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Kurdistan Workers’ Party
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Leader of the PKK before his arrest Kurdish settlement in southwestern Asia A large crowd of Kurdish demonstrators holds flags and banners featuring portraits of Abdullah Ocalan and PKK symbols during a protest in Strasbourg, France.
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Leader of the PKK before his arrest
Leader of the PKK before his arrest Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who was arrested in 1999, with his guerrillas at a training camp in the Bekaa valley of Lebanon in the early 1990s.

Kurdistan Workers’ Party

militant Kurdish nationalist organization
Also known as: Congress for Freedom and Democracy in Kurdistan, KADEK, Kongra Gele Kurdistan, Kongra-Gel, Kongreya Azadi u Demokrasiya Kurdistan, Kurdistan People’s Congress, PKK, Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan(Show More)
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Quick Facts Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), militant Kurdish nationalist organization founded by Abdullah (“Apo”) Öcalan in the late 1970s. Although the group initially espoused demands for the establishment of an independent Kurdish state, its stated aims were later tempered to calls for greater Kurdish autonomy. In March 2025 the PKK declared a ceasefire and in May it decided to disarm and disband. Although the Kurdish population has for centuries been concentrated over large parts of...

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