Structural transformation of the PKK within the framework of the asymmetric war strategy: Urban terrorism and Hendek Events

Within this study, it was aimed to reveal the historical and city-oriented structural transformation of the terrorist organization PKK, and the "Hendek Events" were examined as a case example as the most important indicator of such transformation. The PKK was founded on a Marxist/Leninist basis and carried out terrorist acts in line with Mao's rural guerrilla methods until the second half of the 90s. The PKK, as a terrorist organization that can adapt to the existing conjuncture, came to the brink of disintegration after the capture of Abdullah Ocalan, and its tactics and methods began to change afterwards. The terrorist organization, under the estimation that it can achieve its ultimate goal by concentrating on cities, not by terrorist acts in rural areas, has established various organisms and structures in that regard. Incorporating local and regional developments into its new terrorism strategy, the PKK carried out violent terrorist acts in many city centers between 2015 and 2016 in order to gain dominance over the residential areas and to create liberated zones where it was organized. Consequently, the PKK developed a unique terrorism strategy by integrating the theories of democratic civilization and direct democracy/communalism with the understanding of urban guerrilla warfare and thus underwent a structural transformation. The development and outcome of this process have been tested through the hypothesis suggesting that "The Hendek Events" were an indication of the terrorist organization PKK's structural transformation that took place based on democratic autonomy and city-centered self-government paradigm". Since this study follows a course from general to specific, the first chapter is dedicated to the transformation of war, the phenomenon of new generation war including the asymmetric methods. In the second part, terrorism, which constitues the main element of asymmetric methods has been examined with its conceptual and historical aspects. Correspondingly, the types of terrorism, their causes and counter-terrorism measures have been presented. In the third chapter, the historical and structural transformation of the terrorist organization PKK is analyzed. In the last part, the components of the city-centered transformation and the Hendek events were investigated along with the residential area/hendek operations of the security forces.