[ot-caption title=”Kurds holding up a portrait of the founder of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan. (via Flickr, KurdishStruggle)”]

As a part of a tragic, somewhat frequent occurrence, a car bomb was activated in Ankara, Turkey, on March 13, 2016, killing about 35 people and wounding about 75 others.

The recent string of terrorism in Turkey can be traced back to the PKK, which means “Kurdistan Workers’ Party.” This party was formed in the late 1970s and became more widely known after attacks in 1984. This party’s existence is a part of a much greater conflict of Kurdish-Turk governance. The PKK’s goal is to have a unifying country for Kurds, run independently from the Turks.

The PKK, originally under the title of the “Kongra-Gel,” was founded in 1974 by Abdullah Ocalan as a Marxist-Leninist organization. Before the 1990s, this group mostly commited acts of insurgency in the rural country, but now their operations have moved to more urban areas. The PKK is looked at by some as a reaction to the mistreatment of Kurds in Turkey. The organization, according to Australian National Security, uses the religiosity of Kurds to strengthen their party, even though the organization remains largely secular. The leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was originally supposed to be executed, but is now currently serving a life sentence. The PKK even has support from sympathizers outside the region, such as in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. The PKK has been traced to at least 27 terrorist attacks from 2012 to now.

While authorities blame the PKK for Sunday’s car bomb, a branch of the PKK known as the “TAK” (Kurdistan Freedom Hawks) have claimed responsibility. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks are a much more radical branch of the PKK.  They formed in 2004, rejecting any sort of ceasefires the Turkish government offered. TAK said the attack was retaliation for governmental security operations that have taken place in several cities that are mainly populated by Kurds.

The bomber, Seher Calga Demir, was a twenty-four year-old female student who has been reported to have joined the PKK in 2013 and received training by the YPG (People’s Protection Units) in Syria. To further complicate global ties, the United States does not consider the YPG a terrorist organization and supports them in their fight against ISIS, while Turkey considers the YPG a threat.

Sources: CNN, BBC, The Guardian, TAK, The Independent, US News, TurkishWeekly, EuroNews, The Economist, FAS, TeleSur, Gatestone Institute, Australian National Security.

Photo Source: Yezidi YBŞ & PKK Guerilla