Turkey has experienced a number of conflicts since the end of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the modern Republic of Turkey. There are three main sources of conflict involving Turkey: tensions between the state and the Kurds, between the military and Islamists, and the Cyprus issue. Other minority groups, including the Alevis, have also faced repression from state or nationalist forces. Turkey emerged as an independent republic following World War I, during which the Armenian Genocide was carried out, which killed around one million Armenians. Further ethnic cleansing campaigns were carried against Assyrians and Greeks, which have also been recognized as genicodes. By the 1920s, Turkey was reorganized as a Republic under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who believed in a modern, ethnically unified and secular Turkey. Kemalism, an ideology based on his beliefs, was the guiding political philosophy in Turkey for decades. For decades, the Turkish military have seen themselves as the guardians of Kemalism. This has led to a great deal of conflict with groups who do not agree with Kemal’s vision of Turkey, especially with the Kurds and Islamists.
The Kurds are a significant minority group in Turkey, especially in the eastern part of the country. Many surrounding states also have large Kurdish populations, and in Syria and Iraq the Kurdish areas have some degree of political and military autonomy. For decades, the Kurdish language and public displays of Kurdish culture were banned. In response, an organization called the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was formed in 1987 and began an armed campaign against the Turkish state in 1984. Despite numerous attempts to find a ceasefire, the fighting continued for decades. The PKK is widely recognized as a terrorist group, and it has carried out attacks on civilian infrastructure within Turkey. The conflict has left tens of thousands dead, including combatants and civilians. The PKK has carried out massacres of civilians, and used tactics including suicide bombings and forced recruitment through kidnapping, as well as the use of child soldiers. The Turkish state’s response has also included massacres of Kurdish civilians and arbitrary detention of suspected PKK members.
With the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2012, the fighting took on an international dimension, as Kurdish fighters affiliated with the PKK gained control of territory near the Turkish border. These groups, including the People’s Defense Units (YPG) were part of the coalition combating the Islamic State. Beginning in 2016, Turkey has launched numerous military offensives against these Kurdish groups, which has led to more violence. Turkey continues to experience sporadic terrorist attacks, some linked to the PKK and others to jihadist groups.
While the current Turkish government is headed by an Islamist party, for much of Turkey’s history secularism was forcibly maintained by the military. There are numerous instances of democratically elected Turkish governments being overthrown, sometimes violently, by the military. In 1960, Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was executed following a coup. Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974, occupying the northern half of the island ever since. Another coup took place in 1980, and in 2016 elements of the military attempted to overthrow the government once again, with hundreds of civilians killed during the unsuccessful coup attempt.
Peace Attempts
There have been a number of peace negotiations with the PKK. In 1993, a ceasefire was declared, following productive negotiations with Turkish President Turgut Özal. Following Özal’s death, the conflict resumed, despite another brief unilateral PKK ceasefire in 1995. In 1999, the PKK declared another ceasefire, briefly changed its name, and attempted further negotiations. When Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) took power in 2002, they began to loosen restrictions on Kurdish culture. Fighting resumed in 2003, and it took until 2012 for significant peace negotiations to take place. Until 2015, there was a tenuous peace between the two sides. The Syrian Civil War and the war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, where armed Kurdish groups became major players, helped spark a renewed conflict. The hard line taken by Erdogan’s government in recent years, and the international nature of the conflict, has made the chance for future peace negotiations appear slim.
