What about the Turkey-PKK conflict

For more than four decades, Turkey has been fighting an armed uprising by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a militant group that says that it is looking for greater rights for the Kurdish minority of the country.

More than 40,000 people were killed in the conflict, in both PKK attacks on military and civilian goals, and Turkish military operations against the militants and the communities that accommodate them. Turkey, the United States and other countries regard the group as a terrorist organization.

Now the founder of the group, Abdullah Ocalan, has Courted Kurdish hunters to put down their arms – Although it remains unclear how effective its plea will be and what the Turkish government offers the group in exchange for ending the fighting.

This is what about the PKK and his conflict with Turkey.

Who are the PKK?

The group launched an armed uprising against the Turkish state in the early 1980s, originally looking for independence for the Kurds, which are believed to be about 15 percent or more of the Turkish population.

From the mountains in East and South Turkey, PKK hunters attacked the Turkish military bases and police stations, which led to hard reactions from the government. Later the conflict spread to other parts of the country, with devastating PKK bombing in Turkish cities who killed many citizens.

In 1999, Turkey conquered Mr Ocalan and condemned him that he led an armed terrorist organization. He received a death sentence that was later converted to life in prison. He remains honored by the members of the group.

Since his imprisonment, Mr Ocalan has moved his ideology from separation and to Kurdish rights in Turkey.

In the past decade, the Turkish army has led PKK troops of large Kurdish cities in southeast Turkey, using drones to kill his leaders and hunters, causing his ability to organize and implement attacks.

The conflict has been low cooking for years, although incidental PKK attacks have revived the fear of a broader conflict. Last year a small team of his militants rushed the head office of a space -run space company in armed with guns and explosives and killed Five employees Before the security forces regained control.

Who are the Kurds?

The Kurds are an ethnic group of around 40 million people – there are strongly varying estimates – concentrated in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

They speak several dialects of Kurdish, a language that is not directly related to Turkish or Arabic. Most are Sunni Muslims.

The Kurds were promised their own nation by world powers after the First World War, but that was never granted. There were Kurdish rebellies in different countries in the next generations, and Kurds had had to deal with state suppression of their language and culture.

In Syria, the roots led by Kurdish by Syrian Democratic troops, whose leaders have followed in the PKK and the ideology of Mr Ocalan, the northeastern part of the country checks. They have been supported by the United States for years and played a crucial role in beating the Islamic State, but has the fall of the Syrian Strongman Bashar al-Assad in December their future status left unclear. They collide with Turkish-supported Syrian rebels and stay out of the control of the new Syrian government in Damascus.

Since the Gulf War of 1991, the largely Kurdish Northern region of Iraq has been a semi -autonomous. The PKK leadership is now located in the Qandil Mountains of Noord -Irak. In recent years, Turkey has attacked the group and affiliated militias in Iraq and Syria while lobbying the Iraqi government to expel it.

How did earlier peace efforts do it?

There are several efforts to freeze or terminate the Turkey-PKK conflict, started with a ceasefire in 1993. But they all collapsed, often led to a larger bloodshed.

Violence flared up and off until a new round of peace talks started in 2011. At that time, Turkish intelligence officers met Mr Ocalan in prison to map a plan for his hunters to disarm, and Kurdish politicians promoted messages between him and his employees in the north of Iraq.

But the process collapsed in mid -2015, where each side blamed the others for the failure. One of the most deadly phases of the conflict followed, with threw fights in cities in southeastern Turkey who killed more than 7,000 people, According to the International Crisis Group.

Will this time be different?

Although Turkey is still the PKK as Separatist terrorist group That does not represent the Kurdish people, it has recognized some historical violations of Kurdish rights and broadened the margins for Kurdish language and culture.

It has licensed television and radio broadcasts in Kurdish language and has allowed Kurdish language in some schools as an elective course.

At the same time, however, since 2015, the government has removed more than 150 chosen mayors from their posts, according to the equality and democracy party of the people who represent the pro-Kurdish movement politically and has seats in parliament.

Most removed mayors were accused and some convicted of crimes related to the PKK

Human Rights Watch has Called the removal of Kurdish mayors, motivated politically motivated and a violation of the rights of voters.