PKK TERRORISM: EVENTS CHRONOLOGY (1976-2006)

International Strategic Research Organization

Chronology of the Important Events in the World/PKK Chronology (1976-2006)

(Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan- Kurdistan Labor Party)


1976: An attempt of burglary to a private hospital in Ankara. This was the first activity done by pioneers of PKK terrorist organization.


October 27, 1978: PKK terrorist organization performed its founding assembly in Fis; a village of Lice district in Diyarbakir. This assembly as being the first congress; had selected Abdullah Ocalan as the founder leader of the organization. Beginning his studies in the academic circle of Ankara, Ocalan conducted the formation of ideological background and pioneering staff until 1975 and later beginning from 1976 he continued his activities with his friends in eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey. PKK was established in this environment as a Marxist-Leninist organization on October 27th, 1978. PKK terrorist organization adopted in principle a formation of a party, a front and an army.


1979: PKK terrorist organization was made public by means of an inrush to the house of Mehmet Celal Bucak, Member of Parliament from Sanliurfa, with the Party of Justice of the time. In this attack Celal Bucak was wounded and his eight-year-old son lost his life.
July 1979: Abdullah Ocalan escaped to Syria via Sanliurfa.
November 1979: In order to start guerilla war, Ocalan took a group of his men to Lebanon for training.

April-May 1980: Most of the terrorists that had gone to Lebanon were captured and the others were deported after the military coup on September 12th, 1980


1982: In the congress held in Syria the dissidence within the organization became more evident. Moreover, during this period the theory of forming armed groups were put into practice.


1984: PKK wrapped in a new formation. Abdullah Ocalan said he had chosen Mao’s Public Revolution style and began applying the methods of terror in Southeastern Anatolia. Also, 1984 was the beginning of massive terror attacks against the local people.

Statements of Abdullah Ocalan

· “Let’s kill and become the authority” he said after Pinarcik massacre. (Hasan Cemal, Kurds, p.83).
· “We will go down to towns, conflicts will begin. It is not difficult to get on a bus, to get on a plane, the cost is not important. We have thousands of people who will tie bomb to his/her body and will go to die.” (Alparslan Tekin, Last insurrection, p. 139).
· “How much action, as much propaganda, agitation; how much activity that much authority.”
· “We supported you for two years, provided all kinds of needs. We protected you from every kind of problem and threat. Either you will pay the cost of these or on behalf of PKK your judgment will be as betrayers.” (Ahmet Aydin, Kurds, PKK and Ocalan, p. 83) .
· “We became a party by getting out of Ankara. We became an army by setting out to Middle East. We will become a state by setting out to Europe.” He said in 1998 when he was deported from Syria.
· “My mother is a Turk. If given a chance, I’m ready to serve the state.”
He said after his capture in February 1999.

August 15, 1984: PKK terrorist organization launched an attack to the gendarmerie station building in Eruh district of Siirt and as a result of the armed attack, one gendarmerie soldier lost his life, six soldiers and three civilians were wounded. In addition, another armed attack launched on the gendarmerie open air facility, officer housings and gendarmerie station in Semdinli district of Hakkari. In this attack, one officer, one petty officer and one soldier were wounded. This was the major large-scale armed attack of PKK.
August 17, 1984: PKK raided a police station in Siirt.


January 22, 1987: PKK launched a massacre in Ortabag Village of Uludere district in Hakkari and killed eight citizens by putting bombs into a heating stove.
January 23, 1987: PKK attacked Midyat and ten citizens were killed.
January 27, 1987: PKK changed its strategy and started to target village guards.
June 20, 1987: Massacre launched in Pinarcik Village of Omerli district in Mardin. Sixteen children, six women, eight men; in total 30 people were killed. After this massacre Ocalan said “Let’s kill, and become the authority”.


May 9, 1988: Raiding into the Behremin field in Tas Village of Nusaybin district in Mardin terrorists killed eight children, two women; in total eleven people from the same family. Two children were heavily wounded and three people were kidnapped by PKK terrorists in Sirnak, then found dead.
1988: (The so-called) Representative of Europe, Huseyin Yildirim in Brussels stated that there were dissidence between him and Abdullah Ocalan.


1989: PKK targeted state forces and struggled for evolving into guerilla level.
November 26, 1989: In Iki Yaka village of Yuksekova district in Diyarbakir; 21 people were killed, nine citizens were kidnapped.


March 22, 1990: PKK militants killed nine engineers in Elazig.
April 16, 1990: PKK killed five people in Elazig and three of them were teachers.
June 11, 1990: PKK raided Cevrimli Village of Sirnak and killed twelve children, women; in total 27 people. The conflict occurred between PKK terrorists and the village guards and in the end four guards lost their lives.


July 14, 1991: PKK terrorists raided on villages in Pazarcik and Caglayancerit districts of Kahramanmaras and killed nine people. Armed with automatic weapons and bombs, terrorists burned the death bodies and fled away.
December 25, 1991: A partisan PKK group, marching in Istanbul, threw a molotov-cocktail to the shopping center in Bakirkoy which is owned by the brother of Necati Cetinkaya, the governor of region of emergency, and caused eleven people to die and seventeen to get wounded in the fire.


March 21, 1992: (Newroz Events) PKK terrorist organization tried to direct the local public to a general insurrection by using Newroz festival. This plan of PKK was unfulfilled thanks to the efforts of security forces and common sense.
June 11, 1992: In Tatvan -district of Bitlis- PKK terrorists stopped a minibus and executed thirteen persons by shooting.
June 27, 1992: PKK terrorists raided Yolac Village of Silvan and took out praying people of the Mosque and executed them by shooting. Ten citizens lost their lives.
September 5, 1992: PKK terrorists closed Bingol-Genc highway, and executed seven people.
September 15, 1992: In a bomb raid by PKK terrorists to a minibus, near Kozluk district of Batman, 10 people were killed where four of them were village guards and six people wounded.
October 1, 1992: PKK terrorists raided Cevizdali Village of Bitlis and killed 30 people. There were women and children among them and 25 were wounded. Terrorists set the village on fire and kidnapped thirteen village guards.
November 10, 1992: A local correspondent and nine citizens killed by PKK terrorists in Hani district of Diyarbakir
November 15, 1992: Ortaalican district of Igdir and Balpinar village of Mardin witnessed the raid of PKK resulted with the deaths of eight citizens and thirteen were wounded.
December 07, 1992: PKK ambushed a minibus and killed four citizens. Also twelve were wounded.
1992: The US Government declared in the document named “Control Strategy of International Narcotics” that PKK is controlling the narcotics cartel in Europe.


March 20, 1993: Ocalan announced a unilateral so-called ceasefire. While doing this, he aimed to mislead the public opinion about his terrorist image and to reach his goal through legal ways in which he could not be successful with terrorist activities. However, the so called ceasefire was only adopted as a tactic. They never gave up armed activities.
June 15, 1993: PKK militants raided to Gozluce Village of Sirvan district in Siirt and Ucpinar Village of Ilicalar subdistrict in Bingol with rockets and killed nine citizens, kidnapped four people. On Siirt-Eruh highway they executed a paramedic by shooting.
June 4, 1993: Raiding the villages in Bingol and Hakkari, PKK terrorists killed seven people and kidnapped three women.
July 6, 1993: Basbaglar Massacre – PKK made an armed raid Basbaglar village of Kemaliye district in Erzincan and killed 28 people among whom there were women, and wounded three people. Setting 57 houses on fire, terrorists fled away.
July 19, 1993: PKK attacked Vanizer village of Bahcesaray district in the city of Van and killed 26 people. 22 of them were women
August 4, 1993: PKK terrorists stopped two minibuses on the way between Kavakbasi and Yenidogan Villages of Mutki district in Bitlis and executed 28 people by shooting. In this attack fifteen people were killed and thirteen people were wounded.
August 10, 1993: PKK ambushed a minibus in Genc district of Bingol and killed ten passengers. Also ten were wounded.
August 29, 1993: PKK kidnapped fourteen people in Kovancilar district of Elazig. Nine of them were killed.
September 30, 1993: An arable field of Kozluk district in the city of Batman was ambushed by PKK militants. Seven members of a village guard family were killed, three of them were wounded.
October 5, 1993: A series of armed in several arable fields and villages of Batman, Siirt and Hakkari caused the deaths of 35 people (most of them were women and children). Also ten people were in the victims list as wounded and 22 houses were sabotaged.
October 25, 1993: PKK terrorists raided on Erzurum’s Cat district in Yavi region and took citizens from their homes and gathered them together in a coffee shop. They propagandized the declarations then killed them with automatic weapons. During the attack 35 people died and nearly 50 people were wounded. Terrorists set the houses on fire and escaped.
October 30, 1993: Cicekli village located in the Pasinler district of Erzurum was raided by a large number of PKK terrorists. Six people were killed and thirteen casualties were recorded.


February 12, 1994: As a consequence of the bombs that PKK militants put in a public garbage box in a train station in Tuzla-Istanbul, fıve of corps school reserve officer students lost their lives and one from the public died as well as 29 were wounded.


March 19, 1995: A 50 vehicle convoy going from Tunceli to Ovacik district encountered a rocket attack of PKK terrorists. Eighteen soldiers were killed, ten were wounded.
January 01, 1995: Hamzali village located in Kulp district of Diyarbakir was ambushed by a group of terrorists. Five children and four women; in total nine people were killed.
August 5, 1995: Akbez of the city Hatay was hit by the rocket launches of PKK. Eight were killed (three children included) and four were wounded.

September 7, 1995: PKK raided to a chrome mine in Samandag district of Hatay and killed nine workers.
1995: From this year on, PKK began to apply intensive terror in big cities.


January 16, 1996: Terrorists ambushed a minibus near Taskonak village of Sirnak by rockets. The minibus was burnt with eleven people inside. (seven of them were village guards)
June 22, 1996: Broadcasting in Diyarbakir; Soz TV and Altindag Resting Facility in the same building were raided by long barreled weapons. Six people died and fourteen people were wounded in this incident.
August 13, 1996: PKK attacked Demriz train station located in Kangal district of Sivas and killed eight people.
October 25, 1996: As a result of the suicide attack held in front of the police department in Adana, three police officers, four civilians were killed and fourteen people were wounded in the events.


1998: Ocalan declared a unilateral so-called ceasefire, which particularly resulted from Turkey’s increasing the pressure on Syria.
October 9, 1998: Abdullah Ocalan was deported from Syria.
November 12, 1998: Abdullah Ocalan aimed to gain the status of a political immigrant by transcribing himself in Rome airport. For one month period he stayed in Italy, he tried to put strain upon European public opinion and official circles by means of these contacts and masses he directed.


February 15, 1999: Abdullah Ocalan was captured in the Embassy of Greece in Kenya while carrying Greek Cypriot passport. The capture of Abdullah Ocalan was a milestone in Turkey’s fight against terror.
June 26, 1999: Ocalan was adjudicated from the Article 125 of Turkish Republic Criminal Code. In this case, Ocalan said he was a citizen of the Turkish Republic; he had respect for the State and its Criminal Code and added that his advocacy would be of political not juridical. During this period PKK kept its armed elements in Northern Iraq and trained suicide activists as a protest of Ocalan case. From now on the statement of “we take democratic republic within the framework of the unitary state system” has become more pronounced.
September 1999: Abdullah Ocalan wanted the organization to stop its armed attacks in Turkey for a while and wanted it to withdraw from the borders of Turkish Republic. The organization obeyed this decision. Ocalan aimed to ease the anger of the aroused public opinion against him and a possible punishment of death and to be isolated from the organization, which cause him to succeed in his aims. The most important point was to prevent the organization’s finishing itself by putting radical events into action.
December 1999: Ocalan attempted to make the best of his opportunity from the Turkey’s EU bid through Helsinki Summit; he tried to realize some of his short term goals by means of Copenhagen criteria, and planned to rest the armed groups on cross-border while gaining benefits from the legal arena with the declarations of cultural rights.


February 2000: PKK trained militants in the Kandil Mountain’s Dola Koge region on the Iran-Iraq border. These militants; unidentified by the security forces, relatively better educated and trained to be under cover in big cities, on the issue of “disobedience” and they gathered under the title of Democratic Working Groups (Turkiye Calısma Gruplari). These members of the organization were the forerunners of civil disobedience.
August 2000: Members of “Democratic Working Groups” (Turkiye calısma gruplari) were sent to Turkey but were identified by security units and their activities were prevented before hand. In this direction, more than 70 members of the organization were captured who were trained in Dola Koge camps.


July 2001: Named as “Serhildan Party”; a civil movement was founded in order to activate the militants trained on civil disobedience and increase acts in the name of civil disobedience. Until 2006, although the movement was tried to be continued under different titles and with different groups, the democratization process and developments in Turkey put an end to the civilian disorder and efforts for civil disobedience which is advanced by the terrorist organization.
December 27, 2001: The article “Consul’s common view about the application of special sanctions in fighting against terrorism” which was prepared by the EU Council and signed in Brussels on December 27th, 2001, included PKK into the list of terrorist organizations


April 10, 2002: PKK abolished itself on this date and is replaced with KADEK the “so-called” Kurdistan Democratic and Freedom Congress. PKK did not intend a terrorist attack on this date.
March 2003: European Court of Human Rights adjudged that there is no unlawful situation in Ocalan’s prison conditions.
November 2003: PKK/KONGRA-GEL was established as a new organization model including KADEK and KNK. In the founding manifest, it was stated that “The US with its intervention to Saddam regime played an important role in the dawn of a new era. Saddam subdued all Kurds and all the people. Kongra-Gel, is welcoming this intervention, and designates that, in order to reach positive results; Kurdish issue/problem should be resolved permanently.


January 13, 2004: The US government included PKK and all its units into the terrorist organizations list. (PKK/KADEK/KONGRA-GEL)
April 5, 2004: The EU included PKK/KONGRA-GEL into terrorist organizations list on April 5, 2004.
June 1, 2004: The traditionalist wing of the terrorist organization who swept out the reformists gave rise to a period of rulership in the so called lead of Murat Karayilan. Ocalan supported the new administration and finished the so called ceasefire on June 1st. Terrorist attacks began before the specified date and intensified day by day and came to city centers from rural areas. New administration adopted the idea that “Political activities not supported by guerillas are not successful”.


July 6, 2005: Hikmet Fidan who worked as the senior general chairman for a long time in HADEP before the party was closed, had meetings with PWD groups in Northern Iraq in order to organize their activities in Turkey. When he was coming back from the meeting in Turkey, in Baglar region in Diyarbakir he was shot to death with a silencer in front of a building in Turkey. Fidan was the coordinator of PWD which was established by Osman Ocalan after he quitted PKK. PWD declared that Fidan had met with PWD elements in Northern Iraq before he was killed by PKK terrorists.
July 16, 2005: PKK launched a bomb attack in Kusadasi. Five people including the tourists from Britain and Ireland died and thirteen were wounded.
July 17, 2005: PKK’s so-called representative of Austria; Hasan Ozen with pseudonym Yusuf-Salih was killed. Ozen was against of Abdullah Ocalan’s declarations and he wanted to leave the organization.


February 12, 2006: PKK’s former so-called representative of Europe, Kani Yilmaz was killed by a push-button bomb that was put into his car, in Northern Iraq. Yilmaz was burned to death in the car with a former PKK militant Sabri Tori. Yilmaz had escaped from PKK camp in Northern Iraq with Ocalan’s brother Osman Ocalan and established PWD. He had said that PKK had been planning to kill them all. When Ocalan had escaped to Italy and could not get refugee rights, Yilmaz had been accused as a betrayer.
March 28, 2006: The funerals of four PKK militants, who were among the fourteen terrorists and were killed during the armed attack of the Turkish security forces on March 25th in Senyayla region which is on the crossroads between Mus and Bingol, were tried to be turned into a provocation by PKK militants. The events spread to other provinces and districts and the chaos was further deepened by the support of majors and governors of the Party for a Democratic Society (DTP) and Roj TV; the broadcasting of PKK terrorist organization. However, the security units prevented the events from intensifying by means of efficient and proper precautions and applications.
May 4, 2006: Eight soldiers and eleven students; in total 21 people wounded in school service blast in Hakkari.

August 11, 2006: It was stated that El-Maliki’s government had decided to close all offices of PKK in the capital city of Iraq and all activities of the terrorist organization were prohibited.
August 14, 2006: U.K. announced PKK, KADEK and KONGRA-GEL were illegal terrorist organizations and the regulation that prohibits PKK, KADEK and Kongra-Gel was put into force on August 14th, 2006. The regulation that prohibits the organization which is called Kurdistan Freedom Falcons was put into force on July 25th, 2006 by the Kingdom’s Parliament.
August 28, 2006: In Marmaris district of Mugla ten British tourists and eleven Turkish citizens were wounded by three explosions. One of them exploded in a minibus, and two others exploded in garbage containers.
August 28, 2006: In Antalya, an explosion occurred in front of the trade center of Municipality. Three people died, 20 were wounded including one man heavily wounded.
August 28, 2006: The US assigned Joseph Ralston (former senior chief of US general staff-retired air forces general) as the task coordinator in the fight against PKK terrorist organization. September 13, 2006: In Diyarbakir, near Kosuyolu Park, where families go for resting, a bomb exploded. Seventeen people were wounded and eleven lost their lives including a baby.



Journal of Turkish Weekly http://www.turkishweekly.net/articles.php?id=217