Kurdistan Workers Party

The Kurdistan Workers Party was originally formed on November 27, 1978 as a left-wing socialist party. After the military coup in Turkey ( 1980 ), almost the entire party leadership was arrested, but Abdullah Ocalanu (the founder of the Kurdistan Workers' Party) and a number of party members managed to find refuge in Syria .

Since the mid-1980s, the PKK had been many thousands guerrilla army (which received the name of Army of liberation of the peoples of Kurdistan - (Artêşa Rizgariya gelên Kurdistan - ARGK )), and branched political structures, united in the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (Eniya Rizgariya Netewên Kurdistan - ERNK) . In 1999, the Liberation Army of the Peoples of Kurdistan was transformed into the National Self-Defense Forces (NSS), which consist of professional gerilles , equipped with bases in hard-to-reach highland areas of Kurdistan . The political structures of the PKK control Kurdish society both in Turkey itself and in the European diaspora. The PKK has a large budget, which puts into circulation through the controlled party of businessmen. The main combat targets are Turkish government security forces.

The Turkish government not only uses military force to fight the PKK. It is believed that Turkish intelligence is behind the creation of an alternative grouping - " Kurdish Hezbollah " - which committed the murders and abductions of PKK activists ^[2] .

In 1998, the PKK lost support for Syria , and its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was forced to leave the country and seek refuge in other countries. On November 4, 1998, the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, by an absolute majority, approved the appeal of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation "To the President of the Russian Federation B. N. Yeltsin for granting political asylum in the Russian Federation to the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party Abdullah Ocalan " and sent the Resolution and the Appeal to the President Russian Federation B. N. Yeltsin ^[3] , but the appeal of the State Duma was left without consideration.

On October 4, 1999, the Rome Civil Court decided to grant political asylum in Italy to the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, Abdullah Ocalanu. However, this ruling did not have practical significance, since the Kurdish leader sentenced to death expected to decide his fate in a Turkish prison ^[4] .

In August 1999, the PKK announced a truce and proclaimed the project of the Democratic Confederation, which is a non-state entity uniting the Kurdish autonomous republics, which should be created as part of the countries that divided Kurdistan.

For 30 years of the Kurdish-Turkish confrontation, the Kurdistan Workers Party declared 5 unilateral truces.

First Truce

On March 19, 1993, at a press conference in the Lebanese province of Bekaa, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, in the presence of the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Jalal Talabani, announced a unilateral truce. The truce was announced in response to numerous secret appeals by the Turkish leadership and lasted until April 15, 1993. Mutual agreement was reached during the mediation of Jalal Talabani between Abdullah Ocalan and Turkish President Turgut Ozal. On April 15, 1993, the PKK announced the extension of the truce for a period of one month. On April 17, Turkish President Turgut Ozal died of a heart attack. In the eastern and south-eastern regions of Turkey, large-scale operations were launched against Kurdish partisans. The PKK announced the termination of the truce with Turkey. According to other sources, she herself broke the truce, stopping the bus with Turkish recruits and killing more than 30 unarmed soldiers ^[5] .

Second Truce

It was announced on December 15, 1995 in response to a letter from Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Chiller, sent to the leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan. However, on January 16, 1996, after the Turkish military fired a civilian minibus with 11 passengers near the town of Güchlukonak in the south-east of Turkey and the responsibility was placed on the PKK, the truce was terminated. The attempt on the life of the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan on May 6, 1995, organized by the Turkish leadership led by Tansu Chiller, Dogan Güresh and Mehmet Agar, finally put an end to the negotiations.

Third Truce

On September 1, 1998, at the request of Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, the PKK announced a truce for the third time. The truce was preserved after the forced departure of the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan from Syria, which was announced by Turkey with an ultimatum on the introduction of troops. The arrest of Abdullah Ocalan on February 15, 1999 put an end to the truce.

Fourth Truce

On 2 August 1999, the PKK announced the withdrawal of troops from the Turkish part of Kurdistan to the Iraqi part. And on September 1, announced the next truce. The longest truce in the history of the Kurdish-Turkish military confrontation lasted for almost 5 years. Ignoring the Kurdish problem in Turkey forced the PKK leadership to announce the end of the truce on June 1, 2004.

Fifth Truce

It was announced on September 1, 2006 in response to numerous requests from the Kurdish and Turkish intelligentsia, the Party of Democratic Society, the United States of America and the European Union.

At the 10th Congress of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the concepts of “active” and “passive” self-defense were approved, implying the conduct of forced attacks in the event of an attack by an aggressor against whom a truce was declared.

Moratorium

On March 29, 2009, in order to maintain a favorable atmosphere inside Turkey, actively discussing ways of a political solution to the Kurdish problem, the PKK announced the introduction of a moratorium on the conduct of hostilities for a period up to June 1, 2009.

On June 1, 2009, the PKK extended the moratorium until July 15, 2009, then until September 1, 2009.

September 29, 2009 unilateral moratorium extended indefinitely.

In 1993, the activities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party were recognized as extremist and banned by the German Ministry of the Interior ^[6] . The activity of the PKK was also recognized as terrorist and prohibited in the United States (1997) ^[7] , in the United Kingdom (2001) ^[8] , in Canada (2002) ^[9] , in Australia (2005) ^[10] . According to the security service of Australia, the activity of the PKK is also banned in Austria, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Moldova, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Turkey, France and the Philippines ^[11] .

In June 2002, the Kurdistan Workers ’Party was included in the list of terrorist organizations of the EU, which means a ban on its activities in all EU countries, regardless of whether the PKK is prohibited by their national laws or not. However, on April 3, 2008, the European Court declared illegal the inclusion in 2002 of the Kurdistan Workers Party in the list of EU terrorist organizations (case No. 2008 / C 142/40 ^[12] ) due to procedural errors. In particular, the PKK representatives were not given the opportunity to speak in their defense. At the same time, the judges emphasized that they did not intend to exclude the PKK from the list and the court decision was only of a formal nature, since the mistakes made had already been eliminated ^{[13] [14] [15]} . Thus, the PKK has not been officially removed from the list of terrorist organizations and is still listed in it with each update. In the latest edition of the list (July 2016), the PKK, together with its divisions KADEK and KONGRA-GEL, is numbered 13 ^[16] .

• Turkey-Kurdish conflict

• The official site of the PKK (English version) (English)
• Lebsky M. The Evolution of the PKK: From the Avant-Garde Party to the Political Confederation