PKK dissolved itself: Here is the 47-year history of the organization with its actions and turning points

Officially founded in 1978, the PKK dissolved itself and laid down its arms on May 12, 2025. So how did the organization come about, what was its founding story? Here is the 47-year history of the PKK, with its actions and turning points .

The PKK announced that it would dissolve itself on May 12, 2025. The organization's statement stated that the decision to end the armed struggle was also made. The statement said, "The PKK's organizational structure was dissolved and the armed struggle method was terminated, and the work carried out under the name of the PKK was terminated."

Abdullah Öcalan and a group of left-wing young people began discussing the Kurdish issue at Ankara University's Faculty of Political Sciences in 1973. In the summer of 1973, Öcalan conveyed his ideas to his circle at a meeting he held in Tuzluçayır, Ankara.

In 1975, this group began to be known as "Apocular". The group went to Kurdish provinces and tried to organize among the youth and peasantry. During this process, the group made contacts with tribes in regions such as Siverek, Hilvan, and Viranşehir.

In 1977, a conflict broke out between the PKK and the Bucak tribe in Siverek. The Bucak tribe was affiliated with the Justice Party of the period. These conflicts were one of the first serious armed trials for the PKK.

A group of approximately 25 people went to Siverek and engaged in an armed conflict. These incidents were considered the PKK's first clash with local forces.

The PKK was officially founded at a meeting held in Fis Village, Lice district of Diyarbakır, on November 27, 1978. 21 people, including Cemil Bayık, Mehmet Hayri Durmuş, Mazlum Doğan, Duran Kalkan, and Ali Haydar Kaytan, attended the congress. The name "Kurdistan Workers' Party" was adopted under the leadership of Abdullah Öcalan. Ideologically, the organization adopted a Marxist-Leninist, national liberationist line.

Later, the activities of the organization were revealed by the security forces. Thereupon, the organization crossed into Lebanon via Syria and settled in the Bekaa Valley in 1979.

Abdullah Öcalan chose Damascus, the capital of Syria, as his headquarters in 1979. During the military coup of September 12, 1980, many members of the organization who could not escape abroad were captured.

The Bekaa Valley was the organization's main training and logistics base throughout the 1980s, where armed training was conducted.

On July 15-26, 1981, the PKK held its first conference in the Helvi camp. 80 people attended this meeting. The congress decided to strengthen the structure in Europe and to make plans for attacks inside Turkey. The following year, cooperation was entered into with Dev-Yol and other extreme left groups.

In 1982, Öcalan reached an agreement with Massoud Barzani to build camps in northern Iraq and to cross the border into Türkiye from Barzani's control.

On the other hand, the organization's flag changed in 1981. Initially consisting of a yellow star on a red background, the flag was changed to "red background, yellow star in the middle and green crescent inside the yellow star" in 1981. The change aimed to emphasize the socialist character of the organization and its Kurdish identity at the same time. After 1995, the crescent was used less, and was simplified with only stars and color codes.

On August 15, 1984, the PKK carried out its first armed action by attacking gendarmerie stations in the Eruh district of Siirt and the Şemdinli district of Hakkari. This was accepted as the date when the organization actually started armed struggle.

Abdullah Öcalan gave an interview to journalist Mehmet Ali Birand for the first time. In that interview, Öcalan explained why the organization was founded and its aims. This interview took place in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon in 1988. Immediately after the interview was published in Milliyet, the newspapers were confiscated and the publication of the interview was banned.

The soldiers who intervened in the peace project that was on the agenda of the Turgut Özal government were targeted. In such an environment, a ceasefire was declared for the first time on March 20, 1993. Öcalan announced a unilateral ceasefire at a press conference in the Bekaa Valley, attended by PUK Leader Celal Talabani, Ahmet Türk, Kemal Burkay, Hemreş Reşo and Ruşen Aslan. While the ceasefire was declared in the Bekaa Valley, the then President Turgut Özal, who wanted to take steps towards a permanent ceasefire, lost his life.

On May 24, 1993, the PKK blocked the Elazığ-Bingöl highway and executed 33 unarmed soldiers who were discharged from their bus. This was one of the organization's biggest attacks. The ceasefire ended with this attack.

On July 5, 1993, the PKK killed 33 citizens in the Başbağlar Village of Erzincan and then set the village on fire.

On January 3, 2008, the PKK carried out a bomb attack on a military service vehicle in front of a private teaching institution in the central Yenişehir district of Diyarbakır. Seven people, six of whom were students, lost their lives and 73 people were injured.

As a result of Türkiye's threats, Syria deported Öcalan. Öcalan went to Russia, Italy, Greece and Kenya in that order.

On November 12, 1998, a member of the Italian Communist Refoundation Party came to Moscow, met with Öcalan and took him to Rome. Öcalan, who arrived in Rome with a fake passport, was arrested. In the meantime, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the then Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema. In this letter, it was requested that Öcalan be prosecuted by the Italian courts. Turkey also requested Öcalan's extradition, but Italy did not accept it. The Italian government made efforts to send Öcalan to Germany. Germany preferred to stay out of the issue by not wanting Öcalan in Italy. In addition, the Italian courts released Öcalan, and Öcalan settled in a villa outside Rome. In the meantime, a group from the Greek government started an initiative to send Öcalan somewhere in Africa.

On January 31, 1999, Öcalan flew to Greece. From there, he was taken to Nairobi on February 2, 1999, under the escort of a member of the Greek National Intelligence Organization (EYP) named Savvas Kalenteridis, and was temporarily placed in the Greek Embassy in Kenya. While there, he applied for political asylum in Greece, but received no response.

On 15 February, the Greek ambassador told Öcalan that he was free to go to a location of his choosing and that the Netherlands was prepared to accept him. On 15 February 1999, Öcalan left the embassy under the supervision of Kenyan authorities and was taken to Nairobi Airport with a Republic of Cyprus passport issued in the name of Lazaros Mavros, to go to the Netherlands, where he had requested political asylum.

Öcalan was captured in Kenya on February 15, 1999.

Öcalan, who was imprisoned in İmralı Prison, called on the organization to lay down its arms. In the last hearing held on June 29, 1999, it was determined by the Ankara State Security Court No. 2 that he had carried out actions aimed at separating some of the lands under state sovereignty from state administration by directing and directing the armed organization he founded, the PKK, with the decisions he made and the orders and instructions he gave. Öcalan was unanimously sentenced to death. The decision was also approved by the 9th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation.

The court's death sentence was approved by the Supreme Court on November 25, 1999. In August 2002, his sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment due to the abolition of the death penalty by the Turkish Grand National Assembly within the framework of European Union harmonization laws.

The PKK announced that it had “ended the armed struggle” between 1999 and 2004. The ceasefire was broken in 2004. The organization began using the name PKK again.

A one-month ceasefire was declared again in May 2009. The President of the time, Abdullah Gül, supported the opening process by saying, “Good things will happen.” The PKK extended the ceasefire period. Öcalan determined a 10-article roadmap. In October 2009, 34 militants came to Türkiye. However, 13 soldiers and 2 PKK militants lost their lives in a conflict that broke out in 2011. The Oslo process was left unfinished as a result.

On September 12, 2012, hunger strikes were launched in prisons demanding the removal of the isolation imposed on Öcalan. On the 67th day of the hunger strike, the hunger strike was ended upon Öcalan's call.

In 2013, independent MP and DTK Co-chair Ahmet Türk and BDP Batman MP Ayla Akat went to İmralı and met with Öcalan. On March 21, 2013, Öcalan's farewell letter to arms was declared to the public on Nevroz. A new step was taken in the process. Murat Karayılan held a press conference in Kandil and announced that they would withdraw. The withdrawals began on May 8. The groups within the borders of Turkey withdrew. Another group entered Türkiye from Habur. The negotiations that continued for two years ended in 2015 and the solution process came to an end.

On February 28, 2015, the government and the HDP delegation announced the historic Dolmabahçe agreement.

Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan, Minister of Interior Efkan Ala, AKP Group Deputy Chairman Mahir Ünal and the HDP delegation shared the 10-article text with the public.

Former Deputy Director of MİT and Undersecretary of Public Security Muhammed Dervişoğlu, who conducted the talks with Öcalan, was also at the meeting.

Öcalan was going to call for a disarmament congress for the PKK. However, the KCK made a statement saying, “The PKK will not lay down its arms unless the Kurdish issue is resolved.”

Erdoğan ended the process politically by saying, “I have no knowledge of it, I do not find it right. Two separate texts were read, they were not the same. I do not find it right for the government to give that official statement side by side with the Deputy Prime Minister and the parliamentary group.”

PKK leader Mustafa Karasu said, “The PKK will not lay down its arms until the AKP government negotiates the 10 issues regarding Öcalan and resolves the issue.”

In March 2015, the process came to a complete standstill.

MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli shook hands with DEM Party Co-Chairs on October 1, 2024.

A month after Bahçeli's call, on December 28, 2024, the Ministry of Justice allowed the İmralı delegation to meet with Öcalan. Thus, members of the delegation, Van Deputy Pervin Buldan, and İstanbul Deputy and TBMM Deputy Speaker Sırrı Süreyya Önder went to İmralı.

The DEM Party İmralı delegation, along with Ahmet Türk, DEM Party Co-Chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları, Tuncer Bakırhan, İstanbul Deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Van Deputy Pervin Buldan, İstanbul Deputy Cengiz Çiçek and Asrın Law Firm lawyer Faik Özgür Erol, met with Öcalan for the third time on February 27, 2025.

Following this meeting, Öcalan's call, "All groups must lay down their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself," was read at the Istanbul Taksim Elite Hotel.

The PKK announced that it convened its 12th congress between May 5-7. In a statement made by the PKK regarding the congress, it was stated that decisions of historical importance were made at the congress and that “Extensive and detailed information and documents regarding the results of the 12th PKK Congress and the decisions taken will be shared with the public very soon after the results in two different areas are combined.”

The organization, which convened its 12th congress between May 5-7, made the following statement: "The 12th PKK Congress decided to dissolve the organizational structure of the PKK and end the armed struggle method, thus ending the work carried out under the name of the PKK." Thus, the PKK, which Abdullah Öcalan founded in 1978 in the village of Fis in the Lice district of Diyarbakır, dissolved itself after 47 years.