Opinion ID: 8704097
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The PKK

Text: 22. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, was founded in the late 1970s to bring about the establishment of an independent Kurdish state through acts of violence and terrorism, often directed at civilians. See Expert Report of Dr. Matthew Levitt (“Levitt Report”); 12 Expert Report of Dr. Soner Cagaptay 2 (“Cagaptay Report”); 13 Testimony of Dr. Soner Cagaptay (“Cagaptay Testimony”), Evidentiary Hearing, Aug. 21, 2012. The organization is based in Turkey, but maintained a presence and operated in Syria during the time of the Wilson and Wyatt kidnapping. See Levitt Report. In addition to kidnappings, which are a “standard PKK tactic,” PKK terrorists have also engaged in guerilla assaults on military targets, suicide bombings in civilian-dense urban areas, drug trafficking, robbery, and extortion. Cagaptay Report 3-4; Cagaptay Testimony; see also Levitt Report.