In almost four decades of bloody conflict with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Ankara has used various counter-strategies to prevent the PKK from achieving its political goals, ranging from repressive ones such as counter-terrorism and an iron-fist approach to accommodative ones such as population-centric counter-insurgency and conflict resolution, including what was called the “peace process” from 2013 to 2015.
Today, Ankara appears to have turned to a more ambitious strategy of eliminating the PKK as an institution rather than preventing it from reaching its political goals, drawing on a domestic political climate that enables a no-holds-barred approach against the PKK and new military capabilities such as armed drones, smart munitions, T-129 attack helicopters, Bora tactical ballistic missile, counter-IED systems, 155 mm Storm howitzers, radars and day/night surveillance systems. The PKK, which took up arms in 1984, is considered a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community.
