Kurdish–Turkish conflict

A long-running political and armed conflict involving the Turkish state and Kurdish movements, especially the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), over Kurdish rights, political status, and state authority.

Kurdistan Workers’ Party: A Kurdish militant and political organization founded in Turkey in 1978 that began an armed insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984. The PKK has been the conflict’s principal armed Kurdish actor since the insurgency began.
Treaty of Lausanne: The 1923 treaty that established the international borders of modern Turkey and defined its place after the Ottoman Empire. Its settlement left Kurdish communities divided among several new states.
Abdullah Öcalan: A founding leader of the PKK, imprisoned by Turkey since 1999 and a key figure in its political strategy. His changing proposals have influenced the PKK’s stated aims and negotiation positions.
Kurdish displacement in Turkey: The forced and wartime movement of Kurdish civilians, especially from villages in southeastern Turkey during the 1990s. Counterinsurgency and village evacuations uprooted large numbers of people.
Democratic confederalism: A political model emphasizing local self-government, direct democracy, and federated communities, associated with Abdullah Öcalan and the PKK. It recast the movement’s stated political project away from an independent Kurdish state.
Turkish counterinsurgency: The military, intelligence, and security campaigns Turkey has used to suppress armed insurgencies. State operations against the PKK have driven much of the conflict’s violence and displacement.
Turkish nationalism: A political ideology emphasizing the unity and sovereignty of the Turkish nation and state. State-building policies shaped official approaches to Kurdish identity and political demands.
Murat Karayılan: A senior PKK commander who became one of the organization’s leading figures after Öcalan’s imprisonment. He has been a prominent operational leader during later phases of the insurgency.
Kurdish language in Turkey: The use and public status of Kurdish languages in Turkey, shaped by periods of restriction and later partial liberalization. Language policy became a major arena for demands for cultural rights.
Kurdistan Democratic Party: A major Iraqi Kurdish political party founded by Mustafa Barzani in 1946 and led by the Barzani family. Its Iraqi territorial base and political strategy differ from the PKK’s insurgency in Turkey.

Linked from 11 pages