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STATELESS
organization dedicated to creating an independent
Kurdistan. Operating mainly from eastern Anatolia,
PKK fighters engaged in guerrilla operations against
government installations and perpetrated frequent acts of
terrorism. PKK attacks and government reprisals led to
a state of virtual war in eastern Turkey during the 1980s
and ’90s. Following Öcalan’s capture in 1999, PKK activities
were sharply curtailed for several years before the
party resumed guerilla activities in 2004. In 2002, under
pressure from the European Union (in which Turkey
sought membership), the government legalized broadcasts
and education in the Kurdish language. Turkey
continued to mount military operations against the PKK,
including incursions into northern Iraq. The Turkish
government suppressed Kurdish political agitation.
IN THE HANDS OF IRAN AND IRAQ
Kurds have felt strong assimilationist pressure from
the national government in Iran and endured religious
persecution by that country’s Shī’ite Muslim
majority. Shortly after World War II (1939–45), the
Soviet Union backed the establishment of an independent
country around the largely Kurdish city
of Mahābād, in northwestern Iran. The so-called
Republic of Mahābād collapsed after Soviet withdrawal
in 1946, but about that same time the Kurdish
Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) was established.
Thereafter, the KDPI engaged in low-level hostilities
with the Iranian government into the 21st century.
Although the pressure for Kurds to assimilate was
less intense in Iraq (where the Kurdish language and
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