Some background info on the PKK- which includes YPG and their newly formed Yazidi militiasAll that ability to expand their terrorist network and ways- How do they do it?!From the "Project on Violent Conflict"- Homeland Security AffilliateI suppose this is the place where the accomplishments of state sponsored terrorism are gauged?An excerpt: Highlights:
Other Aliases
Arteshen Rizgariya Gelli Kurdistan (ARGK); KONGRA-GEL (KGK); Kurdistan Freedom and Defense Congress; Kurdistan People’s Conference; Kurdistan National Liberation Front (ERNK)
Financing -
Could anyone, anywhere, really believe that the PKK and it's affiliates are carrying on massive global drug trading and criminality with out the NATO seal of approval?
- Smuggling/Trafficking
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- The PKK reputedly controls up to 80 percent of Europe’s drug trade. [24]
- Additional information regarding PKK drug trafficking
- Contending with the PKK's narcoterrorism
"In 2005, 80 percent of the European drug market reportedly came from the PKK-controlled Turkish narcotics sector. Interpol data reveal that the PKK also managed 80 percent of the European drug market in 1992 and, in 1994, between 60 and 70 percent"
- The PKK charges as much as seven thousand Euros per person to smuggle undocumented immigrants into Europe. (Think here about the Kurdi family & boy on a beach) One such operation in 2001 was believed to have smuggled 9,000 Kurds from Anatolia to Europe.[25]
- The PKK often forces undocumented children to sell drugs in Europe, due to their reduced criminal responsibility.[26]
- The PKK is known to smuggle a wide range of illicit goods, from cigarettes to human blood.[27]
- Extortion
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- The PKK relies heavily on extortion, pressuring Kurds in eastern and southeastern Turkey through threat of kidnapping and murder.[28]
- Other
- Charities/Donations:
- The PKK's European branches run fundraising campaigns.[32]
- The Kurdish diaspora also provides donations and support.[33]
Allies and Suspected Allies
- Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) (ally)
- Both Turkey and Iran claim that the PJAK is an offshoot of the PKK, though PJAK founders claim it began as a non-violent human rights movement within Iran.[50]
- As a member of the Union of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), PJAK shares the goal of an independent Kurdistan with the PKK.[51]
- The PKK has provided PJAK with access to PKK facilities (e.g., hospitals) and military expertise.[52]
- Democratic Union Party (PYD) (ally)
- Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) (ally)
The Inter-relationship between PKK-KRG-PYD: Kurdistan between Iran and TurkeyRead entirely in tandem with the above informationExcerpt:
As far as the Turkish case is concerned, the importance of the Kurdish role in regional politics was revealed, long before the outbreak of the Arab Uprisings, with the onset of the United States’ (US) relations with the Kurds of Turkey (apart from the Kurdistan Region in Iraq) with direct US involvement in Turkey’s Kurdish issue in the capture of the PKK’s leader. Considering US foreign policy’s long lasting support of human rights, including those of the minorities, and US need for regional allies, its role then as a mediator in Turkey’s Kurdish issue is not surprising.
These developments, including the establishment of the Autonomous Cantons in North Syria in November 2013, are steadily increasing the role of the Kurds as significant actors both in the regional and international state foreign policy context and in the formation of the new Middle Eastern order.
Considering the Kurd’s geostrategic location and the growing role of the PKK along with the consolidation of the KRG’s status, the Kurdish front bears its own importance. First, it is particularly significant against Iranian penetration in the region.
Recall my suggestion way back regarding the P5+1 being a ruse?P5+1 is a distraction. Early Seeds of Iranian destabilization cross the Turkish borderDue to the obvious connectivity between the PKK & NATO , the inevitable use of Kurdish militias for the purpose of Iranian destabilization was an easy enough call. Or should have been.
Second, the majority of the Kurds are followers of the Sunni sect
Yet, the phenomenon of the IS elevated the Kurdish status and brought the Kurds in the forefront of the international and regional attention.
How beneficial ISIS has been to the Kurds.... But then, KurdIShIS, KurdIShIS, as my lone voice has been suggesting.As luck would have it, I stumbled across this information. It corroborates everything written here by myself. Not that it matters. The writing was on the wall!