The PKK traces its origins to the wave of Maoism that spread over Turkey, like the rest of Europe, around the late-1960s. Since the 1970s, the young Turkish "Maoists" have belonged either to the combatant Communist organizations, such as "Revolutionary Left," (DEV SOL)(1) , or to other groups that promote Kurdish nationalist demands, while remaining Marxist-Leninist. The founders of the PKK (Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan, or Kurdistan Workers' Party) were part of that trend. With its bloodthirsty methods, crude Leninism tinged with nationalist, leader worship, ferocity both within the ranks and towards outsiders, peasant base, and rural guerrilla warfare, the PKK bore a striking resemblance to Abimael "Gonzalo" Guzman's Sendero Luminoso.
Abdallah "Apo" Ocalan has been at the helm of the PKK from the start. His goal is to create the Kurdish equivalent of the Turkish Maoist movements, with equally strict Marxist-Leninism, and then to rid the Kurdish people of their traditional tribal system and to establish an independent Communist Kurdish State, not only in Turkey but in Iraq, Iran, and Syria as well.
The PKK militants (not including emigrants) are usually young (between 18 and 25 years old), and have had little or no education. They are shepherds, blue collar workers, farm laborers, unemployed. "Recruited," often willingly, though sometimes by force, these young people are taken to Lebanon, via Syria, or to the lawless areas in northern Iraq, then trained in guerrilla warfare at Party camps. Other PKK "military" bases have recently been identified in Iran (five, not far from the Turkish border), as have others along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border (see below).
On a more political level, the PKK established a full-fledged National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (Eniya Rizgariya Nelewa Kurdistan, or ERNK) in 1984. Also presided over by Ocalan, the ERNK's main base is in Athens, where its official spokesman lives. Aside from the PKK, it is supposed to include "patriotic" associations in Europe, Iran, and in Syria. In reality, however, the ERNK has not taken any customers away from the other Kurdish movements. On the front lines, the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (Artesa Rizgariya Nelewa Kurdistan, or ARGK) wages the armed struggle. The use of the term "People's Liberation Army" clearly reveals a Maoist influence.
(1) Most of the combatant Communist organization leaders of the 1970s were also Kurds themselves: Deniz Gezmis (THKP-C); Mahir Cayan (THKO) [Turkiye Halk Kurtulus Ordusu = Turkish People's Liberation Army]; and Ibrahim Kaypakkaya (TKP-ML/TIKKO) [Turkiye Komunist Partisi - Marksist-Leninist/ Turkiye Issi Koylu Kurtulus Ordusu - Turkish Marxist-Leninist Communist Party/Turkish Worker Peasant Liberation Army], for example