Historical Background And Causes Of The Turkish-Kurdish Conflict

Historical Background & Causes:
The Turkish-Kurdish conflict began because of the refusal of the Turkish government to recognize the national identity of the Kurds. The Turkish government tried to get rid of the Kurdish identity and assimilate the Kurds into Turkish society. There was also an attempt to get rid of the Kurdish language, which later was called a “linguistic genocide”. Despite the fact that the Kurdish language was banned only in 1983, already in 1925 in some provinces it was forbidden to speak Kurdish. The government of Turkey sought to ensure that the Kurdish population as soon as possible went to the Turkish language. But as the time showed, the process proved unsuccessful. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk during the War of Independence
The government sought to exert pressure on the PKK in various ways. They used various methods to deal with the PKK, such as: detecting and arresting leaders, spoiling, intimidation, finding and confiscating weapons and explosives, dispersing violent riots and setting up security measures on main routes. However, when the conflict was transferred to the territory of Northern Iraq, Turkey had to change its methods. Because, there were external factors. In 1920 the United Kingdom gave autonomy to the Kurds in northern Iraq, and this fact posed a threat to the territorial integrity of Turkey. The government understood this as a threat to the assimilation of Kurds in Turkey. However, Turkey could not resist it because of two factors: Turkey was preoccupied with suppressing its own Kurdish insurgencies and also they were in the process of joining the League of Nations and wanted to receive financial aid. In 2003, when the US invaded Iraq, Turkey also remained aloof. Because they did not want to jeopardize their entry into NATO. Turkey hunted for the leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, for a very long time and eventually the Turkish MIT (Turkish National Intelligence Organization) kidnapped him in Kenya. In Turkey, he was sentenced to death, but under the pressure of the world community, they changed the sentence for life imprisonment. Dominance on
Even if the PKK loses in this war, until the problem with the recognition of the Kurdish identity in Turkey is not solved, the conflict will continue. Therefore, if possible, it is necessary to resolve this conflict peacefully, because the people living in the zone of combat operations are already tired and exhausted. In recent years, little progress has been made through the efforts of Erdogan and Ocalan. Ocalan calls on the Turkish government to carry out reforms that will guarantee the rights of Kurds and their identity and the PKK will in turn leave the borders of Turkey. Good relations between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan can help in solving this problem. But how the neighboring Kurdish autonomy will affect the conflict is unclear. . Political decision-makers in Ankara feel the need for a military victory in the fight against the PKK. But the problem here is not how to win a military victory, but how to pass through the long-term political and socio-economic costs of such a "victory." The key problem in discontinuous wars in recent years is that decision-makers who are overly focused on military triumph in the short term may miss political success and peace in the long term. One can only hope that Ankara realizes this