Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence

by Aliza Marcus

Overview

An in depth and scholarly report on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an essential actor on behalf of modern-day Kurds

The Kurds, who number some 28 million people in the Middle East, have no country they can call their own. Long ignored by the West, Kurds are now highly visible actors on the world's political stage. More than half live in Turkey, where the Kurdish struggle has gained new strength and attention since the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein in neighboring Iraq.

Essential to understanding modern-day Kurds—and their continuing demands for an independent state—is understanding the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. A guerilla force that was founded in 1978 by a small group of ex-Turkish university students, the PKK radicalized the Kurdish national movement in Turkey, becoming a tightly organized, well-armed fighting force of some 15,000, with a 50,000-member civilian militia in Turkey and tens of thousands of active backers in Europe. Under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan, the war the PKK waged in Turkey through 1999 left nearly 40,000 people dead and drew in the neighboring states of Iran, Iraq, and Syria, all of whom sought to use the PKK for their own purposes. Since 2004, emboldened by the Iraqi Kurds, who now have established an autonomous Kurdish state in the northernmost reaches of Iraq, the PKK has again turned to violence to meet its objectives.

Blood and Belief combines reportage and scholarship to give the first in-depth account of the PKK. Aliza Marcus, one of the first Western reporters to meet with PKK rebels, wrote about their war for many years for a variety of prominent publications before being put on trial in Turkey for her reporting. Based on her interviews with PKK rebels and their supporters and opponents throughout the world—including the Palestinians who trained them, the intelligence services that tracked them, and the dissidents who tried to break them up—Marcus provides an in-depth account of this influential radical group.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814796115
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	366
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Aliza Marcus is formerly an international correspondent for The Boston Globe and lives in Washington, D.C. She covered the PKK for more than eight years, first as a freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor and later as a staff writer for Reuters, receiving a National Press Club Award for her reporting. She is also a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation grant for her work.

Table of Contents

A Note to ReadersAcronyms Introduction Prologue I Ocalan, Kurds, and the PKK’s Start1 The Origins of the PKK, 1949–1976 2 Abdullah Ocalan, Leader, 1975–1980 3 The Flight to Survive, 1980–1982 4 On the Road to War, 1982–1984 II The PKK Consolidates Power5 Loyalty and Violence, 1985–19906 The Struggle to Succeed, 1985–1990 7 The Deluge, 1988–1991 III PKK Militants Fight for Control8 War in the Streets, 1991–1992 9 Fueling the War, 1992–1993 10 Mixing War and Politics, 1991–1993 11 Change in Fortunes, 1993–1997vIV Ocalan’s Capture and After12 The Decline, 1995–1998 23913 Searching for a New Way, 1995–1998 14 Ocalan, Caught by Surprise, 1998–1999 15 The PKK Saves Itself, 1999–2007 Conclusion Timeline Notes Bibliography Index About the Author 

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Blood and Belief offers unusual insight into the rebels' shadowy universe and, by extension, into Turkey's festering Kurdish problem. . . . [A] scholarly, gripping account.”
-The Economist

,

“Blood and Belief gives meaning and context to the grinding guerrilla war that claimed tens of thousands of lives.”
-Boston Globe

,

“It’s an achievement of Blood and Belief that despite the bloodletting, Marcus still generates empathy—not for the murderous Ocalan, but for the desperate Kurds who joined the PKK revolution feeling they had nowhere else to turn.”
-The Washington Post Book World

,

“;Marcus’ dispassionate recounting of events is impressive in its factual, documented style and avoidance of partisan shrillness.”
-The Bloomsberry Review

,

“Marcus’ dispassionate recounting of events is impressive in its factual, documented style and avoidance of partisan shrillness. While never condoning any of the PKK's excesses, she points out its one achievement: to have put the Kurdish problem on the agenda in Turkey and in front of the world.”
-Bookforum

Editorial Reviews

It's an achievement of Blood and Belief that despite the bloodletting, Marcus still generates empathy—not for the murderous Ocalan, but for the desperate Kurds who joined the PKK revolution feeling they had nowhere else to turn. The book is not always an easy read. It suffers from the lack of a decent map, and sometimes the narrative becomes disjointed among all the changing names and factions of the PKK. On the other hand, Marcus is compelling as she describes the PKK fighters who continued with the cause, believing it was greater than Ocalan's obvious flaws. She conveys the trapped feelings of Kurdish boys and girls who train under a mural of Ocalan's face painted on a cliff. And she brings home the most important point: The PKK hasn't been rousted from its mountains in two decades of fighting, and there's no reason to think another Turkish incursion will bring the rebels down.
—The Washington Post

Quil Lawrence

"Blood and Belief gives meaning and context to the grinding guerrilla war that claimed tens of thousands of lives."

Boston Globe

"Blood and Belief offers unusual insight into the rebels' shadowy universe and, by extension, into Turkey's festering Kurdish problem. . . . [A] scholarly, gripping account."

The Economist

"Marcus dispassionate recounting of events is impressive in its factual, documented style and avoidance of partisan shrillness. While never condoning any of the PKK’s excesses, she points out its one achievement: to have put the Kurdish problem on the agenda in Turkey and in front of the world."

Bookforum

"Its an achievement of Blood and Belief that despite the bloodletting, Marcus still generates empathynot for the murderous Ocalan, but for the desperate Kurds who joined the PKK revolution feeling they had nowhere else to turn."

The Washington Post Book World

";Marcus dispassionate recounting of events is impressive in its factual, documented style and avoidance of partisan shrillness."

The Bloomsberry Review

;Marcus’ dispassionate recounting of events is impressive in its factual, documented style and avoidance of partisan shrillness.”
• The Bloomsberry Review

“ Blood and Belief offers unusual insight into the rebels' shadowy universe and, by extension, into Turkey's festering Kurdish problem. . . . [A] scholarly, gripping account.”
• The Economist

“It’s an achievement of Blood and Belief that despite the bloodletting, Marcus still generates empathy—not for the murderous Ocalan, but for the desperate Kurds who joined the PKK revolution feeling they had nowhere else to turn.”
• The Washington Post Book World

“Marcus’ dispassionate recounting of events is impressive in its factual, documented style and avoidance of partisan shrillness. While never condoning any of the PKK’s excesses, she points out its one achievement: to have put the Kurdish problem on the agenda in Turkey and in front of the world.”
• Bookforum

“ Blood and Belief gives meaning and context to the grinding guerrilla war that claimed tens of thousands of lives.”
• Boston Globe

From the Publisher