Turkey’s PKK Conflict: A Visual Explainer

Latest Trends

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). On 17 March, Turkey’s chief public prosecutor opened a criminal case for the closure of the HDP.

Battleground: Compared to the previous month, between 20 February-25 March the intensity of Turkish military operations targeting PKK militants in Turkey and northern Iraq went down markedly. On 22 February, Turkish security units carried out simultaneous raids in 18 rural neighbourhoods of Mardin province. On 15 March, the Turkish military carried out operations targeting PKK hideouts in northern Iraq’s Hakurk region and Turkey’s Bitlis province. The security situation in northern Iraq, especially around Sinjar, and in northern Syria remains volatile.

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.