The Kurdistan Workers Party

Introduction

The Kurdistan Organization is an organization that has been combating against the Turkish administration since 1984 to get greater autonomy for the Kurds in Turkey. They also claim greater political and cultural rights for the Kurds in Turkey.

Q1.  It is a movement that was founded in 1978 and was led by Abdullah Ocalan. The ideologies of the movement initially were concurrent with liberation and nationalistic intentions though this was later abandoned after the imprisonment of Ocalan. Some states have gone further to label it as a terrorist movement. These include the United States and the European Union. Turkey itself sees the group as a militia with bad intent. It fights against both civilians and the military to achieve its political intentions.

The group initially comprised of students before moving into the wide population to recruit. It has been a blow to the prevailing period of peace in Turkey prior. It has also caused concern to other states such as the United States and the European Union. A number of factors as we shall later see have led to this development. The activities of the group have not been warmly welcome. The intentions of the group too have left a lot of questions hanging. (Marcus, 2007)

The group is a terrorist group that intends to control the state of Turkey. It is also used by other states such as Syria that have interests in fighting Turkey.

Q2. The group in my opinion does not have any legitimate demands. Its initial intentions were to liberate the Kurds which is a group of people living in Turkey from oppression. It also wanted to assert a great extent of cultural and political freedom to these people. However, it seems to have eroded these intentions with other sly and egoistic techniques which have led to destruction and loss of lives. This has further caught the attention of the international community.

Q3. The viability of the group as an organization is questionable. The group is an enemy to peace and political stability not just within Turkey but also in other part of the earth. The group has been notorious for involvement in the manufacture of chemical weapons. The United States in collaboration with other states has been against this one thing. The whole idea of manufacturing chemical weapons is to cause destruction to property and human lives. The United states of America therefore has been a major shareholder in the call to fight this insurgent group on grounds that if guaranteed the freedom to continue with its heinous engagements, the whole world will not be a safe place to live in. (Cabuk and Erdemir, 2008)

The group has also involved itself in sabotage. This is the illegal malpractice of stealing and hiding important documents and goods so that they do not benefit the intended recipient. The group is known to attack industries manufacturing goods just to cause damage and destruction. The group has also been known to destroy property belonging to people. This development has seen the interest of the United States rise with time.

The group is also notorious for bombings and such like attacks. Serious grenade and bomb attacks have been conducted in Turkey causing deaths to many people as well as destruction to property worth millions of shillings. Suicide bombings have also been on the rise leading again to death of innocent people in the process. Bombing of the world trade centre in New York in September 11^th 2001 saw so many people losing lives. It also affected the economy of the United States a great deal. This was a mission by alkaeda to conduct vengeance on the United States government for interfering in its affairs. The sensitivity of this matter resulted in the United States government developing greater interest in dealing in terrorist groups and thus its current involvement in dealing with alkaeda.

The indulgence of the group has also seen increased demonstrations and protests in Turkey. People revolt due to increased insecurity in Turkey and as such the group’s activities have not been positive. Their demands in any way cannot be met by the government since their methods are cruel and sly. They should in fact be fought at all costs before the insurgents become a militia group. (Mannes, 2004)

The group has also involved itself in drug trafficking further complicating matters. The process of transporting drugs and narcotics causes a lot of effects on the society and especially so the final consumer. This further aggravates the already bad situation and pushes it to a worse state. Drug trafficking is also an involvement that has resulted in loss of lives for many people around the earth. The behaviors of this collection cannot be supported under any circumstances or even referred to as positive in any way so far.

The group also involves itself in riots against the government of Turkey. Many of these riots result into tension since they are not peaceful. In some occasions, they result to destruction of property as well as deaths to innocent civilians. The group also conducts attacks on civilians. These direct attacks target supporters of the current government in Turkey since the group is actually anti government. Civilians have often suffered and died in the hands of these insurgents. The death of civilians has caused concern to the government of Turkey and the International Community as well. The group also attacks the military and executes them leading to death of many of them.

Another common phenomenon is extortion. The group involves itself in extortion activities where it attacks civilians and forces them to give money to be protected. They thus defraud a lot of money from innocent citizens who innocently work hard to make a better living.

The group also involves itself in hijackings. They hijack vehicles as well as planes. This is in fact a worrying concern to the government of the United States which feels the group could also hijack its planes.

The group also is known for conducting kidnappings. This is the act of taking people by force and taking them to unknown destinations. They use this as a threat to the government so that it can take them seriously and give in to their demands. Kidnappings have been on the rise resulting to increased tension.

Threats on civilians have also been common. The group sends very alarming messages to the public. Such messages cause a lot of fear among citizens who do not live in peace for fear of being attacked and worse still even killed. Security issues have thus made the United States to involve itself.

Part II

1. The group’s activities really matter to the United States government. This is because the activities of the group have affected the United States in a number of ways. This is despite the fact that the United Sates is not directly affected by the involvement of the group’s activities in criminal activities in Turkey. It happens on Turkey soil and not in the United States. Some of the reasons that seek to explain the concern by the United States.

One of the reasons is insecurity. The insecurity in Turkey by the group activities is relevant to the United States. This is because the group involves itself kidnappings as well as killings of innocent persons. In the past years the group has attacked citizens, some of British origin. This attracted the attention of the United States which fears that United States citizens may also be affected. Security issues have resulted into tension due to increases killings and destruction on property.

Terrorist attacks have also been a reason why the United States has involved itself. The United States of America has over the years committed to ensure that there is an end to the terrorist attacks linked to alkaeda. The alkaeda do support the group so that it conducts a series of attacks on its enemies. The United States is one major enemy of alkaeda and it thus commits to destroy the Kurdistan Workers Party completely so that it is no longer an agent of alkaeda.

Trade between the USA and Turkey has been a major development over the years. The two countries are in close ties and as such, a close relationship. The involvements of Kurdistan Workers Party can affect the economic activities in Turkey and thus trade with the international community altogether. The USA cannot therefore sit and watch as the economy of its close trading partner goes down to waste because of criminal organizations. This is one of the reasons it involves itself to fight the group.

The United States also commits to fight against the group so that it does not affect transport through hijackings. The group has been notorious for hijacking planes with the intention of making the passengers to suffer. The United States would not commit to allow its own planes to be hijacked by the militia group since the consequences would be disastrous. The United States does this to protect not only its property in form of planes but also its citizens.

Killing of American citizens in Turkey also needs to be prevented. This is one reason that has brought about the indulgence of the United States government. It is the principle role of every government to protect its citizens from any forth coming danger and as such cannot leave the militia group to execute people as it watches helplessly. This will in the long run affect its citizens. British citizens have died previously in the hands of the militia groups. These citizens come to visit the country as tourists.

The other reason why the United States is concerned is because of the support from Iran and Iraq that the group receives. These two countries are an enemy to the United States. There has been a long period of enmity between these states since they actively want to pursue nuclear technology against the wishes of the United States. The pursuit of nuclear technology goes a long way to create a period of insecurity since it may destroy the whole world. The two countries thus sponsor the militia groups against Turkey and their enemies, the USA included. The same has to be countered by the involvement of the United States. (Balci, 2008)

The group is also notorious for bombings and such like attacks. Serious grenade and bomb attacks have been conducted in Turkey causing deaths to many people as well as destruction to property worth millions of shillings. Suicide bombings have also been on the rise leading again to death of innocent people in the process. Bombing of the world trade centre in New York in September 11^th 2001 saw so many people losing lives. It also affected the economy of the United States a great deal. This was a mission by alkaeda to conduct vengeance on the United States government for interfering in its affairs. The sensitivity of this matter resulted in the United States government developing greater interest in dealing in terrorist groups and thus its current involvement in dealing with alkaeda. Such like attacks are a threat on peace and tranquility and have thus seen the indulgence of the Unites States of America. (Dale, 2011)

The United States has helped Turkey fight the militia group in a number of ways. These include infrastructural assistance. The United States helps to combat the group by assisting the government of Turkey with communication gadgets to help trace the lines of communication between the criminals. This has helped in tracing them.

They also contribute finances towards the operations to get rid of the militia group. The finances have gone a long way to help combat the activities of the criminal gangs. The finances are spent in purchasing ammunition as well as planning of necessary logistics.

The United States also helps in investigations and monitoring movement of the gang. This prevents the gang’s penetration into key areas since they are being watched.

3. Some of the achievements so far include the capture of Ocalan who was the leader. He was also sentenced to life imprisonment. (Kurth, 2009) Other leaders and members of the gangs have also been captured or even killed in operations involving the criminal gang. Execution of leaders of the group achieves a great deal of milestone in curbing the activities of the militia group. The same should continue for reasonable progress to be noted.

Conclusion

4. In conclusion I recommend the direct involvement of the United States to combat the criminal gangs. It should involve its soldiers directly to undertake an operation that will help crack down on the insurgent group.