The Kurdistan Workers Party (in Kurdish, Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê or PKK) was established by Abdullah Öcalan and others in 1978 to fight back against the widespread repression experienced by Kurds in Turkey and the systematic denial of their rights by the Turkish state. Its struggle on behalf of all Kurds took on an armed aspect in 1984, following the 1980 military coup in Turkey and a significant escalation in genocidal attacks against Kurds by Turkish armed forces and intelligence services.

The PKK has been banned or listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US, UK, EU, Australia and New Zealand, among others. In Australia the listing of the PKK first occurred in 2006, just months after a visit to the country by then Prime Minister Erdogan, which included discussion of security matters. Since then the measure has been repeated every few years with little opposition by Australian political figures (the 2006 banning was questioned by two Labor MPs) or critical commentary by the country’s media.

A 2018 campaign by the Kurdish community and solidarity group ‘Australians for Kurdistan’ noted eight reasons why the ban on the PKK in Australia makes no sense and should be lifted:

1. The PKK isn’t involved in terrorism – it has never deliberately targeted civilians or engaged in indiscriminate violence. Its armed wing, the HPG, is in fact engaged in a defensive armed conflict with the far superior and ruthless Turkish military and security forces.
2. The ban is based on erroneous evidence – the Turkish security agencies have accused the PKK of drug smuggling, child kidnapping and the deliberate targeting of civilians, all based on patently fabricated evidence. Rather than prove its assertions, Turkey simply lets its absurd claims lapse – but the damage has been done.
3. The PKK poses no threat to Australia or Australians – unlike the Islamist groups that make up most of the banned terror groups in Australia, which have targeted Australians overseas and plotted terrorist acts in Australia, the PKK has never sought to harm Australians or brought its armed struggle to this country.
4. The PKK is a legitimate national liberation movement – just like similar movements in Indonesian-occupied East Timor, apartheid South Africa or Nazi-occupied France during World war II. The PKK’s core principles include direct democracy, pluralism, ecology and an absolute commitment to the rights and empowerment of women – hardly the ideology of a terror group.
5. The PKK is allied to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – this Kurdish-led and multi-ethnic alliance played the lead role in ridding Syria of the scourge of Islamic State. The US and other Western nations saw fit to support and arm the SDF as a highly effective and principled force – so what sense is there in Australia banning an SDF ally as a terror group?