The PKK terrorist group has lost significant international support and its widespread activities are creating unease, especially in Europe, according to Turkish security sources.
Major states who backed the terrorist group for decades are bothered by it now that its harm has turned on them, sources said, citing the group’s “refusal to obey and behavior getting more erratic the stronger it becomes.”
States that supported the PKK under the pretext of “human rights” are also exposing their discomfort over the terrorist group’s “unchecked growth” in their reports.
The United States, Britain, the European Union, some NATO states, as well as Kazakhstan, Syria, Iraq and Iran, categorize the PKK as a foreign terrorist organization responsible for attacks and assassinations that killed at least 40,000 people in Türkiye since 1984. Yet, the group has maintained its four-decadelong terror campaign through financial and political support from various international organizations and states.
The PKK has exploited legal gaps and vague policies to conduct propaganda, raise donations, and recruit sympathizers in especially European countries, which have extended the terrorist group some latitude under the guise of “human rights.” The effects of the PKK’s operational strategies are making themselves known and raising uneasiness across Europe.
The PKK’s “two-way strategy” of committing violence in Türkiye and doing politics in Europe has been exposed in a recent report from the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS).
In its 2024 situation report titled "Switzerland's Security," the agency provided critical insights into the activities of the PKK.
The PKK is noted for its recruitment strategies, specifically targeting young Kurdish refugees in Switzerland, whom it seeks to indoctrinate and prepare for deployment against the Turkish military, according to the FIS.
“The PKK will continue its covert activities. If the situation in northern Syria and northern Iraq deteriorates or in the event of unusual incidents involving the PKK, a temporary increase in activism in Europe and Switzerland is likely. Turkish missions and institutions such as clubhouses and mosques are all potential PKK targets,” it underlined.
Cultural associations affiliated with the PKK exploit these individuals for party activities, the report said.
“The PKK occasionally cooperates with members of violent left-wing extremist groups,” the report added.
Jacqueline de Quattro, a member of the Swiss National Council, raised a similar point at parliament recently, drawing attention to the PKK’s training and recruitment of young members for its mountain camps.
De Quattro, who will be briefing the national council on the PKK’s training camps and inquiring the authorities on their strategy to counter this new threat, frequently points out the radicalization among Swiss youth, sharp surge in anti-Semitism and violent acts.
Once recruited, the youths trained by the PKK on its ideology are then shipped off to its other European branches or field operations in northern Iraq and Syria.
Turkish sources said that European nations like Switzerland are waking up, albeit late, to the harm the PKK is causing and pondering solutions to prevent it.
In Syria, the PKK operates through its local offshoot, the U.S.-backed YPG, whose forced recruitment of child soldiers is broadly known and has most recently been proven in a Human Rights Watch report titled: “Northeast Syria: Military Recruitment of Children Persists.”
The YPG took advantage of a power vacuum created by the Syrian civil war in 2011 and invaded several resource-rich provinces with the help of the U.S.
HRW said the PKK/YPG have forcibly recruited children under 12 into their armed forces in northern Syrian territories where its so-called youth movement’s top priority is to estrange children from their schools and homes to prevent their families from finding them again.
International law prohibits non-state armed groups from recruiting anyone under 18, and enlisting children under 15 is considered a war crime.
Though the PKK/YPG initially signed a pledge with Geneva Call – a Swiss humanitarian organization that works to "protect civilians in armed conflict" – to stop the use of child soldiers in 2014, its use of child soldiers has only increased since then.
Since the beginning of 2024, the PKK/YPG has abducted at least 39 children from areas it occupies in Aleppo, Raqqa, Deir el-Zour and Hassakeh provinces, according to the opposition group Independent Kurdish Association in July.
The U.N.'s Children and Armed Conflict Report 2023 also revealed that the PKK/YPG terrorist group and its affiliated structures, operating under the name SDF in Syria, forcibly recruited 231 children into their armed forces.
The report said the terrorist organization and other affiliated structures also killed or maimed eight children in 2023 and converted 31 schools and hospitals for their armed activities.
PKK/YPG has repeatedly disregarded its promise to return the children it stole.
HRW Middle East Assistant Director Adam Coogle has warned the group’s child recruitment increases every year and urged for “immediate and determined” action to prevent children’s abuse.
HRW has demanded information from the PKK/YPG on its steps to tackle the issue in a letter that has been left unanswered since July.
HRW also called on the PKK/YPG’s ally, the United States, to impose sanctions over its forced recruitment of children. In its report, the agency said non-state armed organizations, too, must adhere to the “ban on providing military support to governments who recruit and use child soldiers” in the U.S. Child Soldiers Prevention Act.”
Washington regularly sends reinforcements to its military bases and points in an oil-rich Syrian region controlled by the PKK/YPG.
PKK/YPG occupies more than 70% of oil fields in Syria, raking in about $2.5 billion annually from domestic sales of oil and imports, a significant source of income for the terrorists who also rely on drug trafficking in Europe to generate funds.
Washington calls the YPG its ally under the pretext of driving out Daesh, which is a source of strain with its NATO ally Ankara, who says it’s “senseless” to use one terrorist group to fight another.
Ankara considers the move a first step to establishing a “PKK-run state” in Syria’s north, immediately across the border, as well as a threat to the territorial integrity of Syria.
Washington insists it does not provide arms to the PKK/YPG terrorists, but the group’s power has only increased in recent years, during which it even exercised trials of its “dream” to establish a state there.
The PKK/YPG, over the summer, attempted to hold so-called local elections, which were only postponed after pressure from Türkiye and warnings from the U.S.
The terrorist group, however, later in September changed the school curriculum in occupied provinces, adding books on “Zoroastrianism/Fire-Worshipping and Buddhist Morality” that contradict the religious faith of the local people. They also pulled out books from the Syrian regime.
The move has sparked backlash from the people of Manbij, who held protests and refused to send their children to school.
Rising tensions led to scuffles at schools, forcing authorities to seek mediation, but the terrorist group’s refusal has led to a suspension of the school semester at the end of September.
