Aksam.com.tr. 11 June 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ a b "Nedim Şener, PKK'nın kanlı bilançosu". Hürriyet. 4 September 2020.
- ^ "MSB: 24 Temmuz 2015'ten bugüne kadar 34 bin 950 terörist etkisiz hale getirildi". www.aa.com.tr.
- ^ a b Gazetesi, Dünya (5 November 2018). "Afrin'de 4 bin 448 terörist etkisiz hale getirildi". www.dunya.com.
- ^ a b "MSB: 1 Ocak'tan itibaren etkisiz hale getirilen terörist sayısı 1976'ya ulaştı". www.aa.com.tr.
- ^ Visweswaran, Kamala, ed. (2013). Everyday occupations experiencing militarism in South Asia and the Middle East (1st ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0812207835.
- ^ Romano, David (2005). The Kurdish nationalist movement : opportunity, mobilization and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0521684262.
- ^ "Turkish Hezbollah (Hizbullah) / Kurdish Hezbollah". Turkish Weekly. Archived from the original on 2 January 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ^ "The real challenge to secular Turkey". The Economist. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ^ Dogan, Azimet (2008). Characteristics of Turkish Hezbollah: Implications for Policy and Programs. University of Baltimore.
- ^ T. Nugent, John. "The Defeat of Turkish Hizballah as a Model for Counter-Terrorism Strategy". the Department of National Security Affairs. Archived from the original on 20 January 2016. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ^ Jenkins, Gareth (2010). "A New Front in the PKK Insurgency". International Relations and Security Network (ISN). International Relations and Security Network (ISN). Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ^ "Greener Pastures for Bruce Fein: The Kurdish Conflict in Turkey". Asiantribune.com. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Turkey in fresh drive to end Kurdish conflict". Middle-east-online.com. 28 September 2010. Archived from the original on 3 April 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Turkey looks to Iraq to help end Kurdish conflict". Euronews.net. 16 June 2010. Archived from the original on 4 December 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ Head, Jonathan (13 November 2009). "Turkey unveils reforms for Kurds". BBC News. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ Kinzer, Stephen (3 January 2011). "Nudging Turkey toward peace at home". Guardian. London. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ Emre Uslu. "Would Turkey intervene in Syria?". Today's Zaman. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2012., 5 February 2011
- ^ "A Terrorist's Bitter End". Time. 1 March 1999. Archived from the original on 10 December 2008. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
- ^ Birch, Nicholas (20 October 2009). "Kurdish rebels surrender as Turkey reaches out — War in Context". Warincontext.org. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "The Kurdish Issue and Turkey's Future". Thewashingtonnote.com. Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ BBC News Turkey may ban Kurdish DTP party
- ^ "Kurdish rebels say they shot down Turkish helicopter". CNN.com. 7 March 1999. Archived from the original on 13 October 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Turkish military's best and brightest now behind bars". Reuters. 6 January 2012.
- ^ "Turkish crackdown fails to halt Kurdish rebellion". 1 November 1992. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012.
- ^ "Turkey and Iraq seek to end Kurdish rebellion". Thenational.ae. Archived from the original on 14 September 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Turkey says determined to uproot Kurdish rebellion". Kuna.net.kw. 25 June 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ Tore Kjeilen. "Kurds". Looklex.com. Archived from the original on 29 June 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "MINA Breaking News – Turkey marks 25 years of Kurd rebellion". Macedoniaonline.eu. 15 August 2009. Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ Saatci, Mustafa (2002). "Nation–states and ethnic boundaries: modern Turkish identity and Turkish–Kurdish conflict". Nations and Nationalism. 8 (4): 549–564. doi:10.1111/1469-8219.00065. S2CID 144368127.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan [PKK]". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
- ^ "TURKEY AND PKK TERRORISM" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 May 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "A Report on the PKK and Terrorism". Fas.org. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ a b McDowall, David. A Modern History of the Kurds. London 2005, pp 439 ff
- ^ "TÜRKİYE'DE HALEN FAALİYETLERİNE DEVAM EDEN BAŞLICA TERÖR ÖRGÜTLERİ". Archived from the original on 14 January 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
- ^ "Kurdish PKK leader: We will not withdraw our autonomy demand". Ekurd.net. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ O'Byrne, David (21 July 2010). "PKK 'would disarm for Kurdish rights in Turkey'". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ Bloomberg Sex Scandal Shake-Up Reinvigorates Turkish Opposition Party Archived 10 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine, 23 May 2010
- ^ Jenkins, Gareth. "PKK Expanding Urban Bombing Campaign in Western Turkey". Jamestown. Jamestown.org. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) – Norwegian Refugee Council. "The Kurdish conflict (1984–2006)". Internal-displacement.org. Archived from the original on 31 January 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Iraq warns Turkey over incursion". BBC News. 23 February 2008. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Focus – Iraqi Kurdistan: Kurdish locals divided over Turkey's anti-PKK air strikes". France 24. 28 September 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
- ^ "Iraq enforces border positions to prevent Turkish advance |". AW. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
- ^ PKK: Targets and activities, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Turkey), Federation of American Scientists.
- ^ Mutlu, Servet (2008). "Türkiye'nin güvenliği: Ayrılıkçı PKK Terörünün Ekonomik Maliyeti" [The security of Turkey: Economic cost of separatist PKK terrorism] (PDF) (in Turkish). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
- ^ a b "Turkey: The PKK and a Kurdish settlement" Archived 15 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine, International Crisis Group, 11 September 2012
- ^ Brauns, Nicholas; Kiechle, Brigitte (2010). PKK, Perspektiven des Kurdischen Freiheitskampfes: Zwischen Selbstbestimmung, EU und Islam. Stuttgart: Schmetterling Verlag. p. 45. ISBN 978-3896575647.
- ^ Bilgin, Fevzi; Sarihan, Ali, eds. (2013). Understanding Turkey's Kurdish Question. Lexington Books. p. 90. ISBN 9780739184035.
- ^ Balci, Ali (2016). The PKK-Kurdistan Workers' Party's Regional Politics: During and After the Cold War. Springer. p. 96. ISBN 978-3319422190.
- ^ a b Hannum, Hurst (1996). Autonomy, sovereignty, and self-determination: the accommodation of conflicting rights (Rev. ed.). Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 187–9. ISBN 978-0-8122-1572-4.
- ^ Bartkus, Viva Ona, The Dynamic of Secession, (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 90–91.
- ^ Çelik, Yasemin (1999). Contemporary Turkish foreign policy (1. publ. ed.). Westport, Conn.: Praeger. p. 3. ISBN 9780275965907.
- ^ Baser, Bahar (2016). Diasporas and Homeland Conflicts: A Comparative Perspective. Routledge. ISBN 978-1317151296.
- ^ Toumani, Meline. Minority Rules, The New York Times, 17 February 2008
- ^ Aslan, Senem (2014). Nation Building in Turkey and Morocco. Cambridge University Press. p. 134. ISBN 978-1107054608.
- ^ Joseph, J. (2006). Turkey and the European Union internal dynamics and external challenges. Basingstoke [England]: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 100. ISBN 978-0230598584.
- ^ Eder, Mine (2016). "Turkey". In Lust, Ellen (ed.). The Middle East (14 ed.). CQ Press. ISBN 978-1506329307.
The Turkish military responded with a ferocious counterinsurgency campaign that led to the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, most of them Turkish Kurdish civilians, and the displacement of more than three million Kurds from southeastern Turkey.
- ^ a b c "European Court of Human Rights: Turkey Ranks First in Violations in between 1959–2011". Bianet. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
- ^ a b c Annual report (PDF) (Report). 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Case of Benzer and others v. Turkey (PDF) (Report). The European Court of Human Rights. 24 March 2014. p. 57. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
- ^ a b Reidy, Aisling. "The prohibition of torture" (PDF). Council of Europe. pp. 11, 13. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
- ^ Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch. 1998. p. 7. ISBN 9781564321909.
- ^ a b McKiernan, Kevin (2006). The Kurds: a people in search of their homeland (1st ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 130. ISBN 978-0312325466.
- ^ a b Neuberger, Benyamin (2014). Bengio, Ofra (ed.). Kurdish awakening : nation building in a fragmented homeland. [S.l.]: Univ Of Texas Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0292758131.
- ^ a b Gunes, Cengiz; Zeydanlioğlu, Welat (2014). The Kurdish question in Turkey: new perspectives on violence, representation, and reconciliation. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. p. 98. ISBN 978-1135140632.
- ^ a b "Police arrest and assistance of a lawyer" (PDF).
- ^ a b "Justice Comes from European Court for a Kurdish Journalist". Retrieved 1 January 2016.
- ^ Whitman, Lois (1993). Laber, Jeri (ed.). The Kurds of Turkey: killings, disappearances and torture. New York: Human Rights Watch. ISBN 978-1564320964.
- ^ Panico, Christopher (1999). Turkey : violations of free expression in Turkey. New York: Human Rights Watch. pp. 37–8. ISBN 978-1564322265.
- ^ Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove; Fernandes, Desmond (2008). "Kurds in Turkey and in (Iraqi) Kurdistan: A Comparison of Kurdish Educational Language Policy in Two Situations of Occupation". Genocide Studies and Prevention. p. 46.
- ^ a b "PKK claims deadly suicide bombing at Turkish police station". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ a b c "Child soldiers in ISIS, PKK, Boko Haram…" (PDF). Hrwf.eu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "Conflict Profile: Turkey" (PDF). Political Economy Research Institute. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
- ^ Phillips, David L. (18 April 2008). "Disarming, Demobilizing, and Reintegrating the Kurdistan Worker's Party" (PDF). American Foreign Policy Interests. 30 (2): 70–87. doi:10.1080/10803920802022670. ISSN 1080-3920. S2CID 154023896.
- ^ Weiner, Tim (20 February 1999). "U.S. Helped Turkey Find and Capture Kurd Rebel". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
- ^ Miron Varouhakis. "Greek Intelligence and the Capture of PKK Leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999" (PDF). cia.gov.
- ^ a b c d e "PKK has repeatedly asked for a ceasefire of peace since their establishment in the past 17 years". Aknews.com. 6 November 2010. Archived from the original on 12 December 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ a b Özcan, Ali Kemal (2012),p.206
- ^ "PKK claims killing of Turkish policemen in revenge for Syria border attack – Türkiye News". Hürriyet Daily News. 22 July 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
- ^ a b "PKK leader calls for ceasefire in Turkey". Al Jazeera. 21 March 2013. Archived from the original on 21 March 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ "U.N. Accuses Turkey of Killing Hundreds of Kurds". The New York Times. 10 March 2017.
- ^ Turkey: Events of 2016. Human Rights Watch. 12 January 2017.
- ^ "Report on the human rights situation in South-East Turkey" (PDF). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. February 2017.
Some of the most extensively damaged sites are Nusaybin, Derik and Dargeçit (Mardin); Sur, Bismil and Dicle (Diyarbakır); and Cizre and Silopi (Şırnak).
- ^ a b c d e f g "Abdullah Öcalan and the development of the PKK". Xs4all.nl. Archived from the original on 15 December 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ A modern history of the Kurds, By David McDowall, page 415, at Google Books, accessed on 1 May 2011
- ^ Gil, Ata. "La Turquie à marche forcée," Le Monde diplomatique, February 1981.
- ^ Today's Zaman Fears of suicide prompt Evren family to remove coup leader's firearms Archived 20 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine, 19 January 2012
- ^ The Economist Erdogan pulls it off, 13 September 2010
- ^ Today's Zaman 1980 coup leader's defense arguments not legally sound Archived 20 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine, 21 March 2012.
- ^ Bozarslan, Hamit (1 June 2012). "Between integration, autonomization and radicalization. Hamit Bozarslan on the Kurdish Movement and the Turkish Left. Interview by Marlies Casier and Olivier Grojean". European Journal of Turkish Studies. Social Sciences on Contemporary Turkey (14). doi:10.4000/ejts.4663. ISSN 1773-0546.
- ^ "Gundem-online.com". Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
- ^ Report of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey: File of Torture: Deaths in Detention Places or Prisons (12 September 1980 to 12 September 1995), Ankara, March 1996 ISBN 9757217093, page 68
- ^ a b c d e f Phillips, David L. (5 July 2017). The Kurdish Spring: A New Map of the Middle East. Routledge. ISBN 9781351480376.
- ^ a b Casier, Marlies; Jongerden, Joost (13 September 2010). Nationalisms and Politics in Turkey: Political Islam, Kemalism and the Kurdish Issue. Routledge. ISBN 9781136938672.
- ^ White, Paul J. (2000). Primitive Rebels Or Revolutionary Modernizers?: The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey. Zed Books. ISBN 9781856498227.
- ^ Öcalan, Abdullah (2006). PKK'ya Dayatılan Tasfiyecilik ve Tasfiyeciligin Tasfiyesi. Turkey. p. 365.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b Stanton, Jessica A. (26 September 2016). Violence and Restraint in Civil War: Civilian Targeting in the Shadow of International Law. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316720592.
- ^ a b Turkey: Government Under Growing Pressure To Meet Kurdish Demands, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 17 August 2005
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Chronology of the Important Events in the World/PKK Chronology (1976–2006)". Turkish Weekly. Archived from the original on 6 October 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ en.internationalism.org, 10 April 2013, Internationalism is the only response to the Kurdish issue
- ^ Orhan, Mehmet (2016). Political Violence and Kurds in Turkey: Fragmentations, Mobilizations, Participations & Repertoires. Routledge. p. 183. ISBN 9781138918870.
- ^ Today's Zaman, 11 April 2012, Prosecutors look into links between suspicious army deaths Archived 9 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Özcan, Ali Kemal (12 October 2012). Turkey's Kurds: A Theoretical Analysis of the PKK and Abdullah Ocalan. Routledge. p. 205. ISBN 978-1-134-21130-2.
- ^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | Chronology for Kurds in Turkey". Refworld. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
- ^ Michael M. Gunter, "Turgut Özal and the Kurdish question", in Marlies Casier, Joost Jongerden (eds, 2010), Nationalisms and Politics in Turkey: Political Islam, Kemalism and the Kurdish Issue, Taylor & Francis, 9 August 2010. pp. 94–5
- ^ Gunes, Cengiz (11 January 2013). The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey: From Protest to Resistance. Routledge. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-136-58798-6.
- ^ "Secret witness reveals identity, shady ties between PKK and Ergenekon". Today's Zaman. 6 November 2012. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012.
- ^ 1998 Turkey Human Rights Report (PDF) (Report). Ankara: Human Rights Foundation of Turkey. 2000. ISBN 975-7217-25-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2009.
- ^ Turkey's war on the Kurds Archived 14 July 2012 at archive.today, 13 August 2005
- ^ "U.S. Cluster Bombs For Turkey?". Human Rights Watch. HRW.org. December 1994. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
Other air strikes reported by the Turkish armed forces include: C July 26, 1994 on Mezi district, killing seventy-nine.
- ^ Laizer, S. J. (1996). Martyrs, Traitors, and Patriots: Kurdistan After the Gulf War. Zed Books. pp. 149–150. ISBN 978-1-85649-396-3.
- ^ a b Gunes, Cengiz (2013), p.134
- ^ Hürriyet Daily News History of PKK in Turkey, 14 September 2009
- ^ a b c Group, Taylor Francis (2004). Europa World Year Book 2004 (page 4227). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781857432558. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ Weiner, Tim (20 February 1999). "U.S. Helped Turkey Find and Capture Kurd Rebel". New York Times. Retrieved 15 December 2007.
- ^ "On this day – February 17". News24. News24.com. 17 February 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ a b c d "PKK/KONGRA-GEL and Terrorism". Ataa.org. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ a b [14], June 2007 Archived 23 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "PŞK KDP PARTİYA ŞOREŞA KÜDİSTAN (KÜRDİSTAN DEVRİM PARTİSİ)". Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
- ^ Huggler, Justin (30 August 2006). "The Big Question: Who is behind the bombings in Turkey, and what do they want?". The Independent. London. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Turkey Country Assessment" (PDF). Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Turkish Hezbollah (Hizbullah) / Kurdish Hezbollah". Turkish Weekly. Archived from the original on 2 January 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
- ^ McGregor, Andrew. "The Jamestown Foundation: The Shaykh Said Revolt and Ankara's Return to the Past in its Struggle with the Kurds". Jamestown. Jamestown.org. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Armed Conflicts Report". Archived from the original on 7 February 2011. Retrieved 14 March 2011., March 2003
- ^ "Turkey country profile". BBC News. 14 September 2010.
- ^ a b Leading PKK Commander Cemil Bayik Crosses into Iran, 20 May 2008
- ^ "New PKK Leadership Takes Over Insurgency". Menewsline.com. 25 May 2008. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ European Court Of Human Rights CASE OF HADEP AND DEMİR v. TURKEY, 14 December 2010
- ^ "HADEP History: The People's Democracy Party". Ofkparis.org. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 August 2008.
- ^ "Court evidence reveals KCK terror network is worse than PKK". Today's Zaman. 20 June 2010. Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ a b Nedim Şener (24 June 2011). "26 yılın kanlı bilançosu". Milliyet (in Turkish).
- ^ a b "Turkey: Kurdistan (entire conflict)". Ucdp.uu.se. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ Romano, David; Romano, Thomas G. Strong Professor of Middle East Politics David (2 March 2006). The Kurdish Nationalist Movement: Opportunity, Mobilization and Identity. Cambridge University Press. p. 59. ISBN 9780521850414.
- ^ a b c d Jamestown PKK Changes Battlefield Tactics to Force Turkey into Negotiations, 24 October 2007
- ^ Jamestown Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan (PKK) (Turkey), GROUPS – EUROPE – ACTIVE
- ^ "Turkish resort blast kills five". BBC News. 16 July 2005.
- ^ "Kurds 'deny' Turkey resort bomb". BBC News. 17 July 2005.
- ^ "Fresh violence erupts in Turkey | News". Al Jazeera. 2 April 2006. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ Davies, Elizabeth (30 August 2006). "Kurd rebels vow to turn Turkey 'into hell'". The Independent. London.
- ^ "One injured in Turkey bomb blast". BBC News. 30 August 2006.
- ^ a b "Bombalı saldırıda sürpriz tanık". Hürriyet Daily News (in Turkish). 2 June 2007. Retrieved 2 June 2007.
- ^ "Anafartalar saldırısında ölü sayısı 7'ye yükseldi". Hürriyet Daily News (in Turkish). 7 June 2007. Retrieved 8 June 2007.
- ^ "8'inci kurban". Hürriyet Daily News (in Turkish). 19 June 2007. Retrieved 19 June 2007.
- ^ "Anafartalar'da ölü sayısı 9'a çıktı". Hürriyet Daily News (in Turkish). 4 July 2007. Retrieved 4 July 2007.
- ^ "PKK Suspects Held Over Foiled Ankara Bomb". Dalje.com. 15 September 2007. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Seven Turks killed in rebel raid". BBC News. 4 June 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2008.
- ^ Torchia, Christopher (8 June 2007). "Iraqi Kurds: Turkey Shells Across Border". The Washington Post.
- ^ a b Jamestown TURKEY PREPARES FOR CROSS-BORDER MILITARY OPERATION
- ^ "Turkish MPs back attacks in Iraq". BBC News. 18 October 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2008.
- ^ "Turkish raids along Iraqi border," BBC News, 24 October 2007
- ^ a b Bendern, Paul de (22 February 2008). "Turkey army launches land offensive into Iraq". Reuters. Retrieved 22 February 2008.
- ^ "Turkish air force in major attack on Kurdish camps". Flight Global. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Turkish jets bomb Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq". Jerusalem Post. 15 January 2008. Archived from the original on 16 September 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2008.
- ^ "Turkish incursion into Northern Iraq: Military Fiasco, Political Debacle – The Bullet". Socialist Project. 13 March 2008. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
- ^ "Hem karadan hem havadan", Hurriyet Daily News, 27 Nisan 2008
- ^ BBC News "Istanbul rocked by twin bombings", 28 July 2008
- ^ The New York Times "15 Turkish Soldiers Dead in Fighting With Rebels", 4 October 2008
- ^ "Turkey counts cost of conflict as Kurdish militant battle rages on". Todayonline.com. Archived from the original on 11 January 2021. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
- ^ "Critical week for Turkey as Kurdish initiative comes to Parliament". Today's Zaman. 9 November 2009. Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ Marcus, Aliza (12 July 2010). "Troubles in Turkey's Backyard". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
- ^ "Outline of Kurdish initiative emerges at security summit". Today's Zaman. 18 September 2009. Archived from the original on 27 November 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ a b "Turkey's Kurd initiative goes up in smoke". Asia Times. 16 December 2009. Archived from the original on 18 December 2009. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Turkish court bans pro-Kurd party". BBC News. 11 December 2009.
- ^ "Dozens of Turkey's pro Kurdish BDP members arrested". Ekurd.net. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ Arsu, Sebnem (8 December 2009). "Soldiers Killed in Ambush in Northern Turkey". The New York Times.
- ^ "PKK has repeatedly asked for a ceasefire of peace since their establishment in the past 17 years". AKNEWS.com. 6 November 2010. Archived from the original on 25 November 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "4 Turkish soldiers killed by Kurdish rebels". People's Daily. 1 May 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "PKK steps up attacks in Turkey". Hurriyet Daily News. 30 May 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "7 troops killed in terrorist attack". Todayszaman.com. 1 June 2010. Archived from the original on 12 October 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "PKK attack kills 8 Turkish soldiers". World Bulletin. 19 June 2010. Archived from the original on 21 June 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Erdogan Says PKK Will "Drown in Blood" After Deaths (Update1)". Businessweek. 20 June 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2011.[dead link]
- ^ "Seven soldiers killed, seventeen wounded in clashes in SE Turkey". Hurriyet Daily News. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "PKK says offers Turkey disarmament "with conditions"". World Bulletin. 21 July 2010. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Turkish army kills 46 PKK militants in last month". World Bulletin. 14 July 2010. Archived from the original on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "PKK: Twelve Turkish soldiers killed in retaliatory attacks". firatnews.com. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ Champion, Marc (3 February 2011). "PKK Revokes Cease-Fire in Turkey". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Three killed in clash in Southeast Turkey". Hurriyet Daily News. 15 March 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Riots in South-Eastern Turkey after Military Operations". Bianet — Bagimsiz Iletisim Agi. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ Hurriyet Daily News Thousands detained in eastern Turkey since March, 16 May 2011
- ^ "AK Party won, now Kurds win; here's why by Abdulla Hawez Abdulla". TodaysZaman. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ "Kurds raise profile, gain seats in Turkish assembly". Reuters. 14 June 2011.
- ^ "CHP deputy urges party to boycott Parliament in protest of deputy ban". Today's Zaman. 23 June 2011. Archived from the original on 25 January 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
- ^ "Kurdish rebels kill 3 Turkish soldiers". Associated Press. 1 August 2011. Archived from the original on 1 September 2011.
- ^ "Turkey says 90–100 Kurd rebels killed in north Iraq raids". Reuters. 23 August 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
- ^ "Turkish army: 90–100 Kurd rebels killed in n. Iraq raids – Breaking News – Jerusalem Post". Jpost.com. 23 August 2011. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "How Kurdish PKK Militants Are Exploiting the Crisis in Syria to Achieve Regional Autonomy". Jamestown. The Jamestown Foundation. 6 April 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
- ^ "26 Turkish soldiers killed in Kurdish attacks". Zee News. 19 October 2011. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ "42 Turkish soldiers killed, wounded in Kurdish rebels attack". kuna.net. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ "CRS Report: Terrorism: Middle Eastern Groups and State Sponsors, August 27, 1998". Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "Analysts link PKK upsurge to Syrian war". Financial Times. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ The Miami Herald Assad hands control of Syria's Kurdish areas to PKK, sparking outrage in Turkey, 26 July 2012
- ^ Turkey accuses Assad of arming PKK Archived 8 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, 9 August 2012
- ^ "Bloodiest PKK Fight in Years Kill Dozens, 6 August 2012". Turkish Weekly. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
- ^ "Kurdish campaign in Turkey provides". 17 August 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2012.[dead link], 17 August 2012
- ^ "Eight killed in bombing in Turkey". CNN. 20 August 2012. Archived from the original on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ "Yes, we negotiate with Öcalan" (in Turkish). Ntvmsnbc. December 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ "Kurdish activists killed in Paris". BBC News. 10 January 2013. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
- ^ "Here's what was talked in İmralı". Milliyet (in Turkish). 5 March 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ "Turkish capital Ankara hit by twin explosions". BBC. 20 March 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ "Kurdish Group to Pull Armed Units from Turkey". The Wall Street Journal. 25 April 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
- ^ "Kandil açıklaması meclis'te tansiyonu yükseltti" (in Turkish). İnternethaber. 25 April 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
- ^ "Kandil'in Kararına Meclis'ten İlk Tepkiler" (in Turkish). Haber3. 25 April 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
- ^ "Silahlara veda" (in Turkish). T24. 25 April 2013. Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
- ^ "Anatomy of Protests against the invasion of Kobani". DailySabah. 18 October 2014. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
- ^ "Kurdish Hizbullah pushed back to the scene". DailySabah. 27 October 2014. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
- ^ "Three Turkish soldiers killed in southeast Turkey". DailySabah. 25 October 2014. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
- ^ Richard Spencer (25 June 2015). "Turkey accused of allowing Islamic State fighters to cross its border in Kobane attack". The Telegraph.
- ^ "KCK official says PKK not responsible for murders of 2 Turkish policemen". Today's Zaman. 29 July 2015. Archived from the original on 29 July 2015.
- ^ "Turkish jets target Kurds in Iraq, Islamic State militants in Syria". Fox News. Archived from the original on 29 July 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- ^ "We really can't succeed against ISIL without Turkey: US". Hurriyet Daily News. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ "Turkey Says It Struck Kurdish Forces in Syria". The Wall Street Journal. 27 October 2015.
- ^ "The hatred never went away". Economist. 12 September 2015.
- ^ "'Lynching Campaign' Targets Kurds in Turkey, HDP Offices Attacked". Armenian Weekly. 9 September 2015.
- ^ "Turkey Kurds: Many dead in Cizre violence as MPs' march blocked". BBC News. 10 September 2015.
- ^ "Turkey should ensure immediate access to Cizre by independent observers". Council of Europe. 11 September 2015.
- ^ "Scores killed in clashes between Turkish forces and Kurdish rebels". Al Jazeera. 29 September 2015.
- ^ "Turkey's Campaign Against Kurdish Militants Takes Toll on Civilians". The New York Times. 30 December 2015.
- ^ "Turkey: Mounting Security Operation Deaths". Human Rights Watch. 22 December 2015.
- ^ "Kurdish militants reportedly shoot down Turkish security forces helicopter". The Washington Post. 14 May 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
- ^ "PKK ve 9 örgütün oluşturduğu grup o saldırıyı üstlendi". Odatv.com. 8 May 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
- ^ "HBDH claims responsibility for the action in Giresun". Firat News Agency. 8 May 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
- ^ "HBDH: 11 riot police killed in Trabzon". Firat News Agency. 21 July 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
- ^ "Three police officers killed in attack in Turkey's north". Doğan News Agency. 19 July 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
- ^ "Erdogan: Operation in Syria's Afrin has begun". Al Jazeera.
- ^ Turkish army hit village in Syria's Afrin with suspected gas: Kurdish YPG, Observatory. Reuters. 16 February 2018.
- ^ "Turkey will drain 'terror swamp' in Iraq's Qandil, Erdogan says". Reuters. 11 June 2018.
- ^ Leezenberg, Michiel (2015). "Politics, Economy, and Ideology in Iraqi Kurdistan Since 2003: Enduring Trends and Novel Challenges". The Arab Studies Journal. 23 (1): 154–183. JSTOR 44744903.
- ^ "Trump calls Turkey assault on Syria a 'bad idea' as Kurds report civilian deaths", Fox News, 9 October 2019.
- ^ "As Turkey attacks Kurds in Syria, Trump says any ISIS escapees are Europe's problem". CBS News. 10 October 2019.
- ^ "Turkey says militants executed 13, including soldiers, police, in Iraq". Reuters. 15 February 2021. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
- ^ a b Gall, Carlotta (15 February 2021). "Deaths of Soldiers and Policemen Held by Kurdish Guerrillas Roil Turkish Politics". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
- ^ "CHP leader says Erdoğan is responsible for the deaths of 13 security personnel in Iraq". Bianet – Bagimsiz Iletisim Agi. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
- ^ "HSM: İşgalci Türk devleti esirleri imha etmek için saldırdı". ANF News (in Turkish). Retrieved 2 March 2021.
- ^ Zaman, Amberin (15 February 2021). "Blinken walks back State Department ambiguity over Turkish hostages killed in Iraq". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ Saymaz, İsmail (16 February 2021). "Şehidin babası: Bu insanlık dışı bir şey". Sözcü. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ Evin, Mehveş (26 February 2021). "The killing of captives in Garê and its aftermath". Duvar English. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
- ^ Tugal, Cihan (26 May 2022). "Opinion | Turkey Shows What NATO Really Is". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ "NATO deal with Sweden and Finland: Ankara celebrates 'national victory,' worries mount in Stockholm". Le Monde. 29 June 2022.
- ^ "Sweden refuses to deny deportations to Turkey as part of NATO deal". The Local. 3 July 2022.
- ^ a b c d Aliza Marcus Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence, 2007
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Kurds in Turkey – page 16" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ a b "Protesting as a Terrorist Offens" (PDF). ifex.org. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
- ^ "MOBILIZING THE KURDS IN TURKEY: NEWROZ AS A MYTH" (PDF). etd.lib.metu.edu.tr. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
- ^ "Turkey's Kurdish Policy in the Nineties". Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ "Turkey: PKK have killed 14,000 since 1984". Aa.com.tr.
- ^ Holding, APA Information Agency, APA. "PKK have killed 14,000 since 1984". En.apa.az.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "2000 Yılında MEB-Öğretmenlere Yönelik Çalışmalar" (in Turkish). Ministry of Education. 2000. Archived from the original on 1 October 2005. Retrieved 12 October 2008.
- ^ a b Turkey, US, and the PKK Archived 13 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine, 21 December 2007
- ^ "The Kurds in Turkey". Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
- ^ Derk Kinnane-Roelofsma. "Islam, the Kurds, and Turkey's problems at home and with the neighbors". Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ "28 yıllık terörün insani ve mali bilançosu.../Güncel/milliyet blog". Milliyet. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
- ^ a b "The prohibition of torture" (PDF) (Torturing). 2003: 11, 13. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch. 1995. p. 7. ISBN 9780300065466.
- ^ a b Los Angeles Times TURKEY: Kurdish teenager convicted as terrorist for attending demonstration
- ^ a b "Humanitarian Law Project v. U.S. Dept. of Justice" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "Federal Judge Rules Part Of Patriot Act Unconstitutional". Associated Press. 22 January 2004. Archived from the original on 11 September 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2013.
- ^ "Conflict Studies Journal at the University of New Brunswick". Lib.unb.ca. Retrieved 29 August 2010.
- ^ Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) – Norwegian Refugee Council. "Need for continued improvement in response to protracted displacement". Internal-displacement.org. Archived from the original on 31 January 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ Hürriyet Daily News Sebahat Tuncel'den tartışılacak sözler, 1 July 2011
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20160207064531/http://www.dha.com.tr/iraka-yapilan-en-buyuk-kara-harekati_223858.html
- ^ ÇEKİRGE, Fatih (12 July 2010). "Öfkenin doldurduğu şarjör". www.hurriyet.com.tr.
- ^ https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1429002
- ^ "Kan Uykusu destanı!/Güncel/milliyet blog". blog.milliyet.com.tr.
- ^ "'Özel Harp işiydi ve muhteşemdi': 6-7 Eylül Pogromu ve bir Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu portresi". birgun.net.
- ^ "Turkish jets 'neutralize' 6 PKK terrorists in N. Iraq". www.aa.com.tr.
- ^ "Pençe-2 harekatı başladı!". takvim.com.tr.
- ^ "Terör yuvalarına 'Pençe' darbesi". www.aa.com.tr.
- ^ "Twenty-five killed in clashes between Turkish soldiers, PKK". Monsters and Critics. 10 May 2008. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "38 killed in PKK attack on Turkish border posts". Thaindian News. Archived from the original on 14 August 2018. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "Turkey (2003 — First deaths for this phase of the conflict)". Armed Conflicts Report. January 2010. Archived from the original on 7 February 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "On the eve of Nowruz festivals…Afrin witnesses arrests against its residents by the factions of "Olive Branch" on charge of celebrating and setting fire in the festival's anniversary - The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights".
- ^ https://www.sozcu.com.tr/2022/gundem/zeytin-dali-harekatinin-4-yili-6900147/
- ^ https://www.aa.com.tr/tr/gundem/suriyenin-kuzeyindeki-operasyonlarla-6-yilda-yaklasik-17-bin-terorist-etkisiz-hale-getirildi/2749677#:~:text=Harekatla%207%20bin%20172%20ter%C3%B6rist%20etkisiz%20hale%20getirildi&text=Zeytin%20Dal%C4%B1%20harekat%C4%B1yla%207%20bin,el%20yap%C4%B1m%C4%B1%20patlay%C4%B1c%C4%B1%20imha%20edildi.
- ^ "April 2018 Large Drop In Violence In Iraq". Musingsoniraq.blogspot.co.uk. 2 May 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
- ^ "March 2018 The Return Of The Islamic State Insurgency". Musingsoniraq.blogspot.co.uk. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
- ^ "Pençe-Kartal Operasyonu'nda 81 hedef imha edildi". www.sozcu.com.tr. 15 June 2020.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Pençe Kartal-2 Harekatı sırasında şehit olan askerler son yolculuğuna uğurlandı". www.ntv.com.tr.
- ^ a b c d Joost Jongerden. The Settlement Issue in Turkey and the Kurds – an Analysis of Spatial Policies, Modernity and War: p. 38. 2007.
- ^ a b c Üngör, Ugur Ümit (1 March 2012). The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913–1950. OUP Oxford. pp. 153–154. ISBN 978-0-19-164076-6.
- ^ Rouleau, Eric (November–December 2000). "Turkey's Dream of Democracy". Foreign Affairs. 79 (6): 100–114. doi:10.2307/20049970. JSTOR 20049970. Archived from the original on 7 June 2007.
- ^ Human Rights Watch. HRW. 2002. p. 7.
- ^ Abdulla, Jamal Jalal (7 February 2012). The Kurds: A Nation on the Way to Statehood. AuthorHouse. p. 36. ISBN 9781467879729. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
- ^ "Police arrest and assistance of a lawyer" (PDF). European Court of Human Rights. p. 1. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
- ^ "Justice Comes from European Court for a Kurdish Journalist". Kurdish Human Rights Project. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
- ^ a b Belge, Ceren (2016). "Civilian victimization and the politics of information in the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey". World Politics. 67 (2): 275–306. doi:10.1017/S0043887115000398. S2CID 155139277.
- ^ "Unjust, Restrictive, and Inconsistent: The Impact of Turkey's Compensation Law with Respect to Internally Displaced People: Impact of the ECtHR on provisions for Turkey's displaced". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
- ^ "Turkish military guilty of killing family of 9, blamed on PKK for 20 years". Rudaw. Rudaw. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
- ^ "Refworld | Chronology for Kurds in Turkey".
- ^ Ron, James; Watch (Organization), Human Rights (1995). Weapons Transfers and Violations of the Laws of War in Turkey. Human Rights Watch. ISBN 9781564321619.
- ^ "Weapons transfers and violations of the laws of war in Turkey". Human Rights Watch. November 1995. ISBN 1-56432-161-4.
- ^ "Variant". Variant.org.uk. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
- ^ "Kurdistanica". 31 July 1999. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
- ^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | Turkey: Status of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Turkish Hezbollah; situation and treatment of members, supporters and sympathizers of these parties (2006–2007)". Refworld. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
- ^ "Fresh evidence of casualties underscores need for impartial investigation into Turkish airstrikes in Kandil Mountains". Amnesty International. 11 August 2015.
- ^ "Turkey eases curfew after assault on PKK rebels leaves Cizre in ruins". Theguardian.com. Associated Press. 2 March 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "Cizre in ruins as Turkey lifts curfew on Kurdish towns – News – Al Jazeera". Aljazeera.com. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ Ben Thomas (3 December 2019). "Eight children among 11 killed in Turkish shelling on Syria town held by Kurds, monitor says". The Japan Times. Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on 3 December 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ Letter to Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema, Human Rights Watch.
- ^ a b Turkey: Human Rights Developments, Human Rights Watch.
- ^ Steinvorth, Daniel; Musharbash, Yassin (12 August 2010). "Shocking Images of Dead Kurdish Fighters: Turkey Accused of Using Chemical Weapons against PKK". Spiegel Online. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
- ^ "Dışişleri'nden 'kimyasal silah' iddialarına ret haberi Siyaset haberleri Haber7 haber7.com – Güncel Haberler, Son dakika haberleri – Bu noktada haber var" (in Turkish). Haber7.com. 14 August 2010. Retrieved 29 August 2010.
- ^ David L., Phillips (2011). From Bullets to Ballots: Violent Muslim Movements in Transition. Transaction Publishers. p. 121. ISBN 9781412812016.
- ^ "Protesting as a Terrorist Offense: The Arbitrary Use of Terrorism Laws to Prosecute and Incarcerate Demonstrators in Turkey". Human Rights Watch. 1 November 2010. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
- ^ a b c d e "THE KURDS OF TURKEY: KILLINGS, DISAPPEARANCES AND TORTURE" (PDF). HRW: The Kurds of Turkey: Killings, Disappearances and Torture: 2. 1993.
- ^ "Turkey". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
- ^ "ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES IN TURKEY – SCF" (PDF). Enforced Disappearances in Turkey. June 2017.
- ^ "Karakol yakını kazıdan 12 insan iskeleti çıktı". Sabah (in Turkish). Retrieved 9 January 2019.
- ^ "Karakol bahçesinden 7 kişinin kemikleri çıktı | BirGün Gazetesi" (in Turkish). Retrieved 9 January 2019.
- ^ "U.S. Policy In The Mediterranean: Managing The Greece, Turkey, Cyprus Triangle" (PDF). United States House of Representatives. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 January 2007. Retrieved 1 September 2006.
- ^ "Turkey: No Answers for Kurdish Victims". Human Rights Watch. 5 November 2015.
- ^ Turkey campaign (Chapter 2), Amnesty International, 1997. Archived 14 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Time for Justice Ending Impunity for Killings and Disappearances in 1990s Turkey". Human Rights Watch (HRW). 3 September 2012.
- ^ "Report on the human rights situation in South-East Turkey" (PDF). The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF).
- ^ Meral Duzgun (10 June 2013). "Turkey: a history of sexual violence". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
- ^ a b "Report on the human rights situation in South-East Turkey" (PDF). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ Orhun, Mehmet (2016). Political Violence and Kurds in Turkey. Routledge. p. 184. ISBN 9781138918870.
- ^ Tomson, Chris (29 October 2016). "VIDEO: Turkish Army executes two female PKK prisoners of war". Al-Masdar News. Archived from the original on 10 January 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
- ^ Klett, Leah MarieAnn (15 October 2019). "Kurdish female politician, who worked to unite Christians, Arabs, Kurds, executed in Syria". www.christianpost.com. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
- ^ "Looking back at the Susurluk scandal 21 years on". Ahval. Archived from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ "Bit by bit, ugly facts come out". The Economist. 29 January 1998. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ Balci, Kemal (30 August 1998). "State Gangs Like a Garbage Dump Waiting to Explode". Hürriyet. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 1 March 2021. Alt URL Archived 5 May 2021 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Bovenkerk, Frank; Yeşilgöz, Yücel (2004). "The Turkish Mafia and the State" (PDF). In Cyrille Fijnaut, Letizia Paoli (ed.). Organized Crime in Europe: Concepts, Patterns and Control Policies in the European Union and Beyond. Springer. p. 588. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-2765-9. ISBN 1-4020-2615-3.
- ^ "Violations in Afrin | Turkish-backed factions plant Hashish in Raju district". Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. 27 February 2021. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ "Condemnation of Ankara terror attack grows". Aa.com.tr. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "Turkey". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "Serxwebûn, issue of June 1987" (in Turkish). Serxwebûn. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
- ^ Aliza, Marcus (2007). The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence. NY, USA: New York University Press. pp. 115–120.
- ^ a b Satana, Nil S. (2012). "The Kurdish Issue in June 2011 Elections: Continuity or Change in Turkey's Democratization?". Turkish Studies. 13 (2): 169–189. doi:10.1080/14683849.2012.686575. hdl:11693/21264. S2CID 55920795.
- ^ a b c "Rights Group Decries Missed Opportunity to Prosecute PKK Leader". Human Rights Watch. 20 January 1999. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ Stanton, Jessica A. (26 September 2016). Violence and Restraint in Civil War: Civilian Targeting in the Shadow of International Law. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316720592. Retrieved 5 January 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ Turkey campaign (Chapter 3), Amnesty International, 1997. Archived 8 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Turkey campaign, Amnesty International, 1996. Archived 7 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b "PKK's". Doğruhaber Gazetesi – haber, haberler, sondakika haber, haberleri. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "Terrorism Threat Against Humanity and Democracy The PKK Case" (PDF).
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Mehmet Ali Birand, APO ve PKK. Istanbul 1992
- ^ Özçağlayan, Mehmet; Yavuz Çakıcı, Filiz (1 August 2019). "Gramsci'nin Hegemonya Kuramı Bağlamında Nükleer Karşıtı Hareketin Milliyet Gazetesindeki Temsiliyeti (11 Ocak 1999-25 Temmuz 2000)". İnsan ve İnsan Dergisi: 633–671. doi:10.29224/insanveinsan.453020. ISSN 2148-7537.
- ^ A.A (26 January 2009). "Terör kurbanları 22 yıl sonra anıldı". www.hurriyet.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 8 March 2020.
- ^ O'Ballance, E. (18 December 1995). The Kurdish Struggle, 1920–94. Springer. ISBN 9780230377424. Retrieved 5 January 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Kurdish Rebels Kill 20 In 2 Villages in Turkey". The New York Times. Reuters. 10 July 1987. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ Serxwebûn, August 1987, p. 2.
- ^ "HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH WORLD REPORT 1990 An Annual Review of Developments and the Bush Administration's Policy on Human Rights Worldwide January 1991". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 5 January 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ "PKK (Partiya Karkeren Kürdistan-Kürdistan İşçi Partisi): TERÖR ÖRGÜTÜ KRONOLOJİSİ (1976–2006)" (PDF). 20 January 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 January 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
- ^ a b c d e "THE KURDS OF TURKEY: KILLINGS, DISAPPEARANCES AND TORTURE" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. March 1993.
- ^ PKK has repeatedly asked for a ceasefire of peace since their establishment in the past 17 years Archived 2011-11-25 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The European court of Human rights judgement" (PDF). ETCHR. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
- ^ Nachmani, Amikam (2009). Turkey: facing a new millennium: Coping with intertwined conflicts. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781847795595.
- ^ Serxwebûn, November 1993, p. 25.
- ^ a b c "Letter to Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema". Human Rights Watch. 20 November 1998. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ Serxwebûn, January 1994, p. 23
- ^ "Hamzalı katliamı unutulmadı". Sabah. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "13 shoppers die in Istanbul arson attack". Independent UK. 14 March 1999. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
- ^ "Vali açıkladı: Canlı bomba" (in Turkish). Hürriyet. 23 May 2007. Archived from the original on 25 May 2007. Retrieved 23 May 2007.
- ^ "Ankara'da patlama FLAŞ" (in Turkish). Hürriyet. 22 May 2007. Archived from the original on 24 May 2007. Retrieved 22 May 2007.
- ^ "Görgü tanığı: 10 ölü var" (in Turkish). Hürriyet. 22 May 2007. Archived from the original on 24 May 2007. Retrieved 22 May 2007.
- ^ "Five die in Istanbul bus bombing". BBC News. 22 June 2010. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
- ^ "32 injured in apparent suicide bombing in Turkey". CNN. 20 September 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
- ^ "Timeline: PKK attacks in Turkey". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
- ^ Letsch, Constanze (17 March 2016). "Ankara bombing: Kurdish militants claim responsibility". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
- ^ "Kurdish group claims suicide attack in Turkish city of Bursa – National | Globalnews.ca". globalnews.ca. 1 May 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
- ^ "PKK terror bombing targets police vehicle in Turkeys southeastern Diyarbakır, 3 killed, 45 injured". DailySabah. Archived from the original on 4 June 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
- ^ "ANF – Ajansa Nûçeyan a Firatê". Retrieved 27 July 2016.
- ^ Haber, Internet (15 May 2016). "Diyarbakır patlamasını PKK üstlendi köylüleri suçladı!" (in Turkish). Retrieved 7 November 2020.
- ^ "Diyarbakır'daki patlamayla ilgili önemli gelişme!". 17 May 2016. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
- ^ "HDP pays respect to PKK suicide bomber who killed 12 people in Istanbul". Daily Sabah. 17 June 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
- ^ "İstanbul Vezneciler'de polis aracına bombalı saldırı, 7'si polis, 11 kişi hayatını kaybetti" (in Turkish). T24. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
- ^ "Four dead after car bombing and shootout in Turkish city of Izmir". 6 January 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
- ^ "Turkish police detain five people over alleged involvement in suicide bombing in Hatay". www.duvarenglish.com. 29 October 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
- ^ "Explosion in Hatay province". Bianet – Bagimsiz Iletisim Agi. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
- ^ "Turkey: Explosion in downtown Iskenderun". iranpress.com. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
- ^ "Son dakika! Hatay'ın İskenderun ilçesinde patlama". CNN Türk (in Turkish). 27 October 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
- ^ Serxwebun 1997. p. 392.
- ^ Ali Özcan, Nihat"PKK Recruitment of Female Operatives". Archived from the original on 15 September 2007. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Global Terrorism Analysis, Jamestown Foundation, Volume 4, Issue 28, 11 September 2007. - ^ Hunsicker, A. (5 January 2019). Understanding International Counter Terrorism: A Professional's Guide to the Operational Art. Universal-Publishers. ISBN 9781581129052. Retrieved 5 January 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ Cragin, Kim; Daly, Sara A. (5 January 2019). Women as Terrorists: Mothers, Recruiters, and Martyrs. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780275989095. Retrieved 5 January 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ "MFA - A Report on the PKK and Terrorism". irp.fas.org.
- ^ "Kurdish families protest against PKK over kidnapped children". DailySabah. 29 May 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
- ^ "Families start hunger strike in Diyarbakır for return of children who joined PKK – Turkey News". Hürriyet Daily News. 10 June 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
- ^ "PKK militants kidnap British tourist in Turkey – Turkey News". Hürriyet Daily News. 3 June 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
- ^ "Contending with the PKK's Narco-Terrorism". www.washingtoninstitute.org. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
- ^ "Rewards for Justice – Wanted for Terrorism – Cemil Bayik". Retrieved 10 January 2019.
- ^ "PKK'da Öcalan'ın diktatörlüğünü reddedenler öldürüldü". t24.com.tr. Retrieved 7 January 2019.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche. "AKP'li siyasetçilere yönelik PKK tehdidi artıyor | DW | 23.10.2016". DW.COM (in Turkish). Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- ^ "Serxwebûn Mart 1984 Sayı 27". Serxwebûn. March 1984.
- ^ a b "Teachers killed in Turkey between 12 September 1980 and 12 September 2000". ob.nubati.net. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
- ^ "Serxwebûn Ağustos 1987 Özel Sayı". Serxwebûn. August 1987.
- ^ "Serxwebûn Mayıs 1987 Sayı 65". Serxwebûn. May 1987.
- ^ a b "Serxwebûn Ağustos 1987 Özel Sayı". Serxwebûn: 8. August 1987.
- ^ "Chronology of the Important Events in the World/PKK Chronology (1976–2006)". Turkish Weekly. Archived from the original on 6 October 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
- ^ "PKK önce infaz etti, sonra başsağlığı diledi!". Diken. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
- ^ "PKK: Yanlışlıkla öldürüldü". www.rudaw.net. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- ^ English, Basnews. "PKK Executes Two Own Members". www.basnews.com. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- ^ DOĞUBAYAZIT (Ağrı), (DHA) (28 June 2018). "İlçeyi karıştıran iddia! PKK infaz etti..." www.hurriyet.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 7 November 2020.
- ^ "HPG-Aktionen in Nord-und Südkurdistan". ANF News (in German). Retrieved 7 November 2020.
- ^ "USA: PKK Taking Children as Weapons in Turkey – Anadolu Türk Haber". Anadoluturkhaber.com. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "Iraq: Armed Groups Using Child Soldiers". Human Rights Watch. 22 December 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld – Child Soldiers Global Report 2001 – Turkey". Refworld. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ "Child Soldiers : Global Report 2008" (PDF). Justice.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ Wilgenburg, Wladimir van (28 October 2013). "Kurdish Rebels Ban Child Soldiers". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ a b "Turkey: monitoring the HPG/PKK's prohibition on using children in hostilities". Geneva Call. 25 July 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ "THE GLOBAL AFGHAN OPIUM TRADE : A Threat Assessment" (PDF). Unodc.org. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
- ^ "EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report" (PDF). Europol.europa.eu. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
- ^ "Treasury Sanctions Supporters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) Tied to Drug Trafficking in Europe". www.treasury.gov. Archived from the original on 5 November 2021.
 Turkey |
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kurdish groups |
| ||||||||||
| The conflict |
| ||||||||||
| Protests |
| ||||||||||
| Peace process and peace efforts | |||||||||||
| Kurdish leaders |
| ||||||||||
| Turkish leaders |
| ||||||||||
| See also |
| ||||||||||
- Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present)
- 20th-century conflicts
- 21st-century conflicts
- 20th century in Turkey
- 21st century in Turkey
- Turkish Kurdistan
- History of the Kurdistan Workers' Party
- Iraqi Kurdistan
- Kurdish–Turkish conflict
- Wars involving Turkey
- Conflicts in 2022
- Wars involving the Peshmerga
- Kurdistan Region (Iraq)