What are the kurds fighting for?

 

A kurdish girl from Erbil

Yesterday the global media were covering one major event; the announcement of the kurdish Labour Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan addressing the fighters to put down the arms and dissolve the party from his imprisonment in Imarlı island in Turkey. 

What was the background of this decision now, and the cause of the fighting since four decades .

Kurds identity 

The kurds are an ethnic group native to West Asia, with a territory that includes now ; a part in Turkey ; Iraq ; Iran and Syria 

The majority of the kurdish people are now settling in Turkey,  with more than 15 million largely in the southern east region.  With a world diaspora including another 15 million with a majority in Germany. 

After  the world war I , and the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, the great power in Europe discussed the "kurdish question " in the Treaty of Sèvres, and cannot reach a consensus over the limits of the kurdish land and territory .

Thus, the kurdish people cannot resolve the issue by a referendum and the treaty was abandoned by the allies I Europe and replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1924.

As a result,  the kurds regarded as the largest stateless ethnic minority group.

The conflict 

The former Treaty gave birth to a new nationalist country in Turkey led by the "Young turks" movement with its head Mustapha Kemal , later called "Ataturk.

The Turkish nationalist movement implemented a secular law in the country, replacing the old traditional Ottoman sharia law. Kemal Pasha inspired by the mainstream nationalist movement at that time in Europe,  wanted to create a developed and united country,  in the form of dress: ( as he addressed the young people in modern Turkey to wear western apparel) language; institutions.

The kurdish minority people were the victims of those decisions,  as it will end their dream of a unified land with a kurdish language and traditions, which the new nationalist state looked as as dissedence. 

Pkk

Kurdistan Labour Party  formed by Abdullah Öcalan in 1979, as a reaction to the ban of kurdish people to live in Turkey without racism and oppression,  so he launched a guerilla attack against the Turkish army.

Backed with a Marxist-Leninist  ideology, due to the nature and the era of the university students organization's  in the 70s , the leader considered by many as a freedom fighter of the kurdish people. 

The Syrian regime at that time offered him all the means , and a refuge, as they shared a common goal of the left-wing ideology: to fight capitalism. 

The PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan Changed his views many times  concerning the conflict whether it should be resolved  peaceful negotiations or military strategies. 

He sought refuge in Russia; Greece,  and finally was abducted in 1999 by a Turkish Intelligence operation in Kenya .

The leader was sentenced a capital punishment after several trials, and it was relieved to a life imprisonment as the changes of the Turkish penal law in 2002 for adhesion of Turkey in the European Union. 

Now the leader is maybe convinced,  that the armed solution is not the best option for autonomy of the kurds, and the global opinion view has changed, so after almost 100 years of struggle,  the kurdish people can now seek more peaceful ways for their goal.  times have changed, and Turkey now is changing, the country underwent major development with the president Recep Tayib Erdōgan, and the assimilation of the kurdish people in the country is not an impossible goal.