FILE: PKK carries forward historic campaign of violence in the cause of Kurdish autonomy

Record ID: 858728

  • Title: FILE: PKK carries forward historic campaign of violence in the cause of Kurdish autonomy
  • Date: 27th October 2007
  • Summary: (BN08) ATHENS, GREECE (FILE - FEBRUARY 15, 1999) (REUTERS) POLICE TRYING TO BREAK UP KURDISH PROTEST/ FLAMES, MEN ON FIRE AFTER ONE PROTESTOR SET HIMSELF ALIGHT, SMOKE AND FLAMES, PEOPLE RUNNING AROUND
  • Embargoed: 11th November 2007 12:00
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  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVADY4MDP1856LUQNTTGGMW69079
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  • Story Text: PKK fighters based in northern Iraq who have been carrying out cross-border attacks on Turkish territory have a history of using violence to draw attention to their demands for Kurdish autonomy.
    Holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq, Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas have grabbed world attention as Turkey mulls over whether to launch a cross-border incursion against their bases.
    Abdullah Ocalan set up a Marxist-Leninist movement in 1974 dedicated to establishing an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey. The group was formally named as Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in 1978. It took up arms to fight its cause in 1984.
    More than 30,000 people have died in the conflict, which reached a peak in the mid-1990s In 1999 Ocalan was captured in 1999, tried and sentenced to death. His sentence was reduced to life imprisonment in October 2002 after Turkey abolished the death penalty.
    After his capture, Ocalan called for a peaceful resolution and the rebels announced a ceasefire.
    The PKK 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.
    But Turkey, which like the United States and the European Union condemns the PKK as a terrorist group, refused to negotiate.
    In 2004, the PKK resumed its violent campaign, which has escalated steadily despite several other short-lived, unilateral ceasefires.
    A group said to be an offshoot of the PKK, calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, has claimed responsibility for a number of bomb blasts in Istanbul and Turkish Mediterranean resorts. The group also swears allegiance to Ocalan.
    Two recent attacks - the killing of 12 Turkish soldiers in a single clash and the killing of 12 people in a bus ambush - were regarded as being among the worst over recent years.
    Some 3,000 PKK fighters are based in northern Iraq and launch attacks on security and civilian targets in Turkey. A few thousand PKK rebels are also believed to be inside Turkey.
    Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government is under heavy domestic pressure to pursue the PKK into northern Iraq.
    The Kurds are a non-Arab, mainly Sunni Muslim people, speaking a language related to Persian and living in a mountainous area straddling the borders of Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.
    For most of their history they have been subjugated. In modern times Iran, Iraq and Turkey have resisted an independent Kurdish state and the Western powers have seen no reason to help establish one.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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