Editing Kurdistan Workers' Party (section)

== Ideology and aims ==
[[File:PKK Verbot.jpg|thumb|Protest for freedom of [[Abdullah Öcalan|Öcalan]] in Germany, 21 January 2016]]
The organization originated in the early 1970s from the radical left and drew its membership from other existing leftist groups, mainly [[Revolutionary Youth Federation of Turkey|Dev-Genç]].<ref name="joost">Jongerden, Joost. "[http://epa.uz.ua/02300/02341/00010/pdf/EPA02341_ceu_2008_01_120-132.pdf PKK]," CEU Political Science Journal. Vol. 3, No. 1, page 127–132.</ref>{{Rp|127}} During the 1980s, the movement included and cooperated with other ethnic groups, including ethnic Turks, who were following the radical left.<ref name="joost" />{{Rp|127}}<ref name="joost" />{{Rp|129}} The organization initially presented itself as part of the [[World revolution|worldwide communist revolution]]. Its aims and objectives have evolved over time towards the goals of national autonomy<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/11674094|title=Turkey and the Kurds – From War to Reconciliation?|first=Yado|last=Arin|journal=Working Paper at UC Berkeley's Center for Right-Wing Studies|date=26 March 2015|access-date=28 December 2018}}</ref> a federation similar the one of Switzerland, Germany or the United States<ref name="Stanton" /> and [[democratic confederalism]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Self|first1=Andrew|title=What Was It All For?|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-self/turkey-pkk-ocalan_b_2612112.html|access-date=24 July 2017|work=Huffington Post|date=3 February 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Who are Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels?|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-20971100|access-date=24 July 2017|work=BBC News|date=4 November 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Marcus|first1=Aliza|title=Blood and belief : the PKK and the Kurdish fight for independence|date=2009|publisher=New York University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0814795873|pages=287–288|edition=1.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6rcUCgAAQBAJ|quote=Instead of struggling for autonomy, a federation, or independence, Kurds would now fight for a truly democratic Turkey, in which Kurds and Turks would be unified in the way that Turkey's founder Ataturk had imagined}}</ref>

Around 1995, the PKK ostensibly changed its aim from independence to a demand for equal rights and Kurdish autonomy within the Turkish state,<ref>{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Paul|title=The PKK: Coming Down from the Mountains|date=2015|publisher=Zed Books Ltd.|isbn=978-1783600403|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hBkDgAAQBAJ&q=PKK+autonomy+and&pg=PT79|access-date=24 July 2017|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Stanton" /><ref>{{cite news |date=2 February 2016 |title=Turkish lecturer to be put on trial for posing exam question on PKK leader |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/03/turkish-lecturer-to-be-put-on-trial-for-posing-exam-question-on-pkk-leader |access-date=24 July 2017}}</ref> though all the while hardly suspending their military attacks on the Turkish state except for ceasefires in 1999–2004 and 2013–2015. In 1995, Öcalan said: "We are not insisting on a separate state under any condition. What we are calling for very openly is a state model where a people's basic economic, cultural, social, and political rights are guaranteed".<ref name="Stanton">{{cite book |last1=Stanton |first1=Jessica A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1NX4DAAAQBAJ&q=PKK+demands+autonomy&pg=PA217 |title=Violence and Restraint in Civil War: Civilian Targeting in the Shadow of International Law |date=2016 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1107069107 |page=217 |language=en |access-date=24 July 2017}}</ref>

Whilst this shift in the mid-nineties has been interpreted as one from a call for independence to an autonomous republic,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Yavuz |first1=M. Hakan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UoZRR0gUbJIC&pg=PA177 |title=Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey |date=2009 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0521888783 |pages=176–177}}</ref> some scholars have concluded that the PKK still maintains independence as the ultimate goal, but through society-building rather than state-building.<ref>Casier, Marlies. "Beyond Mesopotamia? The Mesopotamia Social Forum and the appropriation and re-imagination of Mesopotamia by the Kurdish movement" in {{cite book|editor1-last=Gambetti|editor1-first=Zeynep|editor2-last=Jongerden|editor2-first=Joost|title=The Kurdish Issue in Turkey: A Spatial Perspective|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1317581529|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZUGCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA147}}</ref><ref>Akkaya, Ahmet Hamdi; Jongerden, Joost. "The PKK in the 2000s" in {{cite book|editor1-last=Marlies|editor1-first=Casier|editor2-last=Jongerden|editor2-first=Joost|title=Nationalisms and Politics in Turkey: Political Islam, Kemalism and the Kurdish Issue|date=2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1136938672|page=156|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6vYtCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA156}}</ref>

The PKK has in March 2016 also vowed to overthrow the Turkish government of [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]], through the '[[Peoples' United Revolutionary Movement]]'.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}}

The organization has adapted the new [[Democratic confederalism|democratic confederalist]] views of its arrested leader, which aim to replace the [[United Nations]], [[capitalism]] and [[nation state]] with the democratic confederalism which is described as a system of popularly elected administrative councils, allowing local communities to exercise autonomous control over their assets while linking to other communities via a network of confederal councils.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freeocalan.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Ocalan-Democratic-Confederalism.pdf|title=Democratic Confederalism|website=Freeocalan.org|access-date=28 December 2018}}</ref> Followers of Öcalan and members of the PKK are known, after his honorary name, as ''Apocu'' (Apo-ites) under his movement, ''Apoculuk'' (Apoism).<ref name="Mango2005">{{cite book |author=Mango |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q9lfQvRL7J4C&pg=PA32 |title=Turkey and the War on Terror: For Forty Years We Fought Alone |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0415350020 |page=32 |author-link=Andrew Mango}}</ref> The slogan ''[[Bijî Serok Apo]]'', which translates into Long Live leader Apo, is often chanted by his sympathizers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mit wehenden Öcalan-Flaggen |url=https://www.fr.de/frankfurt/wehenden-oecalan-flaggen-11169369.html |access-date=27 November 2022 |website=[[Frankfurter Rundschau]] |date=30 November 2014 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Öcalan poster in Diyarbakır Newroz |url=http://mezopotamyaajansi35.com/en/ALL-NEWS/content/view/165567 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230716054729/http://mezopotamyaajansi35.com/en/ALL-NEWS/content/view/165567 |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 July 2023 |access-date=27 November 2022 |website=mezopotamyaajansi35.com }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Werthschulte |first=Christian |date=5 September 2016 |title=Ein Volksfest für Öcalan |language=de |page=7 |work=Die Tageszeitung: taz |url=https://taz.de/!5333261/ |access-date=27 November 2022 |issn=0931-9085}}</ref>

=== Religion ===
While the PKK has no known Islamist or practicing religious member among its leadership, it has supported the creation of religious organizations.<ref>Karakoç, Ekrem; Sarıgil, Zeki (June 2020). pp. 253–254</ref> It has also supported [[Friday prayer]]s to be in Kurdish instead of the Turkish language.<ref>Karakoç, Ekrem; Sarıgil, Zeki (June 2020). p. 253</ref> Öcalans early writings did not have a positive view of Islam, but later works had a more favorable tone, specifically regarding the revolutionary activity of [[Muhammad]] against an established order, as well as the role Islam can play in reconciliation between Kurds and Turks.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Karakoç |first1=Ekrem |last2=Sarıgil |first2=Zeki |date=June 2020 |title=Why Religious People Support Ethnic Insurgency? Kurds, Religion and Support for the PKK |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-religion/article/abs/why-religious-people-support-ethnic-insurgency-kurds-religion-and-support-for-the-pkk/849D2EF7A64EA895D00714A82D0B3DB0 |journal=Politics and Religion |language=en |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=13 |issue=2 |page=251 |doi=10.1017/S1755048319000312 |hdl=11693/53234 |s2cid=202266557 |issn=1755-0483|hdl-access=free }}</ref> The PKK was accused of having a presence in mosques in Germany to attract religious Muslim Kurds into their ranks.<ref>{{Cite web |title=PKK camileri de böldü |url=https://www.yeniakit.com.tr/haber/pkk-camileri-de-boldu-4438.html |access-date=6 May 2023 |website=m.yeniakit.com.tr}}</ref> Öcalan had respect for [[Zoroastrianism]] and saw it as the first religion of the Kurds.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Raßbach |first=Benjamin |date=2021 |title=Zoroastrianism and Secularity in Sinjar / Multiple Secularities |url=https://www.multiple-secularities.de/bulletin/zoroastrianism-and-secularity-in-sinjar/?filter2=all |access-date=30 May 2022 |website=www.multiple-secularities.de |publisher=[[Universität Leipzig]]}}</ref>