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 April, Turkey’s operations against the PKK in northern Iraq and northern Syria intensified, while they continued – to lesser extent – in Turkey's south east. On 18 April, the Turkish military launched a new operation against the PKK in northern Iraq which it dubbed Claw-Lock (it follows previous Claw-Eagle and Claw-Tiger operations that started in 2019). Turkish military jets targeted infrastructure and bases used by PKK militants in the Metina, Zap and Avashin-Basyan regions, according to Turkey’s Defense Ministry. On 20 April, a roadside bomb attack – claimed by the HBDH, a PKK affiliate – hit a bus carrying prison guards in the western Bursa province, killing one and injuring thirteen.

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.