Turkey’s PKK Conflict: A Visual Explainer

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Context: Turkey’s conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – recognised as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU – continues in south-eastern Turkey and northern Iraq. In northern Syria, Ankara and the PKK’s Syrian affiliate, the People’s Protection Forces (YPG), remain pitted against each other. On the home front, the government is pursuing crackdown on the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) against which a party closure case is ongoing.

Battleground: In the second half of November and in December escalation between the PKK and Turkish security forces remained concentrated in northern Iraq. On 9 December, three Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with the PKK in the Amedi district. The Turkish military continued targeting higher ranking PKK members, including via drone strikes in this period. Turkish ground operations in Turkey’s south east were concentrated in rural areas of Tunceli, Mardin and Şanlıurfa provinces. On 3 December, a Turkish soldier was killed during a clash with the PKK in the Ovacık district of Tunceli. On 5 December, eight PKK militants were killed in the same district.

Analysis: Prospects for non-violent ways forward look bleak amid uncertainty in Syria, Iraq and the Turkish political leadership’s reliance on support from nationalists at home.