The United States has long designated the Kurdistan Workers Party (better known by its Kurdish acronym, the PKK) a terrorist group. The PKK certainly has a long and bloody history, one in which it targeted not only the Turkish army but also many local Kurds who refused to submit to its leaders’ will.
The PKK has always enjoyed popularity in Syria. While the Turks were fighting the PKK in the 1990s, the Syrian government hosted the group’s headquarters. Almost 15 years ago, the Middle East Quarterly actually interviewed PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan inside Syria. While Öcalan has since been captured and imprisoned, the legacy of his long residence in Syria reverberates with Syrian Kurds who overwhelmingly favor the PKK (and its local political offshoot, the Democratic Union Party, PYD) over Masud Barzani’s autocratic Kurdistan Democratic Party in neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan.
While the United States considers the PKK a terrorist group, the PYD now controls significant territory in eastern Syria including the city of Qamishli. There, early indications suggest its new administration has been both professional and benign. Alas, the PKK designation still gets in the way of U.S. interaction, if not directly than out of a diplomatic desire to avoid offending Turkey.
Herein lies the irony: The Turkish government talks to the PKK, even as it insists others should not. And, under the current prime minister, the Turkish government has suggested that national liberation movements are legitimate partners. Turkey embraces Hamas, Hezbollah, and the prime minister has even defended donating money to Al Qaeda financiers. If Turkey refuses to accept American sensitivities about terrorism, then the United States should have no responsibility to carry water for the Turks, especially if doing so may go against American interests.
The State Department has now de-listed the Mujahedin al-Khalq (MKO), a terrorist group which has killed Americans and, to this day, refuses to apologize. Designation or not, the MKO is a terrorist group and remains undeserving of any U.S. support. Perhaps it is time, however, for the United States to reconsider its PKK designation. This need not mean reversing the designation, but it should spell out what it finds objectionable about the PKK. Has the PKK targeted U.S. citizens? If so, when? Is the PKK simply waging an insurgency against Turkish soldiers, or is it continuing to target Turkish civilians? What actions, if any, should the PKK take to achieve a new status under American law? Hopefully, it won’t go the distasteful MKO route of simply bribing officials with inflated speaking fees, but will really and sincerely reform. Even if the State Department determines that the PKK in Turkey still deserves its terrorism designation, it might ask whether this should preclude better and more productive relations with the PYD, a strengthening secular movement now controlling territory in Eastern Syria. Certainly, they are better than the Al Qaeda alternative now rearing its ugly head among the Syrian opposition.
Perhaps if they rebranded themselves as the Kurdish Authority, and spun off all the old terrorists into a "security apparatus," not only would we talk to them, but send them hundreds of millions of dollars.
Good thoughts in this article, but it does not go far enough. The U.S. desperately needs to start re-thinking (quietly and subtly) its relationship with Turkey. It is not, for example, in the interests of the U.S. to enable Turkey to take over or otherwise dominate Syria. We should not, for example, be lending aid or prestige to Turkish efforts to promote Islamist rebel leaders in the future Syrian government. Quite the opposite. A Turkey that supports Hezbollah and Hamas is no friend, and they should be treated with the same circumspection of an adversary.
As far as I can tell, the MEK/MKO is perhaps best described as a "retired terrorist group." I have not seen any claims of recent activity by them outside Iran, (they at least claim to have renounced violence in 2001, but there are whispers of their involvement in US and Isreali covert operations against the Iranian nuclear program) and their activities in Iran seem to be limited to legitimate war targets–military, and people and facilities linked to the nuclear program, which is to say their nuclear weapons program. And there should be some reward for what seems to be the American people's best source of information about IRan's nuclear program. That said, a "People's Mujahideen" seems to be a distillation of all of the worst ideas of the 20th century. n nHas the PKK been killing or targeting civilians lately? That is a very good and important question. Also, what is the definition of "lately"? That is a softer question, but still important.
Maybe the USA should throw some support to UNPO.org Unrepresented Nations and Peoples. nIraqi and Iranian Kurds are members, but UNPO membership requires the group to renounce violence. nIranian Baluchs and Azeris are also members of UNPO. nThe USA has been supporting NATOTurkey in attacks supposedly at the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan. nExpect no change as long as Erdogan's bff Obama is president. Ending the Turkey coddling requires regime change in the White House. nBut, at least the USNavy no longer has to risk port visits in Turkey.
There are quite a few things the US could do to pressure Erdogan, like mount a world wide campaign to recognize the Armenian genocide. Or make the PKK's recognition conditional on Turkey breaking relations with Hamas.
Absolutely. An independent Kurdish state (from Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria) will bring stability to that region. n
"Perhaps it is time, however, for the United States to reconsider its PKK designation." Yes, indeed, and recognize independent Kurdistan, something we owe the Kurds since the end of WWII. And send a message to Erdou011fan, a mad Islamist, that under him and Gül Turkey has no place in NATO. Better still, split the artificial remnant of the Ottoman Empire into parts and give them to the indigenous people to whom it rightly belongs–the Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, to name just a few.
MKO renounced violence in 2001 and since hasn't been involved in any illegal activities. However PKK continues to use violence against Turkish and Kurdish civilians, soldiers and policemen. Recently, the scale of the violence against civilians extended to children when PKK/KCK militants started targeting schools. Moreover, PKK is active in illegal drug trafficking which effects American citizens.