The history of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) began in 1974 as a Marxist–Leninist organization under the leadership of Abdullah Öcalan. In 1978 the organization adopted the name “Kurdistan Workers Party” and waged its low-level Urban War in Turkish Kurdistan between 1978 and 1980.

Since 1978, the PKK has been able to evolve and adapt, having gone through a metamorphosis, which became the main factor in its survival. It has gradually grown from a handful of political students to an armed organization of thousands.

The PKK’s origins can be traced back to 1974, when Abdullah Öcalan and a small group of leftist students from Dev-Genç (“Revolutionary Youth”) decided to develop a Kurdish-based left wing organization. The members of this new small organization actively participated in different branches of Dev-Genç (Revolutionary Youth Federation of Turkey)

What made the Apocus later known as PKK, different was that it decided to move its activities from Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, to Turkish Kurdistan, near the Syria-Turkey border. Much of the early development was inspired by the rise of decolonization movements and their potential to be adapted to the Kurdish question.

On 27 November 1978, during a meeting in a village called Fis, in the district of Lice, north of Diyarbakir, it was decided to form a political party. The name of the party, PKK was decided on later, in April 1979, when the meeting of the central committee. The meeting in Fis later got to be remembered as the First Congress of the PKK. The group did not claim to be secessionist in this document. They wanted a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism

Starting in 1978, the organization attacked fascist and pro-government groups. The PKK focused its attacks primarily against perceived state collaborators, and Kurdish tribes that had historically coexisted with the government and haven’t supported the Kurdish rights.

In two years, the country turned into a battleground. From 1978 to 1982, the Turkish National Security Council recorded approximately 43,000 incidents it described as “terrorism”. With the 1980 assassination of a former prime minister, Nihat Erim who was assassinated by radical Turkish leftist organization Dev Sol, the discovery of gun depots, civil disorder, political indecision (parliament was unable to select a president) and, most importantly, the Iran–Iraq War, a coup took place, initiating a series of trials. In the central trial, against the left-wing organization Devrimci Yol at Ankara Military Court, the defendants listed 5,388 political killings before the military coup.

All through this time, Öcalan eluded capture and remained in control. He fled the country towards Syria in 1979. Even before the coup, Öcalan knew that he had to restructure the PKK to continue its activities. In 1979, when Öcalan moved to the Bekaa valley in Lebanon, he had chance to develop his connection from where dev-genç left. Until 1999 Syria had provided valuable safe havens to the organization in the region of Beqaa Valley.

On 10 November 1980, the PKK bombed the Turkish consulate in Strasbourg, France, in a joint operation with the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, which they described as the beginning of a “fruitful collaboration” in a statement claiming responsibility.

From August 20–25, 1982, the second congress of the PKK was held in a Palestinian Camp at the border between Syria and Lebanon. During the congress a guerilla warfare strategy was formulated. It was decided there should be three phases of guerilla warfare: strategic defense, strategic balance and strategic offense. During the congress Çetin Güngör criticized the lack of democracy within the PKK.

The links extended to groups which shared its left-wing nationalist ideology such as the Palestine Liberation Organisation, ETA, and, to a lesser degree, the Provisional Irish Republican Army.

The establishment of the Kurdistan Liberation Force was announced on 15 August 1984. The PKK received significant support from the Syria, which allowed it to maintain a headquarters in Damascus, as well as some support from the governments of Iran, Iraq, and Libya. It began to launch attacks and bombings against Turkish governmental installations, the military, and various institutions of the state.

On the December 15, 1984 the organization and other left-oriented groups including Workers Party of Turkey, Communist Labour Party of Turkey, Communist Party of Turkey, Socialist Party of Turkish Kurdistan and Socialist Workers Party of Turkey signed a protocol to work together

1984 marked the beginning of sustained paramilitary action by the PKK, attacking government mainly personnel and infrastructure associated with Southeastern Anatolia Project, as well as some civilian (collaborators) targets.

Since 1982, the Iran-Iraq war gave Kurdish organizations in Northern Iraq a free hand because Iraq needed and moved its troops to the front in the South. The organization used this to develop cross border attacks from Iraq.

The organization reached an its highest operational activity during the Gulf War (August 1990 – February 1991). Turkey opened its Iraqi border to the Iraqi refugees. This allowed Kurdish and Iraqi refugees, to enter Turkey. The Gulf War also extensively undermined

In 1992, Turkey decided to change the operational functionality of their hot pursuits to target the organization’s camps, launching major operations towards the end of the year. A Turkish delegation visited Damascus in Syria in 1992, following which Syria agreed to close down the larger PKK training camps in the Beqaa Valley.

The organization’s revenues have been estimated by various countries at US$200–500 million annually during the 1990s. Turkey claimed the PKK finaced itself with drug trafficing. The PKK had denied all accusations that their members had been involved in drug trafficking.

With the increase of Turkey’s activities to cope with the PKK, 10 percent of income was spent on fighting against the PKK. The PKK succeeded to get support from Kurdish activists.

On March 19, 1993, PKK put an end to the long-standing PKK vendetta against the other Kurdish parties through an agreement with the Kurdistan Socialist Party.

The Gulf War changed the political situation. Turkey passively supported the war. There was an authority that Turkey could communicate with in Syria and Iran, but the Gulf War left North Iraq with what Turkey has called a “vacuum of control”. Also, Iraq assisted the organization as a retaliation for the passive support.

On October 4, 1992, the Kurdish government in Erbil announced that “PKK should either withdraw from the border bases or be expelled.” The organization moved its military camps to Northern Iraq. Syria had only ideological training, intelligence, health and recreation installations.

International discussions were going on about a new state in North Iraq, based on the concept of Iraq Federation. UN channelled money to Iraq Federation. With inclusion of the solution for elimination of the PKK’s ability to use North Iraq, Turkey joined the US-led coalition to bring truce among the Iraqi Kurds.

The Iraqi Kurdish Civil War took place between rival Kurdish factions in the mid-1990s. Over the course of the conflict, the various factions drew Kurdish factions from Iran and Turkey, as well as Iranian, Iraqi, American forces into the fighting. The PKK was moved to Qandil mountains from Bekaa Valley after the civil war ended.

The undeclared war was the response of Turkey to Syria for its continued assistance to PKK. In its messages Turkey claimed that it is ready to perform any necessary activity to destroy the PKK’s operational bases. It ended with the capture of Öcalan and the repositioning of Turkey in relation to the Arab League by taking a new position facing Syria and Iran.

Turkey decided that the termination of PKK could only be achieved by termination of their operational grounds. Turkey engaged with strong foreign relations campaign to get international support.

During the Syrian Civil War, the Kurds in Syria have established control over their own region with the help of the PKK as well as with support from the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil, under President Masoud Barzani.

After a few short ceasefires between 2010-2015 the Turkey-PKK would restart again. In March 2016, the PKK helped to launch the Peoples’ United Revolutionary Movement with nine other Kurdish and Turkish revolutionary leftist, socialist and communist groups.

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