Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)

About

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is a Kurdish separatist group primarily active in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. The group, composed primarily of Turkish Kurds, launched a campaign of violence in 1984. The PKK’s original goal was to establish an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey. In the early 1990s, the PKK moved beyond rural-based insurgent activities to engage in urban terrorism.

The PKK foreswore violence from 1999 until June 2004, when its hardline militant wing took control and renounced the self-imposed cease-fire. In 2009, the Turkish government and the PKK resumed peace negotiations. However, talks broke down after the PKK carried out an attack in July 2011 that killed 13 Turkish soldiers. PKK and Turkish forces clashed repeatedly in 2011 and 2012, including an attack in October 2011 that killed 24 Turkish troops and was the deadliest incident since 1993. In 2018, numerous attacks by the PKK were reported against Turkey’s security forces, including an attack claimed by the PKK in November against a Turkish army base that resulted in dozens of casualties.

On October 8, 1997, the U.S. Department of State designated the PKK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended. Later, on October 31, 2001, the Department of State designated the PKK as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended. As a result, all of the PKK’s property, and interests in property, subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the PKK. It is a crime to knowingly provide, or to attempt or conspire to provide, material support or resources to the PKK.