Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family Senior Fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute.
Articles & Testimony
In 2002, it seemed as if Turkey's two-decade long struggle against the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, PKK) had ended. It did not. Peace was ephemeral. While the PKK, on October 1, declared yet another cease-fire, it came only after a sustained period of almost daily attacks on Turkish soldiers, civilians, and foreign tourists. On August 27 and 28, for instance, the PKK bombed targets in Istanbul and the resort cities of Antalya and Marmaris, killing three people and wounding more than 100.
What went wrong? Why does the PKK resort to violence? Correcting the problem is essential, not only for Turkish security but also for its relationship with both the United States and European Union. . . .
Soner Cagaptay is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an assistant professor at Georgetown University, and chair of the Turkey Program at the Foreign Service Institute. He thanks Zeynep Eroglu and Daniel Fink for their help with this article.
