The Kurdish issue is viewed as a thorny and multi-dimensional issue, as it includes conflicts extending across four countries: Iraq, Iran, Turkiye and Syria. In all of these countries, the Kurds are striving to fulfil their right to self-determination by establishing an independent state. Shortly after the change of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, the Kurds were satisfied with a degree of autonomous self-rule. In Turkiye, Abdullah Ocalan and his comrades founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in 1978, demanding the establishment of a Kurdish state. In 1984, Ocalan announced the start of the armed struggle against Ankara, which prompted Turkiye and its NATO allies to designate the party as a terrorist organisation. Turkiye arrested Ocalan in 1999 and sentenced […]
