简体中文 Türkçe English Visual Explainer Turkey’s PKK Conflict: A Visual Explainer SCROLL A woman walks through rubble in the provincial centre of Şırnak in November 2016 after it was devastated by the conflict. AFP/Ilyas Akengin Share Facebook Twitter Email 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). Battleground: This month saw a slight increase in fatalities, mostly concentrated in northern Iraq. While Turkish security operations continued, the PKK attacked a gas pipeline at the Turkey-Iran border on 31 March and a van carrying state workers involved in the construction of a new police station in rural parts of Mardin’s Nusaybin district on 3 April. Analysis: Prospects for non-violent ways forward look bleak amid uncertainty in Syria and the Turkish political leadership’s reliance on support from nationalists at home. SCROLL