Turkey detains 1000 for Ankara blast

Subject: International Relations

Section: Places in news

Context: Turkish police have launched a wide security crackdown following a suicide bomb attack in Turkey’s capital, Ankara.

More about the news:

The PKK, designated as a terrorist organization by the US and EU, has waged a decades-long rebellion in Turkey, causing tens of thousands of deaths since 1984.
On Sunday, a suicide bomber targeted the Turkish Ministry of Interior, coinciding with President Erdogan’s parliamentary address.
A second attacker was killed in a police shootout, injuring two officers. The suspects used a stolen vehicle and were linked to the PKK.
Subsequently, Turkey launched airstrikes on suspected PKK locations in northern Iraq.

Who are Kurds:

Kurds are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria.
They make up the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East after Arabs, Persians, and Turks.

What religion is followed by Kurds:

Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims who adhere to the Shafiʽi school, while a significant minority adhere to the Hanafi school and also Alevism.
Moreover, many Shafi’i Kurds adhere to either one of the two Sufi orders Naqshbandi and Qadiriyya.
Other religions with significant Kurdish adherents are Yarsanism and Yazidism.

What is the History of Kurds Nationalism:

Kurdish nationalism stirred in the 1890s when the Ottoman Empire was on its last legs.
The 1920 Treaty of Sevres,imposed a settlement and colonial carve-up of Turkey after World War One, promised Kurds independence. But the accord was broken by Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk.
The Treaty of Lausanne, ratified in 1924, divided the Kurds among the new nations of the Middle East.
With the 1946 Republic of Mahabad, a Soviet-backed state stretching over Iran’s border with Turkey and Iraq Kurdish separatism in Iran first bubbled to the surface.
The 1979 Iran’s Islamic Revolution touched off bloodshed in its Kurdistan region with heavy clashes between the Shiite revolutionaries and the Kurdish Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) which fought for independence.

What are the demands of Kurds:

The Kurds have never achieved nation-state status,except in Iraq, where they have a regional government called Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Kurds want to establish their independent nation-station Kurdistan which comprises five different regions: southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran and southwestern Armenia.

What is the PKK and its armed movement:

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was founded by the Marxist revolutionary Abdullah Öcalan in 1978 to create an independent Kurdistan.
Its guerrilla forces fought against the Turkish army from 1984 until Öcalan was captured in 1999, when 40,000 Kurdish civilians were killed.
The PPK declared a ceasefire in 2013. However, this ceasefire collapsed after Turkey joined the war against the Islamic State in 2015 and started bombing PKK targets in Iraq.
Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Türkiye cracked down PKK militants as well as Kurdish civilians, including lawmakers and activists.
According to the government of Türkiye, the PKK mainly targets police, military, economic and social assets of the country. The terrorist organization is also involved in attacks against civilians and diplomatic and consular facilities as well as in extortion, arms smuggling and drug trafficking.