Donald J. Trump declared: "We support Turkey in the first fight against terror and terror groups like ISIS and the PKK, and ensure they have no safe quarter, the terror groups" (16 May 2017). Equating the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) shows a profound lack of nuance. While the United States lists both ISIS and the PKK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), their ideology and tactics are dramatically different.
ISIS was founded in 2006 based on the radical ideology of Jihadi-Salafism. As an offshoot of al-Qaeda, ISIS employs a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, justifying anti-Shiite sectarian views. ISIS believes that Shia are conspiring with the United States and secular Arab rulers to limit Salafi power in the Middle East.
Brutal tactics by ISIS against non-believers include beheadings, stoning, and burning victims alive. ISIS practices mass rape and sexual slavery of Ezidis and Christians. It uses social media to recruit disenfranchised, uneducated, and poverty-stricken youth. ISIS maintains its caliphate will purify Muslim lands and purge non-believers.
The PKK is different. The PKK was established in 1978 as a secular and nationalist movement. It adopted armed struggle to defend Kurds from the Turkish State’s systematic oppression. Resistance was in response to well-documented human rights abuses, and Turkey’s brutal counterinsurgency. In the 1980s and 90s, thousands of Kurds were killed or disappeared by government-backed death squads and security services. Young people were drawn not by a slick social media campaign, but by the romantic appeal of Kurdish guerillas standing up for Kurdish political and cultural rights against vastly superior Turkish forces.
Approximately 40,000 people died during Turkey’s civil war since the 1980s. The PKK ultimately abandoned its goal of an independent greater Kurdistan, seeking negotiations. It declared unilateral ceasefires in 1993, 2003 and 2013. According to PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan: “The democratic option is the only alternative to solving the Kurdish question. Separation is neither possible nor necessary. We want peace, dialogue, and free political action within the framework of a democratic Turkish state.”
There is another important difference between ISIS and the PKK. ISIS deliberately targets Americans and US interests with assassination and violence. The PKK has never killed an American.
Trump should get his facts straight. Heinous murderers belonging to ISIS are different from freedom fighters, even if both use sensational violence.
David L. Phillips is Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. He served as a Senior Adviser and Foreign Affairs Expert at the US State Department. His recent book is An Uncertain Ally: Turkey Under Erdogan’s Dictatorship.