Key dates of the Kurdish conflict
ANKARA: With roots in the carve-up of the Ottoman Empire, the drive by Kurdish groups for autonomy from Turkey repeatedly spilled into bloodshed, with conflict in recent decades costing tens of thousands of lives and sparking harsh reprisals by Ankara. In 1984, Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan launched an armed struggle with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) he co-founded and the fighting has left more than 40,000 dead. Here is a timeline of a century of Kurdish rebellion:
1920: Autonomy promised
After the Ottoman Empire is defeated by Allied powers in World War I, the 1920 Treaty of Sevres envisages-among its many provisions-the creation of an autonomous Kurdistan.
But Turkish nationalists led by Ottoman army general Mustafa Kemal Ataturk oppose the harsh terms of the treaty, which chops off large parts of Ottoman territory, and launch a successful “Independence War”. It results in a new accord, the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which establishes the boundaries of modern Turkey and effectively backtracks on Kurdish autonomy. Kurds remain straddled across Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Until 1938 Kurds mount several rebellions to demand independence, but they are subdued by force, resulting in the deaths of thousands.
1978: Kurdish group formed
In 1978 Abdullah Ocalan and a group of MarxistLeninist students found the PKK in southeastern Turkey to seek an independent Kurdish zone in that area. Most of Turkey’s 15 million Kurds, 20 percent of the population, live in its southeast near areas of Iran, Iraq and Syria, countries which also have Kurdish populations.
1984: Armed struggle
In 1984 Ocalan orders from exile the PKK to start an armed struggle. Its first attacks are against Turkish authorities in the southeastern towns of Eruh and Semdinli. It steps up its military campaign with strikes against security forces, tourist sites and the proAnkara “village guards” militia. Ankara declares a state of emergency in Kurdish provinces in 1987.
1992: Under attack in Iraq
In 1992 the Turkish army mounts a vast air and land operation against PKK bases in northern Iraq’s Qandil mountains, from where they are launching attacks across the border in Turkey. The Iraqi Kurds back the Turkish army, which carries out regular incursions into the area involving thousands of troops.
1999: Ocalan arrested, jailed
In 1999 Ocalan-on the run since 1980 - is captured in Kenya during an undercover operation by Turkish security forces. He is sentenced to death in June for treason, separatism and murder. The sentence is commuted in 2002 to life in prison after Turkey abolishes the death penalty. In concessions to the Kurdish population, the Turkish parliament allows Kurdish-language television programs and education.
2013: Ceasefire
After several failed attempts for talks, secret negotiations start in late 2012 between the Turkish intelligence service and Ocalan. In March 2013 the jailed leader announces a unilateral ceasefire, telling fighters to lay down their arms. But in September the PKK halt a planned pull-out of their fighters from Turkish soil, saying reforms promised by Ankara in exchange had not gone far enough.
2015: Conflict resumes
The fragile truce is ripped apart in July 2015 by an attack that kills more than 30 people in the mainly Kurdish town of Suruc on the border with Syria. It is blamed on the Islamic State (IS) group, who since 2011 had been waging war in Syria, but Kurdish guerrillas retaliate against the Turkish security forces, accusing them of not protecting the local population. Ankara in turn launches a “war against terrorism” that targets simultaneously the PKK and IS in Syria with air and ground strikes. “The conditions for maintaining the ceasefire... have been eliminated,” says the PKK’s military wing. In 2016 Turkey sends troops into Syria in a bid to push back from its border the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. Ankara views the group as linked to the PKK and having the same objective of creating an autonomous Kurdish “canton” on the border. — AFP