Profile: The PKK

[Gunny]

By Pam O'Toole
BBC News

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been a thorn in Turkey's side for decades.

The group, which has Marxist-Leninist roots, was formed in the late 1970s and launched an armed struggle against the Turkish government in 1984, calling for an independent Kurdish state within Turkey.

Since then, more than 37,000 people have died. During the conflict, which reached a peak in the mid-1990s, thousands of villages were destroyed in the largely Kurdish south-east and east of Turkey, and hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled to cities in other parts of the country.

In the 1990s, the organisation rolled back on its demands for an independent Kurdish state, calling instead for more autonomy for the Kurds.

In 1999, it suffered a major blow when its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was arrested.

Shortly afterwards, it introduced a five-year unilateral ceasefire and took a number of steps to try to change its image and widen its appeal, changing its name several times before deciding it again wanted to be known as the PKK.

It also further watered down its demands, calling on Ankara to involve it in the country's political process, allow more cultural rights for the country's estimated 15 million Kurds and release imprisoned PKK members.

There were reports of splits within the organisation.

But Turkey, which, like a number of Western countries, regards the PKK as a terrorist organisation, refused to negotiate with it and has offered only a limited amnesty to its members.

In 2004, the PKK resumed its violent campaign, which has escalated steadily over the past two years despite several other short-lived, unilateral ceasefires.

Two recent attacks - the killing of 13 Turkish soldiers in a single clash and the killing of 12 civilians in a bus ambush - were regarded as being among the worst over recent years.

more ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7044760.stm

Just in case anyone's interested in who and what the PKK is ...

 

[William Joyce]

Hey, let it rip. Kurds probably need a homeland, carved out of Iraq and Turkey.

 

[dilloduck]

Hey, let it rip. Kurds probably need a homeland, carved out of Iraq and Turkey.

Can we get a ruling from the UN on this one ?

 

[Shogun]

it depends on how well they gel with christian Armageddon dogma