Kurdistan Workers Party, PKK Quotes

Objecting to the United States supporting the Kurdish Peshmerga forces attacking ISIS in Syria when they were affiliated with the PKK an organization that used terror tactics to gain independence for Kurds in Turkey.

A large proportion of Turks are of Kurdish extraction. A minority of the Turkish Kurds want to take part of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran and create a new state of their own—Kurdistan. The PKK has been a revolutionary terror organization within Turkey and other nations and at the time Turkey, unwisely many thought, restricted the use of the Kurdish language as there was a movement there similar to the English only movement in the U. S. at the turn of the millennium. The official position is that all were Turks and there were not separate peoples. Zana, a member of Parliament had Parliamentary Immunity, although she shocked and outraged the conservative, nationalist Turkish establishment. When she left Parliament she joined an illegal political party, was sentenced to jail for terrorism on the testimony of two people who had been tortured and in response to international protests was released in 2004. A number of American Congressmen nominated Zana for the Nobel Peace Prize.

He had been responsible for the violent deaths of thousands of people, mostly innocent civilians in his attempt to establish an independent nation of “Kurdistan.” His position is that with technology and the media, violence and terrorism are no longer necessary for a dissident political independence movement to succeed. However, he was found guilty for his past violence and was jailed for life. The PKK continued its terrorism. See {620143}.

Turkey, following the French model, only allowed for one kind of citizen, and resisted the notion of different kinds of Turkish citizens. Some Turks of Kurdish extraction, however, wanted to maintain a separate identity, language, culture and sought political independence to join with the Kurds of Iraq and Iran to form their own nation. They used violence to attain their political ends. The Turkish response to this separatist threat was particularly heavy handed and the conflict escalated. The PKK lead by Ocalan killed thousands of Turks with bombings and other terrorist attacks, and the government troops also killed many trying to combat the terrorism. Finally, Ocalan was jailed, and the terrorism diminished.

This party has been outlawed in Turkey. The PKK has not only threatened Turks who might vote the “wrong way,” but they have killed thousands and are one of the most serious terrorist organizations in the world. Their objective is that the ethnic Kurds be given control over an area of Turkey adjacent to Iraq where they can form a Kurdish state by combining the ethnic Kurds from Turkey, Iraq, and Iran on land from all three nations. The goal of an independent Kurdistan is not unreasonable—the Kurds of Iraq already have an autonomous Province, but their methods have been so violent and repulsive that even those who historically believe the Kurds ought to have a homeland, would not want to reward such terrorists for their crimes.