Editing Kurdistan Workers' Party (section)

== Background ==
As a result of the [[1971 Turkish military memorandum|Turkish military coup of 1971]], many militants of the revolutionary left were deprived of a public appearance. Movements like the [[People's Liberation Army of Turkey]] (THKO) or the [[Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist]] (TKP-ML) were cracked down upon and forbidden.<ref name=":17" /> Subsequently, several of the remaining political actors of the Turkish left organized away from the public in university dorms or in meetings in shared apartments.<ref name=":17"/> In 1972–1973 the organization's core ideological group was made up largely of students led by [[Abdullah Öcalan]] ("Apo") in [[Ankara]] who made themselves known as the "Kurdistan Revolutionaries"''.''<ref name=":17"/> The new group focused on the oppressed Kurdish population of [[Turkish Kurdistan]] in a capitalist world.<ref name=":17"/> In 1973, several students who later would become founders of the PKK established the student organization {{Interlanguage link|Ankara Democratic Association of Higher Education|tr|Ankara Demokratik Yüksek Öğrenim Derneği}} (ADYÖD), which would be banned the next year.<ref>{{Citation |title=PKK Pre-conflict Mobilisation (1974–1984) |date=2021 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/understanding-insurgency/pkk-preconflict-mobilisation-19741984/D7965C34E09A1ACAD789790208CA5D1D |work=Understanding Insurgency: Popular Support for the PKK in Turkey |page=75 |editor-last=O'Connor |editor-first=Francis |place=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |doi=10.1017/9781108975087.004 |isbn=978-1108838504 |s2cid=242499406 |access-date=16 March 2022}}</ref> Then a group around Öcalan split from the Turkish left and held extensive discussions focusing on the [[Internal colonialism|colonization]] of Kurdistan by Turkey.<ref>O'Connor, Francis, ed., pp. 75–76</ref> Following the [[1980 Turkish coup d'état|military coup of 1980]], the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life.<ref name="NYTK" /> Many who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned.<ref name="Cambridge University Press" />  At this time, expressions of [[Kurdish culture]], including the use of the [[Kurdish language]], dress, [[folklore]], and names, were banned in Turkey.<ref name="hannum">{{cite book |last1=Hannum |first1=Hurst |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=28PEGfCDiZEC |title=Autonomy, sovereignty, and self-determination: the accommodation of conflicting rights |date=1996 |publisher=Univ. of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=0812215729 |edition=Rev. |location=Philadelphia |pages=187–189}}</ref> In an attempt to deny their separate existence from [[Turkish people]], the Turkish government categorized [[Kurds]] as "Mountain Turks" until 1991.<ref name="hannum" /><ref>Bartkus, Viva Ona, ''The Dynamic of Secession'', (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 90–91.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Çelik|first=Yasemin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y9PXcwFOLNcC&pg=PA3|title=Contemporary Turkish foreign policy|publisher=Praeger|year=1999|isbn=978-0275965907|edition=1. publ.|location=Westport, Conn.|page=3}}</ref> The PKK was then formed as part of a growing discontent over the suppression of [[Kurds in Turkey]], in an effort to establish linguistic, cultural, and political rights for Turkey's Kurdish minority.<ref name="Palgrave Macmillan" />

Following several years of preparation, the Kurdistan Workers Party was established during a foundation congress on 26 and 27 November 1978 in the rural village of [[Ziyaret, Lice|Fîs]], Lice, Diyarbakır. On 27 November 1978,<ref name=":62">{{Cite book|last=Jongerden|first=Joost|title=The Settlement Issue in Turkey and the Kurds: An Analysis of Spatial Policies, Modernity and War|year=2007|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-9047420118|page=55|language=en}}</ref> a central committee consisting of seven people was elected, with Abdullah Öcalan as its head. Other members were: {{Interlanguage link|Şahin Dönmez|lt=Şahin Dönmez|ku||WD=}}, [[Mazlum Doğan]], [[Haki Karer]] (an ethnic Turk),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ufheil-Somers |first=Amanda |date=16 July 1988 |title=Between Guerrilla Warfare and Political Murder |url=https://merip.org/1988/07/between-guerrilla-warfare-and-political-murder/ |access-date=10 December 2024 |website=MERIP |quote=Karer was one of the Turkish members of the original group that founded the PKK |language=en-US}}</ref> {{Interlanguage link|Mehmet Hayri Durmuş|lt=Mehmet Hayri Durmuş|ku||WD=}}, {{Interlanguage link|Mehmet Karasungur|lt=Mehmet Karasungur|ku||WD=}}, [[Cemîl Bayik|Cemîl Bayîk]].<ref name=":62" /> The party program ''Kürdistan Devrimci Yolu'' drew on Marxism<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schoon |first=Eric W. |date=2015 |title=The Paradox of Legitimacy: Resilience, Successes, and the Multiple Identities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26370847 |journal=Social Problems |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=273–274 |doi=10.1093/socpro/spv006 |jstor=26370847 |issn=0037-7791}}</ref> and saw Kurdistan as a colonized entity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yilmaz |first=Cihat |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2139658 |title=Turkey's Kurdish Question Revisited; Perspectives of Kurdish Political Parties Towards the Kurdish Issue |publisher=Nubihar Akademi |year=2021 |pages=191–192}}</ref> Initially the PKK concealed its existence and only announced their existence in a propaganda stunt when they attempted to assassinate a politician of the [[Justice Party (Turkey)|Justice Party]], Mehmet Celal Bucak,<ref name=":62" /> in July 1979. Bucak was a Kurdish tribal leader accused by the PKK of exploiting peasants and collaborating with the Turkish state to oppress Kurds.<ref name=":62" />