Kongra Gelê Kurdistan | Kongra-Gel

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Kongra Gelê Kurdistan | Kongra-Gel


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The Congress for Freedom and Democracy in Kurdistan (Kadek), formerly known as the Kurdistan Workers Party (Kurdish: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, PKK) was one of several groups fighting for the creation of an independent Kurdish state in southern Turkey and northern Iraq. It arose from a radical youth movement in Turkey during the 1970s proclaiming itself a revolutionary socialist national liberation movement following a Marxist-Leninist doctrine

The group became Kadek in April 2002. On November 11 Kadek announced that it would disband, to be replaced by a new group with "a new, more democratic organisational structure that allows for broader participation". The new group is People's Congress of Kurdistan Kongra-Gel (short form of Kongra Gelê Kurdistan) is the kurdish name of the People's Congress of Kurdistan.
The People's Congress describes his aims as to solve the Kurdish question through democratization of the Middle East, the creation of a Middle East Federation and the transformation of middle eastern society into a democratic-ecologic society.

The Congress was founded in November 2003, its first president is the former Member of Turkish parliament, Zübeyir Aydar. Abdullah Öcalan, former head of the PKK, had proposed the fusion of KADEK, successor organisation to the PKK, with the Kurdish National Kongress (KNK).

Since 1978 the group was led by Abdullah Öcalan Abdullah Öcalan is the leader of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Communist group banned by the government of Turkey. Turkey branded Abdullah a terrorist, although many Kurds look to him for leadership and call him "Apo" or "uncle." "Öcalan" means, in Turkish, "he who takes revenge"

He was born on April, 4th 1949 into a poor peasant family in the village of Omerli, Urfa. He studied at vocational school and then pursued a course at the School of Political Science, Ankara University. He became involved in militant Maoist politics and was first arrested in 1973. In 1975 he returned to Kurdistan and in 1978 he was one of the founder members of the PKK. At the First Congress in November 1978 he was elected leader.

Numerous events in history have left several million Kurds, in Middle East stateless primarily in Turkey and Northern Iraq where most of its members are based.

As a result of the violence, more than 30,000 people have been killed, a great many of which were innocent civilians. Estimates of the total number of villagers in Turkey forcibly evacuated from their homes as a result of the terrorism varies according to which side provides the figures but is believed to be approximately half a million displaced persons.

Turkish authorities captured PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in Kenya in early 1999 and a Turkish Court subsequently sentenced him to death. In August 1999, Ocalan announced a peace initiative, ordering members to refrain from violence and requesting dialogue with the government of Turkey on Kurdish issues. In 2002 the government of Turkey accepted certain conditions for entry into the European Union including abolition of the death penalty which spared the life of Abdullah Öcalan, plus changes to official government policy on human rights issues for its Kurdish population.