Kurdish Resistance in Turkey

Abstract

Meanwhile in Turkey, Kurdish resistance had smouldered on, although its activities had been overshadowed by other powerful and active Turkish political groups hostile to the government, and to each other. Political turmoil and violence had threatened to swamp that unfortunate country until the 1980 military coup, when activists were detained, forced to go underground or into exile. Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the PKK, escaped into Syria. For some time Syria had been providing Ocalan with covert support to destabilise the Ankara government. Ocalan was now able to operate, almost openly, from Damascus, and his activists were allowed sanctuary and training facilities in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley, nominally under Syrian military occupation. Not all major Kurdish resistance groups were so fortunate.