Revolutionary Party of Kurdistan

Revolutionary Party of Kurdistan, known as Kürdistan Devrim Partisi in Turkish and Partiya Şoreşa Kürdistan (PŞK) in Kurdish is an illegal political party active in Turkey. The aim of the party is to create an independent state for Kurdish people based on Marxist-Leninist principles.

History

Revolutionary Party of Kurdistan is a splinter of the Sociality Unity Party of Kurdistan, known as Kürdistan Sosyalist Birlik Partisi in Turkish and Partiya Yekitiya Sosyalista Kürdistane in Kurdish. Sociality Unity Party of Kurdistan annulled itself in July 1998 after a meeting in Germany. As a result the central committee of YEKBUN or the United People's Party of Kurdistan (Kürdistan Birleşik Halk Partisi in Turkish), resident in Sweden, decided to form a new organization to carry out armed struggle against the Turkish government. The organization was named Revolutionary Union of Kurdistan (Kürdistan Devrim Birliği in Turkish,Yektiye Şoreşa Kürdistan in Kurdish) first. However the central committee later changed "union" with "party" thinking taking into consideration that there was no unity yet; so the Revolutionary Party of Kurdistan was born.

After the capture of Abdullah Öcalan by Turkish forces in 1999 and the resulting retreat of Kurdistan Workers Party, better known as PKK, the Party tried to attract their members, albeit without a remarkable success^[1]. The organisation was not successful either in giving a significant damage to Turkish forces or creating public awareness about themselves.

Designation as a terrorist organisation

According to the Counter-Terrorism and Operations Department of Directorate General for Security (Turkish police) it is one of the 12 active terrorist organisations in Turkey and one of the three Kurdish separatist organisations^[2].

See also

• List of political parties in Turkey
• Communist Party of Turkey for a list of communist parties in Turkey

References