The Kurds, who number some 28 million people in the Middle East, have no country they can call their own. Long ignored by the West, Kurds are now highly visible actors on the world's political stage. More than half live in Turkey, where the Kurdish struggle has gained new strength and attention since the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein in neighboring Iraq. Essential to understanding modern-day Kurds-and their continuing demands for an independent state-is understanding the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party. A guerilla force that was founded in 1978 by a small group of ex-Turkish university students, the PKK radicalized the Kurdish national movement in Turkey, becoming a tightly organized, well-armed fighting force of some 15,000, with a 50,000-member civilian militia in Turkey and tens of thousands of active backers in Europe. Under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan, the war the PKK waged in Turkey through 1999 left nearly 40,000 people dead and drew in the neighboring states of Iran, Iraq, and Syria, all of whom sought to use the PKK for their own purposes. Since 2004, emboldened by the Iraqi Kurds, who now have established an autonomous Kurdish state in the northernmost reaches of Iraq, the PKK has again turned to violence to meet its objectives. Blood and Belief combines reportage and scholarship to give the first in-depth account of the PKK. Aliza Marcus, one of the first Western reporters to meet with PKK rebels, wrote about their war for many years for a variety of prominent publications before being put on trial in Turkey for her reporting. Based on her interviews with PKK rebels and their supporters and opponents throughout the world-including the Palestinians who trained them, the intelligence services that tracked them, and the dissidents who tried to break them up-Marcus provides an in-depth account of this influential radical group.
A Note to ReadersAcronyms Introduction Prologue I Ocalan, Kurds, and the PKK's Start1 The Origins of the PKK, 1949-1976 2 Abdullah Ocalan, Leader, 1975-1980 3 The Flight to Survive, 1980-1982 4 On the Road to War, 1982-1984 II The PKK Consolidates Power5 Loyalty and Violence, 1985-19906 The Struggle to Succeed, 1985-1990 7 The Deluge, 1988-1991 III PKK Militants Fight for Control8 War in the Streets, 1991-1992 9 Fueling the War, 1992-1993 10 Mixing War and Politics, 1991-1993 11 Change in Fortunes, 1993-1997vIV Ocalan's Capture and After12 The Decline, 1995-1998 23913 Searching for a New Way, 1995-1998 14 Ocalan, Caught by Surprise, 1998-1999 15 The PKK Saves Itself, 1999-2007 Conclusion Timeline Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
