Kongra-Gel, formerly the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), is a Kurdish separatist group primarily active in part of northern Iraq and southern Turkey. Composed mostly of Turkish Kurds, the group in 1984 began a campaign of armed violence, including terrorism, which has since resulted in over 30,000 deaths. The KGK’s stated goal is to create an independent Kurdish state. Historically, KGK has directed members to target mainly Turkish security forces, government offices, and villagers who opposed the group. However, KGK’s imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, publicly called for a KGK “unilateral cease-fire” in October 2006, which in practice meant stopping terrorist attacks and limiting violence to “defensive” attacks against Turkish soldiers and security forces.

Despite the unilateral cease-fire, attacks continued in response to Turkish security operations against the group. In particular, the KGK-affiliated Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) began using terrorist tactics—including suicide bombings—to target Turkish tourist destinations in 2005 in order to damage the Turkish economy. The KGK in July 2008 kidnapped three German tourists on Mount Ararat, Turkey, in retaliation for German actions against the group, including banning KGK’s primary media outlet, Roj-TV, from operating in Germany. In early 2008 Germany convicted two KGK members on terrorism charges. Using the KGK-affiliated Firat News Agency Web site, in February 2008 TAK announced a new wave of terrorist actions against Turkey; the announcement was similar to the group’s March 2007 statement that it would continue targeting Turkish tourist sites, specifically citing the February 2007 arrests of KGK members in Europe and warning that “we [TAK] are going in particular to target European tourists.”

In November 2009, the Turkish Government announced its plan to grant social and economic rights to Turkey’s Kurdish population, largely to undercut support for the KGK. This initiative has faltered, however, due to public and political opposition, and Ocalan in June 2010 announced an end to the unilateral cease-fire. The KGK has since stepped up its violent campaign against the Turkish military, which has conducted air raids and small-scale ground operations against KGK strongholds in northern Iraq.