Editing Kurdistan Workers' Party (section)

===Recruitment===
[[File:PKK female figher̠02.jpg|thumb|230px|PKK female fighters.]]
[[File:Pkk-peshmerga-fighters.jpg|thumb|PKK and [[Peshmerga]] fighters, 11 August 2015]]
Since its foundation, the PKK has recruited new fighters mainly from Turkey, but also from Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Western countries{{which|date=November 2021}} using various recruitment methods, such as using nationalist propaganda and its gender equality ideology. At its establishment, it included a small number of female fighters but over time the number increased significantly and by the early 1990s, 30 percent of its 17,000 armed fighting forces were women.<ref name="gender">Ali Özcan, Nihat{{cite web|url=http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373638|title=PKK Recruitment of Female Operatives|access-date=23 August 2010|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070915044101/http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373638|archive-date=15 September 2007}}, ''Global Terrorism Analysis'', [[Jamestown Foundation]], Volume 4, Issue 28, 11 September 2007.</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=October 2022}} After the third party congress in 1986<ref name=":14">Marcus, Aliza (2009). pp. 116–117, 119</ref> or in 1989, the PKK's armed wing issued a so-called "Compulsory Military Service Law",<ref name=":15" /> which authorized the forcible recruitment of young men. The law provoked disagreement within the party, and in 1990 it was suspended.<ref name=":14" /> The PKK has had to temporarily suspend recruitment several times since 1991, as it had difficulties providing training to the large number of volunteers who wanted to join its ranks.<ref name=":15">{{Cite journal |last=Özcan |first=Alị Kemal |date=2007 |title=The Vacillating PKK: Can It Be Resurrected? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4284527 |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=107–110 |doi=10.1080/00263200601079740 |issn=0026-3206 |jstor=4284527  |s2cid=144547591}}</ref>

By 2020, 40% of the fighting force were women.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Szekely|first=Ora|date=2020|title=Exceptional Inclusion: Understanding the PKK's Gender Policy|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2020.1759265|journal=Studies in Conflict & Terrorism|volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=433–450|doi=10.1080/1057610X.2020.1759265|s2cid=219481924|issn=1057-610X}}</ref> In much of rural Turkey, where male-dominated tribal structures, and conservative [[Muslim]] norms were commonplace, the organization increased its number of members through the recruitment of women from different social structures and environments, also from families that migrated to several European countries after 1960 as [[Foreign worker|guest workers]].<ref name="gender" /> {{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=October 2022}} It was reported by a Turkish university that 88% of the subjects initially reported that equality was a key objective, and that they joined the organization based on this statement.<ref name="Hurriyet DeceivedChild">{{cite news|url=http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/6673759.asp?gid=180|title=Hepsi kandırılmış çocuklar|language=tr|work=[[Hürriyet Daily News]]|publisher=[[Ankara University|University of Ankara]]|access-date=9 June 2007}}</ref> In 2007, approximately 1,100 of 4,500–5,000 total members were women.<ref name="gender" />{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=October 2022}}

According to the [[Jamestown Foundation]], in the early years of the PKK existence, it recruited young women by abducting them.<ref name="gender" />{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=October 2022}} Families would also encourage family members to join the PKK in order to avenge relatives killed by the Turkish army.<ref name="gender" />{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=October 2022}}