Overview

Located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Turkey has sought recognition as a European state and admission into the European Union. Kurdistan, the homeland to more than 27 million Kurds, is a nation that exists only in the dreams of the Kurds, and in the long forgotten Treaty of Sevres, which divided up the Ottoman Empire, following World War I. The Kurds, inhabiting parts of Turkey, Iraq and Iran are the largest national group - an estimated 27 million - without a country.

The Kurds have been victimized in the Iran-Iraq war and the Gulf War between the US and Iraq, while being exploited as pawns in the continuing effort to remove Saddam Hussein from Iraq. They’ve been napalmed by the Turkish air force, slaughtered by the Iranian army, attacked and gassed by Iraq’s Republican Guard, betrayed by the US and otherwise ignored by the international community.

When Abdullah Ocalan, founder and leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was captured by Turkish agents in Kenya in February 1999, pro-Kurdish demonstrators marched in European cities, occupied embassies and some set themselves ablaze, demonstrating the depth of their commitment.

The Kurdish struggle is tragic and seemingly futile, frustrated by strategic and economic issues, overshadowed by Middle East conflict, and complicated by its multinational impact. Yet, it continues unabated, with tragic consequences for a proud and simple, if stubborn, people crushed in the vice of international politics, with the potential to flare-up and expand throughout Europe.

The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 liberated Kurds in Northern Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s reign of fear. Iraqi Kurds have assumed leadership positions in the new Iraqi government and have hopes of establishing an independent Kurdistan. However, those hopes clash with Turkey’s desire to eventually assimilate the “mountain turks” (Turkey refuses to acknowledge Kurdish ethnicity) into Turkish society. Turkey has threatened to invade Iraqi Kurdistan if it becomes independent.

Conflict Background

Living at the Mesopotamian crossroads of Asia, the Kurds have been subjected to continual colonial influences, yet remained an aloof mountain people. The Turks, however, played an active and important role in regional politics. After capturing Constantinople in the mid 1400’s, the Turks established the Ottoman Empire, which reached across North Africa to Algiers, into Hungary, the Caucasus and throughout the Arabian peninsula. With trade ties to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Turks fought alongside them in World War I and together suffered defeat.

After World War I, the vast Islamic Ottoman Empire was divided into many smaller countries, one of which was to have been Kurdistan, a region in southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq and northern Iran. The Treaty of Sevres (1920), accepted by Muhammad VI, dictated that Turkey pay reparations and called for establishment of an independent state of Kurdistan.

However, before the state could be formed, Kemal Ataturk, father of modern Turkey, consolidated power and negotiated a new, more favorable agreement - the Treaty of Lausanne – that ignored previous promises of a Kurdish homeland. In the aftermath of war, Turkey was ruthless in oppressing ethnic minorities.

Ataturk united the diverse Turkish Republic by promoting a strident nationalism and relaxing Islamic restrictions, while persecuting non-Turks and repressing other ethnic identities, including the Kurds, who have been denied rights to their language, culture and political dissent. His policies became known as “Kemalism.”

Despite its historical ties to Germany, Turkey remained neutral in World War II, until the Allied victory was clear and then declared war in 1945. Since WWII, Turkey's governmental power and control have, and still, remain vested in the military.

During the Cold War era, Turkey permitted the US to build the Incirlik Air Base, now leased for over $1 billion annually and has continually leveraged this to gain favor with Washington. Incirlik enables the US to project air power throughout the troubled Middle East but poses diplomatic challenges for Turkey's relations with Arab states.

By 1990, a Kurdish separatist movement emerged in southeastern Turkey. The government banned Kurdish political parties, arrested and exiled Kurdish leaders. Violence erupted in 1992, as the Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) responded, announcing a war government, mounting an insurgency campaign and provoking Turkish military intervention, reprisals and human rights violations. (The PKK recently adopted a new name and is now also known as KADEK, Kongra-Gel and KGK.)

During the 1991 Gulf War, Turkey reluctantly supported the anti-Iraq coalition, including Operation Provide Comfort, to shield Iraqi Kurds from Saddam Hussein's revenge, while the PKK intensified its guerrilla war, operating from bases in Iraq and Syria. In 1993, with the Gulf War over, Turkey sent 50,000 troops into Iraq, in a massive assault against Kurdish rebels, no longer protected by the US and coalition forces.

In 1994, dissenting political parties were banned in Turkey, elected Kurdish representatives were accused of treason and imprisoned, while others fled into exile. Turkish forces launched air and ground attacks, ravaging as many as 3000 Kurdish villages, forcibly relocating over 3 million villagers and defoliating forests in its scorched earth campaigns to destroy the PKK. The death toll is approaching 40,000.

In early 1999, Turkish agents captured PKK leader Abdullah (Apo) Ocalan, prompting Kurdish protests throughout Europe, including horrific scenes of protesters setting themselves ablaze, while guards at an Israeli shot and killed three Kurds.

While Ocalan was held incommunicato in prison, Turkish security forces launched pogroms against suspected PKK strongholds and sympathizers, in which thousands were arrested, seeking to destroy the PKK, which then declared an all-out terrorist war against Turkey.

Issues and Aspirations

The Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) is the main rebel political group, it's leader Abullah Ocalan, aka APO, was captured by Turkish agents in Kenya in early 1999. He was tried and convicted, sentenced to life in prison and is the sole prisoner held in an island prison. The US State Department has designated the PKK as a terrorist group. The PKK transitional leadership is uncertain, as are any policy changes since Ocalan's capture.

Prior to his capture, Ocalan had proposed several ceasefires and political negotiations that were rejected by the Turkish government. ERNK is the political wing of the PKK.

The Parliament of Kurdistan in Exile (PKE) is a quasi-official, elected organization that includes former Kurdish elected representatives exiled from Turkey. The PKE includes representatives from the Democracy Party,the Islamic Movement (not fundamentalist), Assyrian-Chaldeans (Christians), women, youth and trade organizations. While seeking a peaceful settlement, the PKE supports the PKK armed liberation movement.

The PKK offered to drop its demands to establish an independent, sovereign Kurdish state and proposed a semi-automonous Democratic Federal Republic that, together with the Turkish Republic, would form a Turkish Federation, similar to that in Belgium (not unlike like American States).

During 2000, Turkey began a reconciliation campaign in the Kurdish region. The army was sent to build roads and houses, teach literacy and set up youth clubs. However, tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees, whose homes and villages were destroyed remain in refugee camps, called “central villages.” Turkish soldiers guard the villages to prevent refugees from anti-government activity.

The PKE has called for intervention by the European Parliament and the United Nations and establishment of a Parliamentary Intergroup that would convene Turco-Kurdish meetings to outline possible solutions.

Among the basic demands and aspirations of the PKE, PKK and other Kurdish groups are: a) a declaration of general amnesty and that political prisoners be set free; b) a bill of rights, including rights to elect regional government, practice their culure, speak their language and maintain their traditions and identity.

Iraqi Kurds, however, have additional demands that impact on Kurdish aspirations throughout the region and cause anxiety within Turkey and Iraq. These includes rights to the oil fields surrounding the city of Kirkuk in north, central Iraq. The oil revenue from these fields could finance economic growth in the entire Kurdish region, which could act as a magnet drawing Kurds to Iraqi-Kurdistan, or could increase nationalist fervor within Turkey and Iran.

Regional Complications

There are many. Turkey wants to join the European Union, which has, to date, denied their application due to Turkey's practice of human rights abuses. The US tolerates Turkey's policies in order to retain its strategic Incirlik Air Base, but relations became strained when Turkey refused a US request to move troops through Turkey as part of its Iraq invasion.

Syria and Turkey are involved in a water dispute over Turkey's plans to limit flows from the Bosphorous River, while Syria has been a base for the PKK guerrilla training and operations.

Although Turkey and Iraq were enemies in the Gulf War, both have taken similarly harsh policies toward Kurdish nationalists. Iran and Turkey are seeking closer relations, related to proposed plans for a strategic oil pipeline.

Armenians along Turkey's northern frontier have not forgotten Turkey's genocide against their people. And of course, Greece and Turkey remain poised for confrontation at the UN monitored buffer zone in occupied Cyprus. Meanwhile, the resilient PKK has threatened war against Turkish "allies" in Europe, where millions of Kurds reside. And not to be left out, Israel and Turkey have launched cooperative ventures, sure to alienate Arab neighbors.

Inside Turkey, a staunchly secular state, an Islamic political movement has steadily gained influence, culminating with an election victory by the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, or AK) in November 2002. AK leader and former mayor of Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was elected rime minister. Although an outspoken Muslim (he was jailed in 1998 for pro-Islamic remarks), Erdogan has distanced himself from Islamic extremists. He must walk a careful line to maintain support from Turkey’s powerful generals. The refusal to allow US troop movements through Turkey strained relations with the US and the Turkish military, but may have garnered support for Turkey’s bid to join the EU. 

As Iraq sinks into sectarian strife and civil war, Turkey’s response to growing calls for Kurdish independence from Iraq could ignite a new wave of Turco-Kurdish violence.

Related Resources:

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK
This website has a large collection of links,
some of which are actually active...
http://www.puk.org/

American Kurdish Information Network
www.kurdistan.org

Kurdish Human Rights Project
www.khrp.org

Kurdish Library and Documentation Centre
www.marebalticum.se/kurd/index.htm

Kurdistan Save the Children’s Fund
http://www.ksc-kcf.com/

Kurdistan Democratic Party
KDP-Iraq
http://www.kdp.pp.se/

Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
http://www.pdki.org/

Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK)
http://www.pkk.org/
In English
http://www.pkk.org/en/