Founding and the start of the insurgency
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was founded in 1978 in the village of Fis, in Lice district, by a group of Kurdish students led by Abdullah Öcalan, as a Marxist-Leninist organization citing the oppression of Kurdish identity in Turkey.[1]
The PKK launched an armed insurgency in southeastern Turkey in August 1984, initially calling for an independent Kurdistan; the Turkish military launched a counteroffensive the following month, and in 1985 the Turkish state established the Village Guard paramilitary counterinsurgency force.[2]
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Founding of the PKK, 1978
Kurdish students led by Abdullah Öcalan founded the PKK, citing repression of Kurdish identity in Turkey.
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Start of the PKK insurgency, 1984
The PKK launched an armed insurgency in southeastern Turkey, beginning a conflict that would continue for over four decades.
Öcalan's capture and the 1999-2004 ceasefire
Turkish intelligence agents captured Abdullah Öcalan in Nairobi, Kenya, on 15 February 1999; his trial concluded on 29 June 1999 with a death sentence, commuted to life imprisonment in October 2002. He has been imprisoned on İmralı Island since his capture, and ordered a ceasefire that held from 1999 until 2004.[3][4]
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Capture of Abdullah Öcalan, 1999
Turkish intelligence captured PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan in Kenya; he was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment, and has remained imprisoned since.
The 2013-2015 peace process
Öcalan took part in a new peace process launched in 2013, when Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was prime minister; official peace talks between the PKK and the Turkish state collapsed in 2015.[5]
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Turkey-PKK peace process, 2013-2015
A peace process launched in 2013 with Öcalan's participation collapsed two years later, and the insurgency resumed.
Dissolution and disarmament, 2025
On 27 February 2025, Öcalan called on the PKK, all its affiliated structures and cadres to end their armed struggle and dissolve the organization, envisioning its transformation into a political actor within a democratic and constitutional framework upholding Turkey's territorial integrity.[6]
On 12 May 2025, following its 12th congress, the PKK announced that it had officially dissolved its organizational structure and ended its armed struggle; reporting described the conflict as having cost some 40,000 lives over more than three decades.[7]
On 11 July 2025, around 30 PKK members, including some party leaders, took part in a ceremony at Jasana Cave near Dukan, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, laying down and burning their weapons as a symbolic first step of the group's disarmament process.[8]
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PKK dissolution and disarmament, 2025
Following Öcalan's call from prison, the PKK announced its dissolution and began a symbolic disarmament process, marking a historic shift after more than four decades of conflict.
Sources for this page
Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.
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1.
Claim: The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was founded in 1978 in the village of Fis, in Lice district, by a group of Kurdish students led by Abdullah Öcalan, as a Marxist-Leninist organization citing the oppression of Kurds in Turkey, including bans at the time on Kurdish language, dress and names in Kurdish-inhabited areas, as its founding grievance.
- Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency (Wikipedia) link, Founding section. Source record
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2.
Claim: The PKK launched an armed insurgency in southeastern Turkey in August 1984, initially calling for an independent Kurdistan; the Turkish military launched a counteroffensive the following month, and in 1985 the Turkish state established the Village Guard paramilitary counterinsurgency force. Casualty estimates for the conflict as a whole vary by source but are widely cited in the range of roughly 30,000-40,000 deaths; this bundle treats that range as a widely repeated estimate rather than an independently verified count.
- Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency (Wikipedia) link, Insurgency and casualty-estimate sections. Source record
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3.
Claim: Turkish intelligence agents captured Abdullah Öcalan in Nairobi, Kenya, on 15 February 1999; his trial began on 31 May 1999 and concluded on 29 June 1999 with a death sentence for treason and separatism, commuted to life imprisonment in October 2002. He has been imprisoned on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara since his capture.
- Imprisonment of Abdullah Öcalan (Wikipedia) link, Capture, trial and sentence section. Source record
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4.
Claim: After his capture, Öcalan ordered a ceasefire that held from 1999 until 2004.
- Abdullah Öcalan (Encyclopaedia Britannica) link, Ceasefire section. Source record
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5.
Claim: Öcalan took part in a new peace process launched in 2013, when Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was prime minister; official peace talks between the PKK and the Turkish state collapsed in 2015.
- Abdullah Öcalan (Encyclopaedia Britannica) link, Peace process section. Source record
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6.
Claim: On 27 February 2025, Öcalan called on the PKK, all its affiliated structures and cadres to end their armed struggle and dissolve the organization, laying out a vision of the PKK transforming into a political actor seeking solutions within a democratic and constitutional framework upholding Turkey's territorial integrity.
- Kurdish leader Ocalan told the PKK to disband, it did: Here's what to know (Al Jazeera) link, Öcalan's February 2025 statement section. Source record
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7.
Claim: On 12 May 2025, following its 12th congress, the PKK announced that it had officially dissolved its organizational structure, ended its armed struggle, and terminated all activities conducted under the PKK name, following Öcalan's February 2025 call; reporting described the conflict as having cost some 40,000 lives over more than three decades.
- Kurdish leader Ocalan told the PKK to disband, it did: Here's what to know (Al Jazeera) link, Dissolution announcement section. Source record
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8.
Claim: On 11 July 2025, around 30 PKK members, including some party leaders, took part in a ceremony at Jasana Cave near Dukan, around 60 kilometres northwest of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, in which they laid down and burned their weapons as a symbolic first step of the group's disarmament process, implementing decisions made at the PKK's 12th congress; the weapons were destroyed rather than handed over to any party or force.
- PKK militants in Iraq begin laying down arms as part of peace process with Turkey (Euronews) link, Ceremony section. Source record
Printed from https://independenceatlas.com/movements/kurdish-turkey/history · last substantive update 24 September 2026.