PKK: Kurdish Communist Terrorism

Have you heard of the PKK? My guess most of my readers have not.

The PKK is a Kurdish version of a Stalinist like Communism whose purpose is to create a sovereign homeland for Kurds under the Stalinist Prototype State. PKK is a Kurdish acronym for the English translation Kurdistan’s Workers Party.

There is particular acrimony between the PKK and Turkey. This is a reason you might stumble on the interior of your newspaper (say like page 20 something) a story about Turkey taking military action inside the borders of Iraq in the Kurdistan area.

The fact is the PKK is a Communist terrorist organization that has committed atrocities in Turkey. That makes the PKK same as any other transnational Islamist terrorist group that uses terror to justify an end.

The PKK is not really popular among Kurdish groups in Iraq because of the terrorism, which occasionally is perpetrated on fellow Kurds that disagree with PKK plan to create a Communist Kurdistan State. And yet Kurds are not quick to turn on the PKK either.

The reason is Kurdish dislike for the Communist PKK is outweighed by Kurdish hatred of Turkey who done their own fair share horrible atrocities upon Kurdish people over the years stretching back to Ottoman Turkey days.

Michael Rubin provides a book review of two books about the PKK: Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurding Fight for Independence, by Aliza Marcus and Kurdish Identity: Human Rights and Political Status, edited by Charles G. MacDonald and Carole A. O'Leary.

The review may provide insight as to why Turkey has a stake in the politics of Iraq.

JRH

Turkey Hunts Down PKK Kurds in Kurdish Iraq

Turkey is on the offensive against Communist Kurds which are hiding in the Kurd autonomous region of Iraq. Turkey has longed warned the Iraqi government and the American government that if the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is not actively prevented from terrorist excursions into Turkey a military response would be imminent.

I am no lover of Turkey. Turkish history has been that as the last of the Mohammedan Empires (Ottoman Empire prior to the end of WWI) to viciously attack Christianity and Europe.

In the Middle Ages the old Ottomans would take the children of conquered Christians (mostly in the Balkans) and forcibly convert them into Mohammedans and train them to be a lethal medieval Special Forces to fight and conquer more Christian lands. These were the Janissaries of old. As the 19th century was ending the Janissaries became a corrupt ineffective group for the Ottomans; however for hundreds of years prior to that these former Christian children forced to train as an elite military force were feared for their brutality.

Around 1830 the Greeks began to throw off the brutality of the Ottoman Turks gaining Independence. By the end of WWI Greece nearly fulfilled their dream of reclaiming Greek land in Anatolia (Much of Turkey today) by driving to Ankara. Unfortunately Ataturk who had ended the Sultanate of the Ottoman Empire of after losing WWI stiffened to the Greek offensive. Turkish nationalism drove the Greek army out of Anatolia force Greeks who had live there for thousands of years to flee to the borders of present day Greece. Ataturk’s revenge meant the slaughter of Christian Greeks as they tried to flee, particularly in Greek Smyrna (now Turkish Izmir).

In recent history the Ottomans and modern Turkey have executed Kurds who have rebelled due to Turkish oppression. Toward the end of WWI the Ottoman Turks forced Armenian Christians in a long march to separate them from Turkish society, this turned out to be genocide for nearly two million Christian Armenians.

As you can see I am no fan of Turkey. The only reason the Turkish nation is consider a Western and American ally is because of their strategic location betwixt Europe, Russia and the Mohammedan Middle East.

The tragedy of political reality makes Turkey a central cog to American National Interests as well as to Europe’s Interests. Although Turkey is officially a secular nation with a Mohammedan foundation and a modicum of democracy, Turkish National Interests and National Pride make them NOT nice people.

On the other hand the PKK Kurds are not nice people either. It is a Communist group of Kurds that use terrorism to inflict on Turkish civilians to achieve a goal of a sovereign State of Kurdistan. I am not a fan of Turkey but I loathe the ideology and tactical strategies of Terrorists. Terrorism is evil no matter who utilizes it homicidal practices to justify a wishful end.

The Kurdish people are currently the largest ethnic group in the world that does not have a nation. I have not ever looked into it but the Kurds are loathed by Middle Easterners: Turks, Arabs and Iranians. Each of these groups of fellow Mohammedans has had a hand in oppressing Mohammedan Kurds over the centuries.

As an American I tend to root for the underdog and that is exactly what the life of a Kurd has been. Again though, American National Interests should be cued to put down Communist Kurds and reinforcing a democratic society of Iraqi Kurds. In doing so, it may disperse a growing lack of trust between Turkey and America politically.

Some day Turkey will screw up. When that day happens I pray their geopolitical advantage is lost and perhaps Greece recapture their ancient lands.