Utente:Yeagvr/Sandbox2

Il conflitto curdo-turco è un conflitto armato tra la Repubblica di Turchia e vari gruppi ribelli curdi, che richiedono la separazione dalla Turchia per creare un Kurdistan indipendente, o di avere autonomia e maggiori diritti politici e culturali per i curdi all'interno della Repubblica di Turchia. Il principale gruppo ribelle è il Partito dei Lavoratori del Kurdistan o PKK (Curdo: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan). Anche se gli insorti hanno effettuato attacchi in molte regioni della Turchia, l'insurrezione è principalmente nella Turchia sud-orientale. La presenza del Pkk nella regione del Kurdistan iracheno, da cui ha anche lanciato attacchi, ha portato le forze armate turche a compiere frequenti incursioni al suolo e attacchi aerei e di artiglieria nella regione. The conflict has cost the economy of Turkey an estimated $300 to 450 billion, mostly military costs. Ha anche influenzato il turismo in Turchia.

Un gruppo curdo è stato fondato nel 1978 nel villaggio di Fis (vicino a Lice) da un gruppo di studenti curdi guidati da Abdullah Öcalan. La ragione iniziale data dal PKK per questo è stata l'oppressione dei curdi in Turchia. Da allora, l'uso della lingua curda, dell'abito, del folclore e dei nomi è stato vietato nelle aree abitate dai kurdi. Nel tentativo di negare la loro esistenza, il governo turco ha categorizzato i curdi come "turchi delle montagne" fino al 1991. Le parole "Curdi" e "Kurdistan" vennero ufficialmente bandite dal governo turco. Dopo il colpo di stato militare del 1980, la lingua curda è stata ufficialmente vietata nella vita pubblica e privata. Molti di coloro che hanno parlato, pubblicato o cantato in kurdo sono stati arrestati e imprigionati. Il PKK è stato quindi formato, come parte di un crescente malcontento per la soppressione dei kurdi etnici turchi, nel tentativo di stabilire diritti linguistici, culturali e politici per la minoranza kurda etnica turca.

Tuttavia l'insurrezione su vasta scala non ebbe inizio fino al 15 agosto 1984, quando il PKK annunciò una rivolta curda. Da quando è iniziato il conflitto, sono morte oltre 40.000 persone, la stragrande maggioranza dei quali civili kurdi uccisi dalle forze armate turche. La Corte europea dei diritti dell'uomo ha condannato la Turchia per migliaia di violazioni dei diritti umani. Molte sentenze sono collegate alle esecuzioni sistematiche di civili curdi, torture, spostamenti forzati, villaggi distrutti, arresti arbitrari, Giornalisti kurdi che sono scomparsi o sono stati assassinati, attivisti e politici.

La prima insurrezione è durata fino al 1 settembre 1999, quando il PKK ha dichiarato un cessate il fuoco unilaterale. Il conflitto armato è stato successivamente ripreso il 1 ° giugno 2004, quando il PKK ha dichiarato la fine del cessate il fuoco. Dall'estate 2011, il conflitto è diventato sempre più violento con la ripresa delle ostilità su vasta scala. Nel 2013 il governo turco e Abdullah Öcalan, capo del PKK incarcerato, hanno avviato i colloqui. Il 21 marzo 2013 Öcalan ha annunciato la "fine della lotta armata" e un cessate il fuoco con i colloqui di pace.

Il 25 luglio 2015, il PKK ha infine cancellato il cessate il fuoco del 2013 dopo un anno di tensione a causa di vari eventi, tra cui i turchi che bombardano le posizioni del PKK in Iraq, nel bel mezzo della battaglia dei curdi contro lo Stato islamico dell'Iraq e del Levante. Con la ripresa della violenza, centinaia di civili curdi etnici sono stati uccisi e si sono verificate numerose violazioni dei diritti umani, tra cui torture, stupri e distruzione diffusa della proprietà. Le autorità turche hanno distrutto parti sostanziali di molte città abitate dai curdi incluse Diyarbakır, Şırnak, Mardin, Cizre, Nusaybin, e Yüksekova. A seguito principalmente di negoziati segreti, l'AKP e il PKK hanno messo in atto un cessate il fuoco di grande successo. Il cessate il fuoco si è rotto nell'estate 2015 a causa di tensioni politiche.

Panoramica

Le ribellioni curde contro l'Impero Ottomano risalgono a due secoli fa, ma il conflitto moderno risale alla Guerra d'indipendenza turca, che stabilì uno stato nazionalista turco che ha costantemente represso i diritti umani del popolo curdo in Turchia. I principali eventi storici includono la ribellione di Koçgiri (1920), la ribellione di Sheikh Said (1925), la ribellione di Ararat (1930) e la ribellione di Dersim (1938).

Il Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) è stato fondato nel 1974 da Abdullah Öcalan. Inizialmente un'organizzazione marxista-leninista, abbandonò il comunismo ortodosso e adottò un programma di maggiori diritti politici e autonomia culturale per i curdi. Tra il 1978 e il 1980, il PKK si impegnò in una guerra urbana limitata con lo stato turco per raggiungere questi obiettivi. L'organizzazione si è ristrutturata e ha spostato la struttura organizzativa in Siria tra il 1980 e il 1984, subito dopo il colpo di stato turco del 1980.

L'insurrezione di origine rurale durò tra il 1984 e il 1992. Il PKK spostò le sue attività per includere la guerra urbana tra il 1993 e il 1995 e tra il 1996 e il 1999. Il leader del partito fu catturato in Kenya all'inizio del 1999, con il sostegno della CIA. Dopo un'iniziativa di pace unilateralmente dichiarata nel 1999, il PKK ha ripreso il conflitto a causa di un'offensiva militare turca nel 2004. Dal 1974 è stato in grado di evolvere, adattarsi e passare attraverso una metamorfosi, che divenne il principale fattore di sopravvivenza. È gradualmente cresciuto da una manciata di studenti politici a un'organizzazione dinamica.

In seguito alle insurrezioni fallite del 1991 in Iraq contro Saddam Hussein, le Nazioni Unite hanno istituito zone di non volo sulle aree curde dell'Iraq, dando a quelle aree l'indipendenza di fatto. Il Pkk è stato costretto a ritirarsi dal Libano e dalla Siria come parte di un accordo tra la Turchia e gli Stati Uniti. Il PKK trasferì i loro campi di addestramento sulle montagne Qandil e, di conseguenza, la Turchia rispose con l' operazione Acciaio (1995) e l'operazione Martello (1997) in un fallito tentativo di stroncare il PKK.

Nel 1992 il colonnello Kemal Yilmaz dichiarò che il Dipartimento di guerra speciale (la sede della Kontrgerilla) era ancora attivo nel conflitto contro il PKK. Il Dipartimento di Stato degli Stati Uniti ha espresso preoccupazione per il coinvolgimento della controcorrente nella sua relazione nazionale del 1994 sulle pratiche dei diritti umani per la Turchia. Le unità della contro-guerriglia sono state coinvolte in gravi violazioni dei diritti umani.

Öcalan è stato catturato in Kenya il 15 febbraio 1999, presumibilmente coinvolgendo agenti della CIA con la cooperazione dell'ambasciata greca, con conseguente trasferimento alle autorità turche. Dopo un processo è stato condannato a morte, ma questa condanna è stata commutata in carcere aggravato per tutta la vita quando la pena di morte è stata abolita in Turchia nell'agosto 2002.

Con l'invasione dell'Iraq nel 2003, gran parte delle armi dell'esercito iracheno cadde nelle mani delle milizie curde irachene Peshmerga. I Peshmerga sono diventati l'esercito de facto del Kurdistan iracheno e le fonti turche sostengono che molte delle sue armi hanno trovato la loro strada nelle mani di altri gruppi kurdi come il PKK e il PJAK (una propaggine del PKK che opera nel Kurdistan iraniano). Questo è stato il pretesto per numerosi attacchi turchi alla regione del Kurdistan in Iraq.

Nel giugno 2007, la Turchia ha stimato che ci fossero oltre 3.000 combattenti del PKK nel Kurdistan iracheno.

Storia

Gli inizi

In 1977, a small group under Öcalan's leadership released a declaration on Kurdish identity in Turkey. The group, which called itself the Revolutionaries of Kurdistan also included Ali Haydar Kaytan, Cemil Bayik, Haki Karer and Kemal Pir. The group decided in 1974 to start a campaign for Kurdish rights. Cemil Bayik was sent to Urfa, Kemal Pir to Mus, Hakki Karer to Batman, and Ali Haydar Kaytan to Tunceli. They then started student organisations which talked to local workers and farmers about Kurdish rights.

In 1977, an assembly was held to evaluate the political activities. The assembly included 100 people, from different backgrounds and several representatives from other leftist organisations. In spring 1977, Abdullah Öcalan travelled to Mount Ararat, Erzurum, Tunceli, Elazig, Antep, and other cities to make the public aware of the Kurdish issue. This was followed by a Turkish government crackdown against the organisation. On 18 March 1977, Haki Karer was assassinated in Antep. During this period, the group was also targeted by the Turkish ultranationalist organization, the Nationalist Movement Party's Grey Wolves. Some wealthy Kurdish landowners targeted the group as well, killing Halil Çavgun on 18 May 1978, which resulted in large Kurdish meetings in Erzurum, Dersim, Elazig, and Antep.The founding Congress of the PKK was held on 27 November 1978 in Fis, a village near the city of Lice. During this congress the 25 people present decided to found the Kurdistan Workers' Party. The Turkish state, Turkish rightist groups, and some Kurdish landowners continued their attacks on the group. In response, the PKK employed armed members to protect itself, which got involved in the fighting between leftist and rightist groups in Turkey (1978–1980) at the side of the leftists, during which the right-wing Grey Wolves militia killed 109 and injured 176 Alevi Kurds in the town of Kahramanmaraş on 25 December 1978 in what would become known as the Maraş Massacre. In Summer 1979, Öcalan travelled to Syria and Lebanon where he made contacts with Syrian and Palestinian leaders. After the Turkish coup d'état on 12 September 1980 and a crackdown which was launched on all political organisations, during which at least 191 people were killed and half a million were imprisoned, most of the PKK withdrew into Syria and Lebanon. Öcalan himself went to Syria in September 1980 with Kemal Pir, Mahsum Korkmaz, and Delil Dogan being sent to set up an organisation in Lebanon. Some PKK fighters allegedly took part in the 1982 Lebanon War on the Syrian side.

The Second PKK Party Congress was then held in Daraa, Syria, from 20 to 25 August 1982. Here it was decided that the organisation would return to Turkey to start an armed guerilla war there for the creation of an independent Kurdish state. Meanwhile, they prepared guerrilla forces in Syria and Lebanon to go to war. Many PKK leaders however were arrested in Turkey and sent to Diyarbakir Prison. The prison became the site of much political protest. (See also Torture in Turkey#Deaths in custody.)

Nella prigione di Diyarbakir, il membro del PKK Mazlum Dogan si è bruciato a morte il 21 marzo 1982 per protesta contro il trattamento in carcere. Ferhat Kurtay, Necmi Önen, Mahmut Zengin e Eşref Anyık hanno seguito il suo esempio il 17 maggio 1982. Il 14 luglio 1982, i membri del PKK Kemal Pir, M. Hayri Durmus, Ali Cicek e Akif Yilmaz hanno iniziato uno sciopero della fame nella prigione di Diyarbakir. Kemal Pir morì il 7 settembre 1982, M. Hayri Durmuş il 12 settembre 1982, Akif Yılmaz il 15 settembre 1982 e Ali Çiçek il 17 settembre 1982. Il 13 aprile 1984 iniziò uno sciopero della fame di 75 giorni a Istanbul. Di conseguenza, quattro prigionieri - Abdullah Meral, Haydar Başbağ, Fatih Ökütmüş e Hasan Telci - sono morti.

Il 25 ottobre 1986, il terzo congresso si tenne nella valle di Beqaa, in Libano. La mancanza di disciplina, la crescente critica interna e i gruppi di frammenti all'interno dell'organizzazione stavano sfuggendo di mano. Ciò aveva portato l'organizzazione a giustiziare alcuni critici interni, in particolare ex membri che si erano uniti a Tekosin, un'organizzazione marxista-leninista rivale. Abdullah Öcalan, il capo dell'organizzazione, ha pesantemente criticato i capi responsabili delle forze di guerriglia durante i primi anni '80 e ha avvertito altri di un destino simile, con la pena di morte, se si uniscono a gruppi rivali o si rifiutano di obbedire agli ordini. Inoltre, le sconfitte militari e la realtà del conflitto armato stavano erodendo le nozioni di un Grande Kurdistan, l'obiettivo primario dell'organizzazione. La cooperazione con partner disonesti, regimi criminali e alcuni dittatori, come Saddam Hussein che diede loro armi in cambio di informazioni sul Partito Democratico di Kurdistan di Masoud Barzani durante la campagna genocida di Al Anfal, aveva offuscato l'immagine dell'organizzazione. Durante il Congresso, i leader hanno deciso di portare avanti la lotta armata, aumentare il numero dei combattenti e sciogliere la HRK, che è stata sostituita dal Kurdistan Popular Liberation Army (ARGK). Una nuova Accademia di Mahsum Korkmaz, un'accademia di istruzione politica e militare, sostituì il nome di Helve Camp, e fu approvato un nuovo progetto di legge militare che obbligava ogni famiglia a mandare qualcuno alle forze di guerriglia.

Le decisioni prese durante il terzo Congresso hanno trasformato il PKK da un'organizzazione leninista in un'organizzazione in cui Abdullah Öcalan ha acquisito tutto il potere e lo status speciale, il cosiddetto Önderlik (leadership). Alcuni dei motivi per cui Abdullah Öcalan ha preso il potere dagli altri leader, come Murat Karayilan, Cemil Bayik e Duran Kalkan, sono stati il ​​conflitto interno in crescita e l'incapacità dell'organizzazione di fermarlo. Secondo Michael Gunter, Abdullah Öcalan, prima di catturare il potere, avrebbe effettuato una purga contro molti membri rivali del PKK, torturati e costretti a confessare di essere stati traditori prima di essere giustiziati. Ibrahim Halik, Mehmet Ali Cetiner, Mehmet Risultato Altinok, Saime Askin, Ayten Yildirim e Sabahattin Ali sono state alcune delle vittime. Più tardi nel 2006, Abdullah Öcalan ha negato le accuse e ha dichiarato nel suo libro che sia Mahsum Korkmaz, il primo supremo comandante militare del PKK, sia Engin Sincer, un comandante di alto rango, probabilmente morì a seguito di conflitti interni e descrisse i perpetratori come "bande". Le notizie trapelate, tuttavia, avevano rivelato la personalità autoritaria di Ocalan che aveva brutalmente represso il dissenso e liberato gli oppositori dall'inizio degli anni '80. Secondo David L. Philips, fino a sessanta membri del PKK furono giustiziati nel 1986, tra cui Mahsum Korkmaz, che crede sia stato assassinato il 28 marzo 1986. Tra il 1980 e il 1990, l'organizzazione prese di mira i disertori e assassinò due di loro in Svezia, due in Olanda, tre in Germania e uno in Danimarca.

Nel 1990, durante il quarto congresso, il PKK sotto pressione e le critiche decisero di porre fine alla coscrizione militare forzata, la bozza di legge militare che aveva applicato durante il terzo congresso. Alcuni membri hanno anche chiesto la fine degli attacchi ai civili che avrebbero ridotto il numero di attacchi contro i civili per alcuni anni. I tentativi dell'organizzazione di prendere in considerazione le richieste e le critiche della sua base di supporto lo hanno aiutato ad aumentare la sua popolarità tra alcuni curdi. Secondo Stanton, la relazione del PKK con i suoi sostenitori civili avrebbe probabilmente incentivato il governo a usare il terrorismo contro alcuni cittadini kurdi. Tuttavia, nonostante numerosi cambiamenti, l'organizzazione non è riuscita a porre fine ai violenti attacchi contro i civili e ha continuato a usare il terrorismo come una delle sue armi contro il governo.

Prima insurrezione

1984–1993

Aree OHAL che definivano la regione in stato di emergenza in Turchia, in rosso con province limitrofe in arancione, 1987-2002

The PKK launched its armed insurgency on 15 August 1984 with armed attacks on Eruh and Semdinli. During these attacks 1 gendarmerie soldier was killed and 7 soldiers, 2 policemen and 3 civilians were injured. It was followed by a PKK raid on a police station in Siirt, two days later.

In the early 1990s, President Turgut Özal agreed to negotiations with the PKK, the events of the 1991 Gulf War having changed some of the geopolitical dynamics in the region. Apart from Özal, himself half-Kurdish, few Turkish politicians were interested in a peace process, nor was more than a part of the PKK itself. In 1992, however, Turkey, backed by United States and Peshmergas of Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, launched Operation Northern Iraq, a cross-border operation between 9 October and 1 November against the PKK using more than 300,000 troops. Thousands of local Peshmergas with the support of more than 20,000 Turkish troops who had crossed the Iraqi border, tried to drive 10,000 PKK guerrillas from Northern Iraq. Despite the heavy casualties, the PKK managed to maintain its presence in Northern Iraq and a cease fire agreement was reached between the PKK and KRG. In 1993, Özal started to work on the peace plans with the former finance minister Adnan Kahveci and the General Commander of the Turkish Gendarmerie, Eşref Bitlis. Negotiations led to a unilateral und unconditional cease-fire by the PKK on 17 March 1993. Öcalan stated that the PKK no longer wants a partition from Turkey but peace, dialogue and free political action within the framework of a democratic state for the Kurds in Turkey. With the PKK's ceasefire declaration in hand, Özal was planning to propose a major pro-Kurdish reform package at the next meeting of the National Security Council. The president's death on 17 April led to the postponement of that meeting, and the plans were never presented. A month later a PKK ambush on 24 May 1993 ensured the end of the peace process. The former PKK commander Şemdin Sakık maintains the attack was part of the Doğu Çalışma Grubu's coup plans. Under the new Presidency of Süleyman Demirel and Premiership of Tansu Çiller, the Castle Plan (to use any and all means to solve the Kurdish question using violence), which Özal had opposed, was enacted, and the peace process abandoned. Some journalists and politicians maintain that Özal's death (allegedly by poison) along with the assassination of a number of political and military figures supporting his peace efforts, was part of a covert military coup in 1993 aimed at stopping the peace plans.

1993–1999

.

However, the turning point in the conflict came in 1998, when, after political pressure and military threats from Turkey, the PKK's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, was forced to leave Syria, where he had been in exile since September 1980. He first went to Russia, then to Italy and Greece. He was eventually brought to the Greek embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was arrested on 15 February 1999 at the airport in a joint MİT-CIA operation and brought to Turkey, which resulted in major protests by Kurds worldwide. Three Kurdish protestors were shot dead when trying to enter the Israeli consulate in Berlin to protest alleged Israeli involvement in the capture of Abdullah Öcalan. Although the capture of Öcalan ended a third cease-fire which Öcalan had declared on 1 August 1998, on 1 September 1999 the PKK declared a unilateral cease-fire which would last until 2004.

Il cessate il fuoco unilaterale

Bandiera del KADEK

Bandiera del KONGRA-GEL

After the unilateral cease-fire the PKK declared in September 1999, their forces fully withdrew from the Republic of Turkey and set up new bases in the Qandil Mountains of Iraq and in February 2000 they declared the formal end of the war. After this, the PKK said it would switch its strategy to using peaceful methods to achieve their objectives. In April 2002 the PKK changed its name to KADEK (Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress), claiming the PKK had fulfilled its mission and would now move on as purely political organisation. In October 2003 the KADEK announced its dissolution and declared the creation of a new organisation: KONGRA-GEL (Kurdistan Peoples Congress).

Offers by the PKK for negotiations were ignored by the Turkish government, which claimed, the KONGRA-GEL continued to carry out armed attacks in the 1999–2004 period, although not on the same scale as before September 1999. They also blame the KONGRA-GEL for Kurdish riots which happened during the period. The PKK argues that they only defended themselves as they claim the Turkish military launched some 700 raids against their bases militants, including in Northern Iraq. Also, despite the KONGRA-GEL cease-fire, other groups continued their armed activities, the PŞK for instance, tried to use the cease-fire to attract PKK fighters to join their organisation. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) were formed during this period by radical KONGRA-GEL commanders, dissatisfied with the cease-fire. The period after the capture of Öcalan was used by the Turkish government to launch major crackdown operations against the Turkish Hezbollah (Kurdish Hezbollah), arresting 3,300 Hizbullah members in 2000, compared to 130 in 1998, and killing the group's leader Hüseyin Velioğlu on 13 January 2000. During this phase of the war at least 145 people were killed during fighting between the PKK and security forces.

After AK Party came to power in 2002, the Turkish state started to ease restrictions on the Kurdish language and culture.

From 2003 to 2004 there was a power struggle inside the KONGRA-GEL between a reformist wing which wanted the organisation to disarm completely and a traditionalist wing which wanted the organisation to resume its armed insurgency once again. The conservative wing of the organisation won this power struggle forcing reformist leaders such as Kani Yilmaz, Nizamettin Tas and Abdullah Öcalan's younger brother Osman Öcalan to leave the organisation. The three major traditionalist leaders, Murat Karayilan, Cemil Bayik and Fehman Huseyin formed the new leadership committee of the organisation. The new administration decided to restart the insurgency, because they claimed that without guerillas the PKK's political activities would remain unsuccessful. This came as the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP) was banned by the Turkish Supreme Court on 13 March 2003 and its leader Murat Bolzak was imprisoned.

In April 2005, KONGRA-GEL reverted its name back to PKK. Because not all of the KONGRA-GEL's elements reverted, the organisation has also been referred to as the New PKK. The KONGRA-GEL has since become the Legislative Assembly of the Koma Civakên Kurdistan, an umbrella organisation which includes the PKK and is used as the group's urban and political wing. Ex-DEP member Zübeyir Aydar is the President of the KONGRA-GEL.

Through the cease-fire years 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003, some 711 people were killed according to the Turkish government. The Uppsala Conflict Data Program put casualties during these years at 368 to 467 killed.

Seconda insurrezione

Sostenitori del partito dei lavoratori del Kurdistan a Londra, aprile 2003

Una dimostrazione contro il PKK a Kadıköy, Istanbul il 22 ottobre 2007

On 1 June 2004, the PKK resumed its armed activities because they claimed Turkish government was ignoring their calls for negotiations and was still attacking their forces. The government claimed that in that same month some 2,000 Kurdish guerrillas entered Turkey via Iraqi Kurdistan. The PKK, lacking a state sponsor or the kind of manpower they had in the 90s, was however forced to take up new tactics. As result, the PKK reduced the size of its field units from 15–20 militants to 6–8 militants. It also avoided direct confrontations and relied more on the use of mines, snipers and small ambushes, using hit and run tactics. Another change in PKK-tactics was that the organisation no longer attempted to control any territory, not even after dark. Nonetheless, violence increased throughout both 2004 and 2005 during which the PKK was said to be responsible for dozens of bombings in Western Turkey throughout 2005. Most notably the 2005 Kuşadası minibus bombing, which killed 5 and injured 14 people, although the PKK denied responsibility.

In March 2006 heavy fighting broke out around Diyarbakir between the PKK and Turkish security forces, as well as large riots by PKK supporters, as result the army had to temporary close the roads to Diyarbakır Airport and many schools and businesses had to be shut down. In August, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), which vowed to "turn Turkey into hell", launched a major bombing campaign. On 25 August two coordinated low-level blasts targeted a bank in Adana, on 27 August a school in Istanbul was targeted by a bombing, on 28 August there were three coordinated attacks in Marmaris and one in Antalya targeting the tourist industry and on 30 August there was a TAK bombing in Mersin. These bombings were condemned by the PKK, which declared its fifth cease-fire on 1 October 2006, which slowed down the intensity of the conflict. Minor clashes, however, continued in the South East due to Turkish counter-insurgency operations. In total, the conflict claimed over 500 lives in 2006. 2006 also saw the PKK assassinate one of their former commanders, Kani Yilmaz, in February, in Iraq.

In May 2007, there was a bombing in Ankara that killed 6 and injured 121 people. The Turkish government alleged the PKK was responsible for the bombing. On 4 June, a PKK suicide bombing in Tunceli killed seven soldiers and wounded six at a military base. Tensions across the Iraqi border also started playing up as Turkish forces entered Iraq several times in pursuit of PKK fighting and In June, as 4 soldiers were killed by landmines, large areas of Iraqi Kurdistan were shelled which damaged 9 villages and forced residents to flee. On 7 October 2007, 40–50 PKK fighters ambushed an 18-man Turkish commando unit in the Gabar mountains, killing 15 commandos and injuring three, which made it the deadliest PKK attack since the 1990s. In response a law was passed allowing the Turkish military to take action inside Iraqi territory. Than on 21 October 2007, 150–200 militants attacked an outpost, in Dağlıca, Yüksekova, manned by a 50-strong infantry battalion. The outpost was overrun and the PKK killed 12, wounded 17 and captured 8 Turkish soldiers. They then withdrew into Iraqi Kurdistan, taking the 8 captive soldiers with them. The Turkish military claimed to have killed 32 PKK fighters in hot pursuit operations, after the attack, however this was denied by the PKK and no corpses of PKK militants were produced by the Turkish military. The Turkish military responded by bombing PKK bases on 24 October and started preparing for a major cross-border military operation.

This major cross-border offensive, dubbed Operation Sun, started on 21 February 2008 and was preceded by an aerial offensive against PKK camps in northern Iraq, which began on 16 December 2007. Between 3,000 and 10,000 Turkish forces took part in the offensive. According to the Turkish military around 230 PKK fighters were killed in the ground offensive, while 27 Turkish forces were killed. According to the PKK, over 125 Turkish forces were killed, while PKK casualties were in the tens.Template:Better source Smaller scale Turkish operations against PKK bases in Iraqi Kurdistan continued afterwards. On 27 July 2008, Turkey blamed the PKK for an Istanbul double-bombing which killed 17 and injured 154 people. The PKK however denied any involvement. On 4 October, the most violent clashes since the October 2007 clashes in Hakkari erupted as the PKK attacked the Aktutun border post in Şemdinli in the Hakkâri Province, at night. 15 Turkish soldiers were killed and 20 were injured, meanwhile 23 PKK fighters were said to be killed during the fighting. On 10 November, the Iranian Kurdish insurgent group PJAK declared it would be halting operations inside Iran to start fighting the Turkish military. Turkey counts cost of conflict as Kurdish militant battle rages on

At the start of 2009 Turkey opened its first Kurdish-language TV-channel, TRT 6, and on 19 March 2009 local elections were held in Turkey in which the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) won majority of the vote in the South East. Soon after, on 13 April 2009, the PKK declared its sixth ceasefire, after Abdullah Öcalan called on them to end military operations and prepare for peace. In September Turkey's Erdoğan-government launched the Kurdish initiative, which included plans to rename Kurdish villages that had been given Turkish names, expand the scope of the freedom of expression, restore Turkish citizenship to Kurdish refugees, strengthen local governments, and extend a partial amnesty for PK fighters. The plans for the Kurdish initiative where however heavily hurt after the DTP was banned by the Turkish constitutional court on 11 December 2009 and its leaders were subsequently put on trial for terrorism. A total of 1,400 DTP members were arrested and 900 detained in the government crackdown against the party. This caused major riots by Kurds all over Turkey and resulted in violent clashes between pro-Kurdish and security forces as well as pro-Turkish demonstrators, which resulted in several injuries and fatalities. On 7 December the PKK launched an ambush in Reşadiye which killed seven and injured three Turkish soldiers, which became the deadliest PKK attack in that region since the 1990s.

On 1 May 2010 the PKK declared an end to its cease-fire, launching an attack in Tunceli that killed four and injured seven soldiers. On 31 May, Abdullah Öcalan declared an end to his attempts at re-approachment and establishing dialogue with the Turkish government, leaving PKK top commanders in charge of the conflict. The PKK then stepped up its armed activities, starting with a missile attack on a navy base in İskenderun, killing 7 and wounding 6 soldiers. On 18 and 19 June, heavy fighting broke out that resulted in the death of 12 PKK fighters, 12 Turkish soldiers and injury of 17 Turkish soldiers, as the PKK launched three separate attacks in Hakkari and Elazig provinces.

Another major attack in Hakkari occurred on 20 July 2010, killing six and wounding seventeen Turkish soldiers, with one PKK fighter being killed. The next day, Murat Karayilan, the leader of the PKK, announced that the PKK would lay down its arms if the Kurdish issue would be resolved through dialogue and threatened to declare independence if this demand was not met. Turkish authorities claimed they had killed 187 and captured 160 PKK fighters by 14 July. By 27 July, Turkish news sources reported the deaths of over 100 security forces, which exceeded the entire 2009 toll. On 12 August, however, a ramadan cease-fire was declared by the PKK. In November the cease-fire was extended until the Turkish general election on 12 June 2011, despite alleging that Turkey had launched over 80 military operations against them during this period. Despite the truce, the PKK responded to these military operations by launching retaliatory attacks in Siirt and Hakkari provinces, killing 12 Turkish soldiers.

The cease-fire was however revoked early, on 28 February 2011. Soon afterwards three PKK fighters were killed while trying to get into Turkey through northern Iraq. In May, counter-insurgency operations left 12 PKK fighters and 5 soldiers dead. This then resulted in major Kurdish protests across Turkey as part of a civil disobedience campaign launched by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), during these protests 2 people were killed, 308 injured and 2,506 arrested by Turkish authorities. The 12 June elections saw a historical performance for the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) which won 36 seats in the South-East, which was more than the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which won only 30 seats in Kurdish areas. However, six of the 36 elected BDP deputies remain in Turkish jails as of June 2011. One of the six jailed deputies, Hatip Dicle, was then stripped of his elected position by the constitutional court, after which the 30 free MPs declared a boycott of Turkish parliament. The PKK intensified its campaign again, in July killing 20 Turkish soldiers in two weeks, during which at least 10 PKK fighters were killed. On 17 August 2011, the Turkish Armed Forces launched multiple raids against Kurdish rebels, striking 132 targets. Turkish military bombed PKK targets in northern Iraq in six days of air raids, according to General Staff, where 90–100 PKK Soldiers were killed, and at least 80 injured. From July to September Iran carried out an offensive against the PJAK in Northern Iraq, which resulted in a cease-fire on 29 September. After the cease-fire the PJAK withdrew its forces from Iran and joined with the PKK to fight Turkey. Turkish counter-terrorism operations reported a sharp increase of Iranian citizens among the insurgents killed in October and November, such as the six PJAK fighters killed in Çukurca on 28 October. On 19 October, twenty-six Turkish soldiers were killed and 18 injured in 8 simultaneous PKK attacks in Cukurca and Yuksekova, in Hakkari provieen 10,000 and 15,000 full-time, which is the highest it has ever been.

In summer 2012, the conflict with the PKK took a violent curve, in parallel with the Syrian civil war as President Bashar al-Assad ceded control of several Kurdish cities in Syria to the PYD, the Syrian affiliate of the PKK, and Turkey armed ISIS and other Islamic groups against Kurds. Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused the Assad government of arming the group. In June and August there were heavy clashes in Hakkari province, described as the most violent in years. as the PKK attempted to seize control of Şemdinli and engage the Turkish army in a "frontal battle" by blocking the roads leading to the town from Iran and Iraq and setting up DShK heavy machine guns and rocket launchers on high ground to ambush Turkish motorized units that would be sent to re-take the town. However the Turkish army avoided the trap by destroying the heavy weapons from the air and using long range artillery to root out the PKK. The Turkish military declared operation was ended successfully on 11 August, claiming to have killed 115 guerrillas and lost only six soldiers and two village guards. On 20 August, eight people were killed and 66 wounded by a deadly bombing in Gaziantep. According to the KCK 400 incidents of shelling, air bombardment and armed clashes occurred in August. On 24 September, Turkish General Necdet Özel claimed that 110 Turkish soldiers and 475 PKK militants had been killed since the start of 2012.

Processo di soluzione

On 28 December 2012, in a television interview upon a question of whether the government had a project to solve the issue, Erdoğan said that the government was conducting negotiations with jailed rebel leader Öcalan. Negotiations initially named as Solution Process (Çözüm Süreci) in public. While negotiations were going on, there were numerous events that were regarded as sabotage to derail the talks: Assassination of three Kurdish PKK administrators in Paris (one of them is Sakine Cansız), revealing Öcalan's talks with Kurdish party to public via the Milliyet newspaper and finally, the bombings of the Justice Ministry of Turkey and Erdoğan's office at the Ak Party headquarters in Ankara. However, both parties vehemently condemned all three events as they occurred and stated that they were determined anyway. Finally on 21 March 2013, after months of negotiations with the Turkish Government, Abdullah Ocalan's letter to people was read both in Turkish and Kurdish during Nowruz celebrations in Diyarbakır. The letter called a cease-fire that included disarmament and withdrawal from Turkish soil and calling an end to armed struggle. PKK announced that they would obey, stating that the year of 2013 is the year of solution either through war or through peace. Erdoğan welcomed the letter stating that concrete steps will follow PKK's withdrawal.

Guerriglia curda del PKK alla celebrazione di Newroz in Qandil, il 23 marzo 2014

On 25 April 2013, PKK announced that it would be withdrawing all its forces within Turkey to Northern Iraq. According to the Turkish government and the Kurds and most of the press, this move marks the end of 30-year-old conflict. Second phase which includes constitutional and legal changes towards the recognition of human rights of the Kurds starts simultaneously with withdrawal.

Escalation

Il 6 e 7 ottobre 2014 sono scoppiate rivolte in diverse città della Turchia per protestare contro l'assedio di Kobane. I curdi hanno accusato il governo turco di sostenere l'ISIS e di non lasciare che la gente inviasse il sostegno per i curdi di Kobane. I manifestanti sono stati incontrati con gas lacrimogeni e cannoni ad acqua. 37 persone sono state uccise nelle proteste. Durante queste proteste, ci furono degli scontri mortali tra i simpatizzanti del PKK e di Hezbollah. 3 soldati sono stati uccisi dal PKK nel gennaio 2015, come segno di crescenti tensioni nel Paese.

2015–presente

In June 2015, the main Syrian Kurdish militia, YPG, and the Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party, HDP, accused Turkey of allowing Islamic State (ISIL) soldiers to cross its border and attack the Kurdish city of Kobanî in Syria. The conflict between Turkey and PKK escalated following the 2015 Suruç bombing attack on progressive activists, which was blamed on a Turkish ISIL-affiliated group. During the Operation Martyr Yalçın, Turkey bombed alleged PKK bases in Iraq and PYD bases in Syria's Kurdish region Rojava, effectively ending the cease-fire (after many months of increasing tensions) and the killing of two policeman in the town of Ceylanpınar (which the PKK denied carrying out). Turkish warplanes also bombed YPG bases in Syria.

Combattenti delle Unità di Protezione delle Donne (YPJ) nella regione di Afrin durante l'invasione turca nel 2018

Violence soon spread throughout Turkey. Many Kurdish businesses were destroyed by mobs. The headquarters and branches of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) were also attacked. There are reports of civilians being killed in several Kurdish-populated towns and villages. The Council of Europe raised their concerns over the attacks on civilians and the blockade of Cizre. The number of casualties since 23 July was claimed by Turkish government to be 150 Turkish officers and over 2,000 Kurdish rebels killed (by September). In December 2015, Turkish military operations in the Kurdish regions of southeastern Turkey had killed hundreds of civilians, displaced hundreds of thousands and caused massive destruction in residential areas. According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, "Local human rights groups have recorded well over 100 civilian deaths and multiple injuries."

The spring of 2016 saw the seasonal uptick in combat activity. In May, a Turkish Bell AH-1 SuperCobra helicopter was documented shot down by a PKK-fired Russian made MANPADS.

In January 2018, the Turkish military and its Free Syrian Army and Sham Legion allies began a cross-border operation in the Kurdish-majority Afrin Canton in Northern Syria, against the Kurdish-led Democratic Union Party in Syria (PYD) and the U.S.-supported YPG Kurdish militia. In March 2018, Turkey launched military operations to eliminate the Kurdish PKK fighters in northern Iraq.

Serhildan

The Serhildan, or people's uprising, started on 14 March 1990, Nusaybin during the funeral of 20-year-old PKK fighter Kamuran Dundar, who along with 13 other fighters was killed by the Turkish military after crossing into Turkey via Syria several days earlier. Dundar came from a Kurdish nationalist family which claimed his body and held a funeral for him in Nusaybin in which he was brought to the city's main mosque and 5000 people which held a march. On the way back the march turned violent and protesters clashed with the police, during which both sides fired upon each other and many people were injured. A curfew was then placed in Nusaybin, tanks and special forces were brought in and some 700 people were arrested. Riots spread to nearby towns and in Cizre over 15,000 people, constituting about half the town's population took part in riots in which five people were killed, 80 injured and 155 arrested. Widespread riots took place throughout the Southeast on Nowruz, the Kurdish new-year celebrations, which at the time were banned. Protests slowed down over the next two weeks as many started to stay home and Turkish forces were ordered not to intervene unless absolutely necessarily but factory sit-ins, go-slows, work boycotts and "unauthorized" strikes were still held although in protest of the state.

Protests are often held on 21 March, or Nowruz. Most notably in 1992, when thousands of protesters clashed with security forces all over the country and where the army allegedly disobeyed an order from President Suleyman Demirel not to attack the protest. In the heavy violence that ensued during that year's Nowroz protest some 55 people were killed, mainly in Şırnak (26 killed), Cirze (29 killed) and Nusaybin (14 killed) and it included a police officer and a soldier. Over 200 people were injured and another 200 were arrested. According to Governor of Şırnak, Mustafa Malay, the violence was caused by 500 to 1,500 armed rebels which he alleged, entered the town during the festival. However, he conceded that "the security forces did not establish their targets properly and caused great damage to civilian houses."

Since Abdullah Öcalan's capture on 15 February 1998, protests are also held every year on that date.

Movimento politico curdo

Nome	Abbr.	Capo	Attività
People's Labor Party	HEP	Ahmet Fehmi Işıklar	1990–1993
Democracy Party	DEP	Yaşar Kaya	1993–1994
People's Democracy Party	HADEP	Murat Bozlak	1994–2003
Democratic People's Party	DEHAP	Tuncer Bakırhan	1997–2005
Democratic Society Movement	DTH	Leyla Zana	2005
Democratic Society Party	DTP	Ahmet Türk	2005–2009
Peace and Democracy Party	BDP	Gültan Kışanak, Selahattin Demirtaş	2008–2014
Democratic Regions Party	DBP	Emine Ayna, Kamûran Yüksek	2014–presente
Peoples' Democratic Party	HDP	Figen Yüksekdağ, Selahattin Demirtaş	2012–presente

Il 7 giugno 1990, sette membri della Grande Assemblea Nazionale della Turchia, espulsi dal Partito socialdemocratico popolare (SHP), formarono insieme il Partito del lavoro popolare (HEP) e furono guidati da Ahmet Fehmi Işıklar. Il Partito fu bandito nel luglio 1993 dalla Corte Costituzionale della Turchia per promuovere il separatismo. The party was succeeded by the Democracy Party, which was founded in May 1993. The Democracy Party, was however banned on 16 June 1994 for promoting Kurdish nationalism and four of the party's members: Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Doğan and Selim Sadak were sentenced to 14 years in prison. Zana was the first Kurdish woman to be elected into parliament. However, she sparked a major controversy by saying, during her inauguration into parliament, "I take this oath for the brotherhood between the Turkish people and the Kurdish people." In June 2004, after spending 10 years in jail, a Turkish court ordered the release of all four prisoners. In May 1994, Kurdish lawyer Murat Bozlak formed the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), which won 1,171,623 votes, or 4.17% of the national vote during the general elections on 24 December 1995 and 1,482,196 votes or 4.75% in the elections on 18 April 1999, however it failed to win any seats due to the 10% threshold. During local elections in 1999 they won control over 37 municipalities and gained representation in 47 cities and hundreds of districts. In 2002 the party became a member of Socialist International. After surviving a closure case in 1999, HADEP was finally banned on 13 March 2003 on the grounds that it had become a "centre of illegal activities which included aiding and abetting the PKK". The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2010 that the ban violated article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees freedom of association. The Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) was formed on 24 October 1997 and succeeded HADEP. DEHAP won 1,955,298 votes or 6,23% during the November 3, 2002 general election. However, it performed disappointingly during the March 28, 2004 local elections, where their coalition with the SHP and the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP) only managed to win 5.1% of the vote, only winning in Batman, Hakkâri, Diyarbakır and Şırnak Provinces, the majority of Kurdish voters voting for the AKP. After being released in 2004 Leyla Zana formed the Democratic Society Movement (DTH), which merged with the DEHAP into the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in 2005 under the leadership of Ahmet Türk.

HDP supporters celebrating their election result in İstanbul, 8 June 2015

The Democratic Society Party decided to run their candidates as independent candidates during the June 22, 2007 general elections, to get around the 10% threshold rule. Independents won 1,822,253 votes or 5.2% during the elections, resulting in a total of 27 seats, 23 of which went to the DTP. The party performed well during the March 29, 2009 local elections, however, winning 2,116,684 votes or 5.41% an doubling the number of governors from four to eight and increasing the number of mayors from 32 to 51. For the first time they won a majority in the southeast and, aside from the Batman, Hakkâri, Diyarbakır and Şırnak provinces which DEHAP had won in 2004, the DTP managed to win Van, Siirt and Iğdır Provinces from the AKP. On 11 December 2009, the Constitutional Court of Turkey voted to ban the DTP, ruling that the party had links to the PKK just like in case of previous closed Kurdish parties and authorities claimed that it is seen as guilty of spreading "terrorist propaganda". Chairman Ahmet Türk and legislator Aysel Tuğluk were expelled from Parliament, and they and 35 other party members were banned from joining any political party for five years. The European Union released a statement, expressing concern over the court's ruling and urging Turkey to change its policies towards political parties. Major protests erupted throughout Kurdish communities in Turkey in response to the ban. The DTP was succeeded by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), under the leadership of Selahattin Demirtaş. The BDP called on its supporters to boycott the Turkish constitutional referendum on 12 September 2010 because the constitutional change did not meet minority demands. Gültan Kışanak, the BDP co-chair, released a statement saying that "we will not vote against the amendment and prolong the life of the current fascist constitution. Nor will we vote in favour of the amendments and support a new fascist constitution." Due to the boycott Hakkâri (9.05%), Şırnak (22.5%), Diyarbakır (34.8%), Batman (40.62%), Mardin (43.0%), Van (43.61), Siirt (50.88%), Iğdır (51.09%), Muş (54.09%), Ağrı (56.42%), Tunceli (67.22%), Şanlıurfa (68.43%), Kars (68.55%) and Bitlis Province (70.01%) had the lowest turnouts in the country, compared to a 73.71% national average. Tunceli, however was the only Kurdish majority province where a majority of the population voted "no" during the referendum. During the June 12, 2011 national elections the BDP nominated 61 independent candidates, winning 2,819,917 votes or 6.57% and increasing its number of seats from 20 to 36. The BDP won the most support in Şırnak (72.87%), Hakkâri (70.87%), Diyarbakır (62.08%) and Mardin (62.08%) Provinces.

Vittime

Scontri di Şırnak, 2015

According to figures released by the Anadolu Agency, citing a Turkish security source, from 1984 to August 2015, there were 36,345 deaths in the conflict. This included 6,741 civilians, 7,230 security forces (5,347 soldiers, 1,466 village guards and 283 policemen) and 22,374 PKK fighters by August 2015. Among the civilian casualties, till 2012, 157 were teachers. From August 1984 to June 2007, a total of 13,327 soldiers and 7,620 civilians were said to have been wounded. About 2,500 people were said to have been killed between 1984 and 1991, while over 17,500 were killed between 1991 and 1995. The number of murders committed by Village Guards from 1985 to 1996 is put at 296 by official estimates.

Contrary to the newest estimate, earlier figures by the Turkish military put the number of PKK casualties much higher, with 26,128 PKK dead by June 2007, and 29,704 by March 2009. Between the start of the second insurgency in 2004, and March 2009, 2,462 PKK militants were claimed killed. However, later figures provided by the military for the 1984–2012 period, revised down the number of killed PKK members to 21,800.

Both the PKK and Turkish military have accused each other of civilian deaths. Since the 1970s, the European Court of Human Rights has condemned Turkey for the thousands of human rights abuses against Kurdish people. The judgments are related to systematic executions of Kurdish civilians, torturing, forced displacements, thousands of destroyed villages, arbitrary arrests, murdered and disappeared Kurdish journalists, politicians and activists. Turkey has been also condemned for killing Kurdish civilians and blaming the PKK in the ECHR (Kuskonar massacre).

According to human rights organisations since the beginning of the uprising 4,000 villages have been destroyed, in which between 380,000 and 1,000,000 Kurdish villagers have been forcibly evacuated from their homes, mainly by the Turkish military. Some 5,000 Turks and 35,000 Kurds, have been killed, 17,000 Kurds have disappeared and 119,000 Kurds have been imprisoned by Turkish authorities. According to the Humanitarian Law Project, 2,400 Kurdish villages were destroyed and 18,000 Kurds were executed, by the Turkish government. In total up to 3,000,000 people (mainly Kurds) have been displaced by the conflict, an estimated 1,000,000 of which are still internally displaced as of 2009. The Assyrian Minority was heavily affected as well, as now most (50–60 thousand/70,000) of its population is in refuge in Europe.

Sebahat Tuncel, an elected MP from the BDP, put the PKK's casualties at 18,000 as of July 2011.

Prima cessate il fuoco del 2012

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program recorded 25,825–30,639 casualties to date, 22,729–25,984 of which having died during the first insurgency, 368–467 during the cease-fire and 2,728–4,188 during the second insurgency. Casualties from 1989 to 2011, according to the UCDP are as following:

Anno	Stima minore	Stima maggiore
1989	227	234
1990	245	303
1991	304	310
1992	1.518	1.598
1993	2.099	2.394
1994	4.000	4.488
1995	3.076	3.951
1996	3.533	3.578
1997	4.247	5.483
1998	1.952	2.039
1999	1.403	1.481
2000	173	189
2001	81	96
2002	35	100
2003	79	82
2004	180	322
2005	324	611
2006	210	274
2007	458	509
2008	501	1.068
2009	128	149
2010	328	433
2011	599	822
Totale:	25.825	30.639

Le vittime del conflitto tra il 1984 e il marzo 2009 secondo lo stato maggiore della Repubblica di Turchia, la gendarmeria turca, la direzione generale della sicurezza e da allora fino a giugno 2010 secondo l'analisi di Milliyet dei dati dello stato maggiore della Repubblica di Turchia e della Gendarmeria turca era la seguente:

Anno	Forze di sicurezza	Civili	Insorti	Totale
1984	26	43	28	97
1985	58	141	201	400
1986	51	133	74	258
1987	71	237	95	403
1988	54	109	123	286
1989	153	178	179	510
1990	161	204	368	733
1991	244	233	376	853
1992	629	832	1,129	2,590
1993	715	1,479	3,050	5,244
1994	1,145	992	2,510	4,647
1995	772	313	4,163	5,248
1996	608	170	3,789	4,567
1997	518	158	7,558	8,234
1998	383	85	2,556	3,024
1999	236	83	1,458	1,787
2000	29	17	319	365
2001	20	8	104	132
2002	7	7	19	33
2003	31	63	87	181
2004	75	28	122	225
2005	105	30	188	323
2006	111	38	132	281
2007	146	37	315	498
2008	171	51	696	918
2009	62	18	65	145
2010	72	-	-	-
Totale:	6,653	5,687	29,704	42,044

Dal 2013: dal cessate il fuoco a nuovi scontri

The Belgium-based Crisis Group keeps track of casualties linked to the Kuridsh–Turkish conflict. Questi dati sono limitati alla Turchia appropriata e non includono le vittime di operazioni preventive in Siria o in Iraq.

Year	Security forces	Civilians	Unknown youth	Insurgents	Total	Note
2013	3	4	0	14	21	Cessate il fuoco concordato sia dalla Turchia (AKP) che dal PKK.
2014*	20	53	0	19	92
2015, Da gennaio a giugno: cessate il fuoco	2	3	0	6	11
La guerra è ripresa qui a causa di 2 forze di sicurezza uccise nel giugno 2015.
2015, Da luglio a dicembre: guerra	206	128	87	261	682	Il cessate il fuoco e il processo di soluzione si sono interrotti il 20 luglio 2015. Riprese lo scontro militare.
2015	208	131	87	267	693
2016	645	269	136	1,162	2,212
2017	164	50	0	591	805
2018	123	17	0+	362	502+
TOTAL	1,163	524	223	2,315	4,325

*: principalmente a causa delle rivolte curde del 6-8 ottobre 2014 in cui 42 civili sono stati uccisi dalle forze statali durante le proteste anti-governative da parte di gruppi curdi in tutta la Turchia. I manifestanti hanno denunciato la posizione di Ankara durante l'assedio dello Stato islamico a Kobani. Questo è l'incidente principale del periodo del cessate il fuoco.

L'accordo di cessate il fuoco è crollato a luglio 2015, dividendo il 2015 in due periodi nettamente diversi.

Operazioni esterne

La Turchia ha condotto scioperi e diverse operazioni di terra in Siria e in Iraq, al fine di attaccare i gruppi legati al PKK.

Date	Place	Operation	Turkish forces dead (injured)	Turkish allies dead (injured)	Kurdish forces dead (captured)
5 October – 15 November 1992	Iraq	Operation Northern Iraq	28 (125)	—	1,551 (1,232)
20 March – 4 May 1995	Iraq	Operation Steel	64 (185)	—	555 (13)
12 May – 7 July 1997	Iraq	Operation Hammer	114 (338)	—	2,730 (415)
25 September – 15 October 1997	Iraq	Operation Dawn	31 (91)	—	865 (37)
21–29 February 2008	Iraq	Operation Sun	27	—	240
24 August 2016 – 29 March 2017	Syria	Operation Euphrates Shield*	71	614	131 (37)
25 April 2017	Syria, Iraq	2017 Turkish airstrikes in Syria and Iraq	0	—	70
20 January 2018 – present	Syria	Operation Olive Branch	55	318 (Turkish claim) 2,541 (SDF claim)	820 (SDF claim) 4,558 (Turkish claim)
19 March 2018 – present	Iraq	Operation Tigris Shield in northern Iraq	112 (17)	—	234
15 August 2018	Sinjar, Iraq	Turkish strikes on Sinjar (2018)	—	—	5
Total:			502 (756)	932–3,155	7,575–11,607 (1,737)

*: La maggior parte dei combattimenti dell'operazione Euphrates Shield della Turchia erano tra TSK e TFSA contro IS su un lato, e tra YPG contro IS sull'altro, mentre le forze turche e gli YPG alleati degli Stati Uniti evitavano il conflitto su vasta scala. L'obiettivo strategico della Turchia era impedire al Cantone Afrin di connettersi con YPG Manbij e altre regioni del Rojava. Di conseguenza, solo una piccola parte di queste operazioni è stata causata da forze della Turchia contro le forze YPG.

Effetto demografico

The Turkification of predominantly Kurdish areas in country's East and South-East were also bound in the early ideas and policies of the modern Turkish nationalism, going back to as early as 1918 (the manifesto of Turkish nationalist Ziya Gokalp "Turkification, Islamization and Modernization"). The evolving Young Turk conscience adopted a specific interpretation of progressism, a trend of thought which emphasizes the human ability to make, improve and reshape human society, relying of science, technology and experimentation. This notion of social evolution was used to support and justify policies of population control – not unlike European colonialism. The paradigm of Kemalism rationalized the deportation-and-settlement program, reinforced with opinions of senior Young Turks that "In this country only the Turkish nation has the right to claim ethnic and racial rights. Nobody else has such a right." The Kurdish rebellions provided a comfortable pretext for Turkish Kemalists to implement such ideas, and in 1926 the Settlement Law was issued. It created a complex pattern of interaction between state of society, in which the regime favored its people in a distant geography, populated by locals marked as hostile (in this regard, according to Prof. Caroline Elkins, the policy of governing a distant land to send settlers in order to reshape demographics there to resemble the homeland is named "settler colonialism").

During the 1990s, a predominantly Kurdish-dominated Eastern and South-Eastern Turkey (Kurdistan) was depopulated due to the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. Turkey depopulated and destroyed rural settlements on a large scale, resulting in massive resettlement of a rural Kurdish population in urban areas and leading to development and re-design of population settlement schemes across the countryside. According to Dr. Joost Jongerden, Turkish settlement and re-settlement policies during the 1990s period were influenced by two different forces – the desire to expand administration to rural areas and an alternative view of urbanization, allegedly producing "Turkishness".

Violazioni dei diritti umani

Sia la Turchia che il PKK hanno commesso numerose violazioni dei diritti umani durante il conflitto. "L'ex ambasciatore francese in Turchia, Eric Rouleau, dichiara:

Secondo il Ministero della Giustizia, oltre alle 35.000 persone uccise nelle campagne militari, 17.500 furono assassinati tra il 1984, quando iniziò il conflitto e il 1998. Altre 1.000 persone sarebbero state assassinate nei primi nove mesi del 1999. Secondo il La stampa turca, gli autori di questi crimini, nessuno dei quali è stato arrestato, appartiene a gruppi di mercenari che lavorano direttamente o indirettamente per le agenzie di sicurezza.

Violazioni dal lato curdo

The Kurdistan Workers' Party has faced international condemnation for using terrorist tactics, which include kidnapping, civilian massacres, summary executions, suicide bombers, and child soldiers, and for its involvement in drug trafficking. The organization has targeted civilians, doctors, teachers, schools, hospitals, and other government institutions on a mass scale since the 1984, and is responsible for thousands of civilian deaths. The number of total civilian deaths perpetrated by the PKK between 1989 and 1999 was determined as 1,205 by the independent Uppsala One-Sided Violence Dataset. In 1999, a report published by HRW, stated that the PKK was believed to have been responsible for more than 768 executions. The organization had also reportedly committed more than 25 massacres, killing more than 300 innocent people, including women, elderly and children. According to Nil Satana, the author of the Kurdish Issue in June 2011 Elections, PKK attacks on civilians persisted until the organization realized that these were damaging their international prestige.

Crimini contro l'umanità

The organization has cooperated with rogue partners, violent organizations, criminal regimes and even dictators since the 80's. During the Anfal campaign, also known as the Kurdish genocide, in which over 200,000 Kurds were murdered, Saddam Hussein gave the PKK weapons in exchange for information on the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Masoud Barzani and his Peshmergas.

On 23 January 1987, a group of guerrillas attacked a wedding party in Sirnak, killing eight people, including two children and four women.

On 20 June 1987, the organization committed a massacre in the village of Pınarcık in the Mardin Province of Turkey, killing more than 30 people, mainly women and children.

On 8 July 1987, more than 16 civilians were executed by a group of PKK militants. The vast majority of victims were women and children.

On 18 August 1987, PKK fighters massacred more than 25 people in Siirt, Turkey. The vast majority of victims were children, elderly and women.

On 21 September 1987, a group of guerrillas attacked the Çiftekavak hamlet, killing ten people and wounding five. According to Turkish sources, the victims were mainly children and pregnant women.

On 10 June 1990, a group of guerrillas raided on Çevrimli village in Şırnak's Güçlükonak district, killing more than 27 people, most of them women and children. The event is known as Çevrimli massacre.

On 21 March 1990, PKK members blocked a road where they killed 9 engineers and a worker.

On 15 July 1991, PKK guerrillas burned nine villagers to death in their houses in the villages of Pazarcık and Çağlayancerit districts. The victims who were mainly women and children were accused of being spies and informers in the PKK's monthly magazine Serxwebun.

On 22 June 1992, a group of PKK members killed ten people, including two children in a raid on the houses of village guards in Batman, Turkey.

On 11 June 1992, the guerrillas executed more than 13 people from a bus they stopped in Tatvan. The event is known as the Tatvan massacre.

On 28 July 1993, 24 civilians including 14 children were massacred by PKK members in the Sundus district of Van.

On 21 October 1993, a group of PKK members killed 22 people, including 13 children in the yard of the school in Siirt.

In 1993, Human Rights Watch stated the following about the tactics of the PKK:

• Consequently, all economic, political, military, security institutions, formations and nationalist organizations—and those who serve in them—have become targets. PKK has attacked Turkish authorities outside of Kurdish areas.
• The PKK is against Turkish political parties, cultural and educational institutions, legislative and representative bodies, and "all local collaborators and agents working for the Republic of Turkey".
• Many who died were unarmed civilians, caught in the middle between the PKK and security forces, targeted for attacks by both sides.

On 1 January 1995, PKK guerrillas carried out a massacre in the Hamzali neighborhood of Kulp in Diyarbakir, killing 1 village guard and more than 20 civilians, mainly women and children. The memorial has been created for the victims in the neighborhood.

In September 1995, the PKK members raided on a mine in the Seldiren village, executing nine miners and wounding two. According to the authorities, the PKK members had threatened the miners to bring food before executing them for unknown reasons. The organization later claimed the attack in Serxwebun publication by claiming the killed miners were soldiers and 'fascists'.

On 24 December 1998, a female member of the organization carried out a bomb attack on a school shuttle, killing a student and wounding 21 others.

On 31 October 2010, Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) carried out a suicide bombing in the Taksim Square in Istanbul, injuring 17 civilians and 15 police officers.

On 13 March 2016, a member of the Kurdish militant group Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) carried out a suicide terrorist attack in Ankara, killing more than 37 civilians.

On 27 April 2016, Eser Cali, a female member of Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), blew herself up near an Ottoman-era mosque in the Turkish city of Bursa, wounding 13 people. Two days later, the Kurdish militant group Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed the responsibility.

On 24 November 2016, TAK claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack that killed two people and wounded 30 more in Adana.

On 8 January 2008, a bomb attack carried out by PKK members in Diyarbakir killed six people, including three children and wounded 110 people.

Rapimenti

Nelle sue fasi iniziali, il PKK ha reclutato sistematicamente bambini, uomini e donne rapendoli. Questo costrinse le famiglie i cui figli erano già membri dell'organizzazione a cooperare e quindi a trasformarli in complici, il che aumentò il numero di donne che si univano al gruppo, secondo la pubblicazione, pubblicata dalla Jamestown Foundation. Il sistematico sequestro di bambini era al culmine tra la fine degli anni '80 e l'inizio degli anni '90, quando il PKK decise di costringere ogni famiglia a mandare qualcuno a servire le sue ali armate dopo il terzo congresso. Molti bambini rapiti sono stati descritti come eroi in Serxwebun, la rivista mensile del PKK, dopo essere stati uccisi negli scontri. Alcune vittime come Esengul Akgul, un bambino soldato che era stato rapito quando aveva solo dieci anni nel 1990, sono stati descritti come "combattenti rivoluzionari" modello quando sono morti.

Un rapporto pubblicato dalla Federazione degli scienziati americani ha dichiarato che la politica di reclutamento forzato del PKK da parte del rapimento è drammaticamente aumentata dal 1994. L'organizzazione ha usato la politica per compensare le sue pesanti perdite sin dai primi giorni del conflitto. Nel 2014, un gruppo di famiglie curde ha organizzato un sit-in davanti al municipio della provincia sud-orientale di Diyarbakir per protestare contro il reclutamento forzato dei loro figli da parte del PKK. Dopo due settimane di proteste, le famiglie hanno iniziato lo sciopero della fame per chiedere il ritorno dei loro bambini rapiti.

Il 28 maggio 2012 un gruppo di militanti ha rapito 10 lavoratori impegnati in un progetto di costruzione di strade a Iğdır. Un mese dopo, un altro gruppo di militanti bloccò la strada tra Diyarbakir e Bingöl e rapì un turista britannico.

Terrorismo

All'inizio degli anni '80, Abdullah Öcalan, il leader dell'organizzazione, ha chiesto ai civili di scegliere tra lealtà al governo e sostegno al PKK, che ha portato alla campagna di terrore contro i civili, i medici, le élite curde, le istituzioni, le scuole e persino gli ospedali . Migliaia di persone sono state uccise per aver servito il governo o semplicemente per aver rifiutato di sostenere l'organizzazione. Inoltre, centinaia di scuole sono state bruciate e oltre 217 insegnanti sono stati uccisi. Il PKK considerava le scuole come "emblemi dell'imperialismo turco" appartenente al "sistema di assimilazione coloniale" e una giustificazione per l'uccisione di insegnanti era che insegnavano turchi a bambini curdi.

In the early 90's, the organization began to bomb civilian targets and commit massacres against innocent civilians after the government refused to negotiate. According to Jessica Stanton, an associate professor in the global policy area, the shift in PKK tactics was a direct response to government behavior. Abdullah Öcalan, the organization's leader, stated publicly:

«Se gli attacchi a obiettivi militari e di polizia non potessero costringere il governo a negoziare, allora forse gli attacchi contro obiettivi civili lo farebbero.»

La campagna terroristica dell'organizzazione è stata così brutale da causare persino critiche all'interno dell'organizzazione. Durante la quarta conferenza dell'organizzazione, alcuni membri dell'organizzazione hanno chiesto la fine degli attacchi contro i civili, che hanno ridotto il numero di attacchi per alcuni anni, ma non li ha fermati. L'organizzazione ha continuato a massacrare civili, bombardare siti turistici e alberghi e rapire turisti, ed è considerata responsabile di circa 7.000 morti civili da quando è stata fondata. Nel 1997, il Dipartimento di Stato ha elencato il PKK come un'organizzazione terroristica straniera basata sul suo uso continuo della violenza durante gli anni '90..

Il 21 ottobre 1993, l'organizzazione ha commesso il massacro di Derince, uccidendo 22 persone della stessa famiglia. Donne, bambini e bambini sono stati brutalmente giustiziati dopo essere stati accusati di cooperare con lo stato. Il PKK ha anche giustiziato panettieri che consegnavano il pane alle basi militari, bruciato e ucciso i proprietari delle stazioni di rifornimento che servivano le autorità nelle zone in cui erano attivi. Vietano la distribuzione dei giornali turchi e l'osservazione dei canali televisivi turchi, costringendo il abitanti per rimuovere le loro antenne. Agli abitanti è stato vietato di aderire a qualsiasi partito politico turco e sono stati costretti a ottenere l'approvazione del PKK se dovessero candidarsi per gli uffici locali. Secondo quanto riportato da Amnesty International nel 1997, il PKK ha torturato e ucciso contadini curdi e propri membri che erano contrari negli anni '80. Dozzine di civili curdi sono stati rapiti e uccisi perché sospettati di essere collaboratori o informatori. Secondo un rapporto del 1996 di Amnesty International, "nel gennaio 1996 il governo [turco] ha annunciato che il PKK aveva massacrato 11 uomini vicino al remoto villaggio di Güçlükonak, sette delle quali erano membri delle forze di guardia locali del villaggio".

Tra il 1995 e il 1999, i "team di guerriglieri suicidi" dell'organizzazione, costituiti principalmente da donne, erano responsabili di 21 attacchi terroristici suicidi in Turchia.

Il 6 novembre 2018, il Dipartimento di Stato ha elencato i tre massimi dirigenti del PKK, Murat Karayılan, Cemil Bayik e Duran Kalkan, nel suo programma per la giustizia sviluppato dal Dipartimento di Stato degli Stati Uniti per l'antiterrorismo. Il programma elenca i nomi e le informazioni dei terroristi più ricercati al mondo.

Esecuzioni

Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the organization, who captured power by brutally suppressing dissent and purging opponents after the PKK's third Congress, consolidated absolute power through a campaign of torture and executions he started against the closest cadres in 1980. Only in 1986, the PKK executed more than sixty of its members, including Mahsum Korkmaz, who is believed to have been murdered during the clashes on 28 March 1986. The organization also targeted the defectors and assassinated at least eight of them in the EU. Hüseyin Yıldırım, a lawyer and the PKK's former spokesman in Brussels, who broke with Öcalan and left the organization in 1987 stated:

«The PKK executed many of its members. The revolutionaries I knew, whom I trusted, were shot. Many people, regardless of whether they were women or children, were killed in the country. Öcalan wanted to be accepted through violence. Many people were killed in Bekaa Valley (old training camps). If you dig, you will find corpses.»

On 27 September 2017, the organization kidnapped and executed Mahmut Bazancir who was mistakenly accused of being an informer.

On 21 June 2017, a group of militants kidnapped 23 years old teacher Necmettin Yilmaz and executed him. The armed wing of the organization, HPG, had accused him of being a spy.

In 2017, the state-run news agency, Daily Sabah, reported that more than 570 PKK members had surrendered to Turkish security forces since 2007. The reports, compiled from the confessions of surrendered PKK members, had revealed the details of the executions and torture practices within the organization. Two PKK members, Harun Koçer and Yusuf Birsen, had been executed after refusing to obey the orders of the organization. In some cases, members had been executed only for rejecting the orders of the local commanders. Additionally, the report listed some cases of rape and sexual abuse as well as threats within the organization.

On 25 July 2018, Mevlüt Bengi, a father of 6 children, was executed and tied to an electricity tower by guerrillas, who reportedly justified the execution by accusing him of being a collaborator with the AK Party, which he had served as an election observer at the ballot boxes in his district during the 24 June elections.

Bambini soldato

According to the TEPAV think-tank which did research on the identities of 1,362 PKK fighters who lost their lives between 2001 and 2011, 42% of the recruits were under 18, with over a quarter of these being under 15 years of age at the time of recruiting. The organization is still actively recruiting child soldiers and it has been accused of abducting more than 2,000 children by Turkish Security Forces. The latest independent reports by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), the United Nations(UN) and the Amnesty International have confirmed the recruitment and use of child soldiers by the organization and its armed wings since the 90's. The organization is also believed to have used the children in the drug trade.

In 2008, a report published by Child Soldiers International stated that the PKK was believed in 1998 to have had 3,000 child soldiers in its forces based in Iraq and operating in Southeast Turkey.

Crimini sessuali

On 25 November 2018, the state-run news agency Anadolu Ajansi reported that the testimonies of captured female members had revealed widespread rape crimes within the organization. In some cases, even little children abducted from Syria had been raped by members of the organization.

Traffico di droga

In 2011, the report published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) stated that the instability in Iraq had helped the PKK to develop and use Iraq as a transhipment point for heroin. The PKK was reported to collect taxes per kilogram of heroin trafficked to Turkey from the borders of Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq, with potential profits reaching US$200 million annually. Another report published by European Police Office (EUROPOL) in the same year stated the organization is actively involving in money laundering, illicit drugs and human trafficking, as well as illegal immigration inside and outside the EU for funding and running its activities.

In 2012, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the designation of four Moldovan-based individuals Zeyneddin Geleri, Cerkez Akbulut, and Omer Boztepe as specially designated narcotics traffickers for drug trafficking on behalf of the PKK in Europe. According to the OFAC, Zeynedding Geleri was identified as a high-ranking member of the PKK while two others were reportedly just PKK activists. The OFAC stated that the drug trafficking is one of the PKK's criminal activities it uses to obtain weapons and materials to fight the Turkish government.

Violazioni dal lato turco

Since the 1970s, the European Court of Human Rights has condemned Turkey for thousands of human rights abuses against Kurdish people. The judgments are related to systematic executions of Kurdish civilians, forced recruitments, torturing, forced displacements, thousands of destroyed villages, arbitrary arrests, murdered and disappeared Kurdish journalists. The latest judgments are from 2014. According to David L. Philips, more than 1,500 people affiliated with the Kurdish opposition parties and organizations were murdered by unidentified assailants between 1986 and 1996. The government backed mercenaries assassinated hundreds of suspected PKK sympathizers. The Turkish government is held responsible by Turkish human rights organizations for at least 3,438 civilian deaths in the conflict between 1987 and 2000.

Hakkari, 2016

Crimini contro l'umanità

In November 1992, the Turkish gendarmerie officers forced the leader of the Kelekçi village to evacuate all of the inhabitants, before shooting at them and their houses with heavy weapons. The soldiers set up fire to nine houses and forced all villagers to flee. Later soldiers burned the rest of the village and destroyed all 136 houses.

In 1993, Mehmet Ogut, his pregnant wife and all their seven children were burned to death by Turkish special forces soldiers. The Turkish authorities initially blamed the PKK and refused to investigate the case until it was opened again 17 years later. The investigations eventually came to an end in late 2014 with sentences of life imprisonment for three gendarme officers, a member of the special forces and nine soldiers.

On 8 September 1993, the Turkish Air Force dropped a bomb near the Munzur mountains, killing 2 women. In the same year, Turkish security forces attacked the town of Lice, destroying 401 houses, 242 shops and massacring more than thirty civilians, and leaving one hundred wounded.

On 26 March 1994 the Turkish military planes (F-16's) and a helicopter circled two villages and bombed them, killing 38 Kurdish civilians. The Turkish authorities blamed the PKK and took pictures of the dead children and spread in the press. The European Court of Human rights condemned Turkey to pay 2,3 million euros to the families of victims. The event is known as the Kuşkonar massacre.

In 1995, Human Rights Watch reported that it was common practice for Turkish soldiers to kill Kurdish civilians and take pictures of their corpses with the weapons, they carried only for staging the events. Killed civilians were shown to press as PKK "terrorists".

In 1995, The European newspaper published in its front page pictures of Turkish soldiers who posed for camera with the decapitated heads of the Kurdish PKK fighters. Kurdish fighters were beheaded by Turkish special forces soldiers.

In the late March 2006, the Turkish security forces who tried to prevent the funerals of the PKK fighters clashed with the demonstrators, killing at least eight Kurdish protesters, including four children under the age of 10.

Cizre, 2016

In August 2015, Amnesty International reported that the Turkish government airstrikes killed eight residents and injured at least eight others – including a child – in a flagrantly unlawful attack on the village of Zergele, in the Kandil Mountains in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Il 21 gennaio 2016, un rapporto pubblicato da Amnesty International ha dichiarato che più di 150 civili erano stati uccisi a Cizre. Secondo Amnesty International, il coprifuoco era stato imposto in più di 19 diverse città e distretti, mettendo a rischio la vita di centinaia di migliaia di persone. Inoltre, il rapporto affermava che le restrizioni sproporzionate del governo in materia di movimento e altre misure arbitrarie assomigliavano a punizioni collettive, un crimine di guerra nell'ambito delle Convenzioni di Ginevra del 1949.

Human Rights Watch notes that:

• Come Human Rights Watch ha spesso denunciato e condannato, le forze governative turche hanno anche commesso gravi violazioni dei diritti umani internazionali e del diritto umanitario, incluse torture, uccisioni extragiudiziali e fuoco indiscriminato durante il conflitto con il PKK. Continuiamo a chiedere al governo turco di indagare e ritenere responsabili quei membri delle sue forze di sicurezza responsabili di tali violazioni. Nondimeno, secondo il diritto internazionale, gli abusi del governo non possono in alcun caso essere visti per giustificare o scusare quelli commessi dal PKK di Ocalan.
• Il Partito dei lavoratori kurdi (PKK), un gruppo separatista che abbraccia l'uso della violenza per scopi politici, continua a condurre la guerriglia nel sud-est, spesso in violazione del diritto internazionale umanitario o delle leggi di guerra. Invece di tentare di catturare, interrogare e incriminare persone sospettate di attività illegali, le forze di sicurezza turche hanno ucciso i sospetti in incursioni domestiche, fungendo quindi da investigatore, giudice, giuria e boia. La polizia ha regolarmente affermato che tali morti si sono verificate in scontri a fuoco tra polizia e "terroristi". In molti casi, testimoni oculari hanno riferito che nessun fuoco veniva dalla casa o dall'appartamento attaccati. Rapporti affidabili hanno indicato che, mentre gli occupanti di locali razziati sono stati colpiti e uccisi, nessuna polizia è stata uccisa o ferita durante i raid. Questa discrepanza suggerisce che le uccisioni sono state sommarie, esecuzioni extragiudiziali, in violazione dei diritti umani internazionali e del diritto umanitario.

Turkish–Kurdish human right activists in Germany accused Turkey of using chemical weapons against PKK. Hans Baumann, a German expert on photo forgeries, investigated the authenticity of the photos and claimed that the photos were authentic. A forensics report released by the Hamburg University Hospital has backed the allegations. Claudia Roth from Germany's Green Party demanded an explanation from the Turkish government. The Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selçuk Ünal commented on the issue. He said that he did not need to emphasize that the accusations were groundless. He added that Turkey signed to the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997, and Turkey did not possess chemical weapons. Turkey has been a signatory to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction since 1997, and has passed all inspections required by such convention.

In response to the activities of the PKK, the Turkish government placed Southeastern Anatolia, where citizens of Kurdish descent are in the majority, under military rule. The Turkish Army and the Kurdish village guards loyal to it have abused Kurdish civilians, resulting in mass migrations to cities. The Government claimed that the displacement policy aimed to remove the shelter and support of the local population and consequently, the population of cities such as Diyarbakır and Cizre more than doubled. However martial law and military rule was lifted in the last provinces in 2002.

Terrorismo di stato

Since its foundation, the Republic of Turkey has pursued variously assimilationist and repressive policies towards the Kurdish people. At the beginning of the conflict, the PKK's relationship with its civilian supporters created incentives for the Turkish government to use terrorism against the Kurdish citizens in the Kurdish dominated southeast region of Turkey. Since the early 1980s, the authorities have systematically used arbitrary arrests, executions of suspects, excessive force, and torture to suppress the opponents. In 1993, the report published by Human Rights Watch stated:

«Kurds in Turkey have been killed, tortured and disappeared at an appalling rate since the coalition government of Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel took office in November 1991. In addition, many of their cities have been brutally attacked by security forces, hundreds of their villages have been forcibly evacuated, their ethnic identity continues to be attacked, their rights to free expression denied and their political freedom placed in jeopardy.»

Secondo Human Rights Watch, le autorità hanno persino giustiziato i civili curdi e preso le immagini dei loro cadaveri con le armi, che hanno portato a mettere in scena gli eventi, al fine di mostrarli come "terroristi" del Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Nel 1995, un altro rapporto pubblicato da Human Rights Watch ha dichiarato:

«Based on B.G.'s statement and substantial additional evidence, Human Rights Watch believes that the official government casualty estimates severely misrepresent the true number of civilians slain by government forces. It is likely that many of the persons referred to in the official estimates as "PKK casualties" were in fact civilians shot by mistake or deliberately killed by security forces. Witness testimony also demonstrates that many of the Turkish government's denials of wrong-doing by the Turkish security forces are fabrications manufactured by soldiers or officials somewhere along the government's chain of command.»

Sparare e uccidere manifestanti pacifici è stato uno dei metodi con cui le forze di sicurezza hanno usato per diffondere la paura. Nel 1992, le forze di sicurezza hanno ucciso più di 103 manifestanti, 93 dei quali durante la celebrazione di Newroz in tre città curde. Nessun membro della forza di sicurezza è mai stato accusato di alcuno dei decessi.

Nei primi anni '90, centinaia di persone erano scomparse dopo essere state arrestate dalle forze di sicurezza. Solo nel 1992, più di 450 persone sarebbero state uccise. Tra quelli uccisi c'erano giornalisti, insegnanti, medici, attivisti per i diritti umani e leader politici. Le forze di sicurezza di solito hanno negato di aver arrestato le vittime, ma a volte hanno affermato di aver rilasciato le vittime dopo averle "trattenute per un breve periodo". Secondo l'Associazione per i diritti umani (İHD), ci sono stati 940 casi di sparizione forzata dagli anni '90. Inoltre, si ritiene che oltre 2548 persone uccise in omicidi extragiudiziali siano state sepolte in 253 sepolture separate. Il 6 gennaio 2011, i corpi di 12 persone sono stati trovati in una fossa comune nei pressi di una vecchia stazione di polizia a Mutki, Bitlis. Alcuni mesi dopo, altre tre fosse comuni sono state trovate nel giardino della stazione di polizia di Çemişgezek.

Nel 1997, Amnesty International (AI) ha riferito che le sparizioni e le esecuzioni extragiudiziali erano emerse come modelli nuovi e inquietanti di violazioni dei diritti umani da parte dello stato turco.

Nel 2006, l'ex ambasciatore Rouleau ha affermato che il persistere delle violazioni dei diritti umani dei kurdi etnici è uno dei principali ostacoli all'adesione della Turchia all'Unione europea

Torture

Nell'agosto del 1992, Human Rights Watch riferì la vile pratica della tortura da parte delle forze di sicurezza in Turchia. Le vittime della tortura intervistate da Helsinki Watch hanno rivelato la pratica sistematica della tortura contro i detenuti in custodia di polizia. Sedici persone erano morte in circostanze sospette in custodia di polizia, dieci di loro erano curdi nel sud-est.

Nel 2013, The Guardian ha riferito che lo stupro e la tortura dei prigionieri curdi in Turchia sono inquietanti luoghi comuni. Secondo il rapporto, pubblicato da Amnesty International nel 2003, Hamdiye Aslan, un prigioniero accusato di sostenere il gruppo separatista curdo, il PKK, era stato detenuto nella prigione di Mardin, nel sud-est della Turchia, per quasi tre mesi in cui, a quanto si dice, era bendata , violentata analmente con un manganello, minacciata e derisa dagli ufficiali.

Nel febbraio 2017, un rapporto pubblicato dall'Ufficio dell'Alto commissario delle Nazioni Unite per i diritti umani ha dichiarato che le autorità turche avevano picchiato e pugnalato detenuti, usando violenza sessuale, tra cui stupri e minacce di stupro. In alcuni casi, i detenuti sono stati fotografati nudi e minacciati di pubblica umiliazione dopo essere stati torturati dalle autorità turche.

Esecuzioni

Il 25 febbraio 1992, Cengiz Altun, il corrispondente di Batman per il giornale pro-curdo settimanale Yeni Ulke, fu trovato morto (giustiziato) dopo essere stato minacciato di morte alla Gendus Gendarmerie Station. Più di 33 giornalisti curdi che lavoravano per diversi giornali vennero uccisi tra il 1990 e il 1995. Le uccisioni di giornalisti curdi erano iniziate dopo che la stampa filo-curda aveva iniziato a pubblicare il primo quotidiano con il nome di "Özgür Gündem" (Agenda gratuita). Musa Anter, un eminente intellettuale e giornalista curdo di Özgur Gundem, è stato assassinato dai membri della Gendarmerie Intelligence Organization nel 1992.

Nel 1992, le forze di sicurezza turche hanno ucciso settantaquattro persone in incursioni domestiche e oltre cento persone in manifestazioni.

Nell'ottobre 2016 sono apparse immagini amatoriali che mostravano soldati turchi che eseguivano due membri femminili del PKK catturati vivi.

Nel febbraio 2017, l'Ufficio dell'Alto commissario delle Nazioni Unite per i diritti umani ha pubblicato un rapporto che condanna il governo turco per aver eseguito esecuzioni sistematiche, espellendo civili, stuprando e torturando detenuti nel sud-est della Turchia.

Arresti

Dall'inizio degli anni '80, il governo turco è stato responsabile di centinaia di migliaia di arresti e detenzioni arbitrari.

Voci correlate

• Solution process
• Iraqi–Kurdish conflict
• Iranian–Kurdish conflict
• Timeline of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict
• List of Turkish Armed Forces operations in Northern Iraq
• Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War
• Turkey–ISIL conflict
• Maoist insurgency in Turkey
• List of modern conflicts in the Middle East

Note

• the Kurdish question, the Kurdish insurgency, the Kurdish rebellion, the Kurdish–Turkish conflict, or PKK-terrorism as well as the latest Kurdish uprising or as a civil war. </ref>