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| combatant2 = {{flag|Turkey}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Turkey}}
| commander1 = {{flagicon image|Kurdish Hezbollah flag.svg}} [[Hüseyin Velioğlu]] {{KIA}}<br>{{flagicon image|Kurdish Hezbollah flag.svg}} Edip Gümüş{{POW}}<br>{{flagicon image|Kurdish Hezbollah flag.svg}} Cemal Tutar{{POW}}<br>{{flagicon image|Kurdish Hezbollah flag.svg}} İsa Altsoy{{Surrendered}}
| commander1 = {{flagicon image|Kurdish Hezbollah flag.svg}} [[Hüseyin Velioğlu]] {{KIA}}<br>{{flagicon image|Kurdish Hezbollah flag.svg}} Edip Gümüş{{POW}}<br>{{flagicon image|Kurdish Hezbollah flag.svg}} Cemal Tutar{{POW}}<br>{{flagicon image|Kurdish Hezbollah flag.svg}} İsa Altsoy{{Surrendered}}
| commander2 = {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Süleyman Demirel]]<br> {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Tansu Çiller]]<br> {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Mesut Yılmaz]]<br> {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Necmettin Erbakan]]<br> {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Bülent Ecevit]]<br> {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Abdullah Gül]]<br> {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]]{{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Gaffar Okkan]]{{KIA}}
| commander2 = {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Süleyman Demirel]]<br> {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Tansu Çiller]]<br> {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Mesut Yılmaz]]<br> {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Necmettin Erbakan]]<br> {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Bülent Ecevit]]<br> {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Abdullah Gül]]<br> {{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]]{{flagicon|Turkey}} [[Gaffar Okkan]]{{Assassinated}}
| units1 = Military wing
| units1 = Military wing
| units2 = [[Turkish Armed Forces]]
| units2 = [[Turkish Armed Forces]]

Revision as of 23:40, 7 February 2024

Kurdish Hezbollah insurgency
Part of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict
Date1983–2002 (21 years)
Main phase: 1995–2002 (7 years)
Location
Turkey
Result Turkish victory
Belligerents
Kurdish Hezbollah
Supported by:
Kurdistan Islamic Movement
PKK (after 1995)		  Turkey
Commanders and leaders
Hüseyin Velioğlu  †
Edip Gümüş (POW)
Cemal Tutar (POW)
İsa Altsoy Surrendered		 Turkey Süleyman Demirel
Turkey Tansu Çiller
Turkey Mesut Yılmaz
Turkey Necmettin Erbakan
Turkey Bülent Ecevit
Turkey Abdullah Gül
Turkey Recep Tayyip ErdoğanTurkey Gaffar Okkan X
Units involved
Military wing

Turkish Armed Forces

Ministry of Interior

National Intelligence Organization

The Kurdish Hezbollah insurgency was a period of assassinations, armed clashes, kidnappings, and other assaults led by the Kurdish Hezbollah between the 1980s and 2000s. The insurgency started when Kurdish Hezbollah was first founded, and was led by Hüseyin Velioğlu until he was killed by Turkish police in 2001, and then by İsa Altsoy from 2001 until he announced the group's disarmament in 2002. Occasional Turkish government raids against Hezbollah continued until 2009.

Background

Turkish authorities alleged that the Kurdish Hezbollah was financed by Iran, and its fighters were trained in the Islamic Republic of Iran, with Iran allegedly planning on using Kurdish Hezbollah to overthrow the Turkish government and establish an Iran-style Islamic Republic.[1][2][3] Nevertheless, Kurdish Hezbollah abandoned that goal and began prioritising Kurdish separatism.[4]

The Kurdish Hezbollah viewed Turkey as an oppressive state and an enemy to Islam, and viewed the PKK as a threat. Kurdish Hezbollah claimed to be the sole representative of Kurds in Turkey and viewed the PKK as illegitimate, while the PKK felt the same way towards them. Kurdish Hezbollah members refused to acknowledge the PKK by their name "Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê", and only used "Partiya Kafirên Kurdistanê".[5] In the Kurdish Hezbollah manifesto, written by Hüseyin Velioğlu, the official goal for the group was Kurdish independence.[6]

Insurgency

During its beginnings, the Kurdish Hezbollah did not want to fight the PKK, and at times they had even repeatedly tried making peace with the PKK, but failed. They had sent a delegation to visit Beqaa Valley to make peace and discuss future cooperation with the PKK, although they were disrupted on 17 May 1991, when the PKK, while unprovoked, killed the parents of a high-ranking Kurdish Hezbollah member in Şırnak. The Kurdish Hezbollah, at the funeral, declared a war against the PKK, and on 3 December 1991, Kurdish Hezbollah member Muhammed Ata killed Mihail Bayro, a PKK regional officer and his bodyguards. Ata was later killed in clashes with Turkish forces. The clashes between PKK and Kurdish Hezbollah continued until 1995, with the PKK losing around 500 fighters and Kurdish Hezbollah losing much less at around 200. After 1995, Hezbollah and PKK both stopped targeting each other and shifted their full attention to fighting Turkey, although they had no formal agreement and remained enemies.[7] According to Turkey, the PKK and Hezbollah made a formal and fully effective ceasefire in 1998, and their relations slowly began to develop, paving the way for future cooperation.[8] It was around this time when Hüseyin Velioğlu quickly rose up to be the most wanted man in Turkey after Abdullah Öcalan.[9][10] It was later discovered that in March 1993, Iran attempted to host peace talks between Kurdish Hezbollah and PKK, although the talks failed.[11]

Kurdish Hezbollah denied the accusations of working with the Turkish state, and claims that it is PKK propaganda, while the Turkish state also considers Kurdish Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and as a threat, although they tolerated the Kurdish Hezbollah at first, due to them fighting the PKK.[12][13]

Although Turkish authorities arrested over 1,550 Hezbollah members between 1992 and 1996, while also arresting PKK members, they ignored the war going on between the PKK and Hezbollah, in hopes that both factions fight each other until neither group had the power to continue the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. However, because of Hüseyin Velioğlu's increasing Kurdish nationalism,[14] the Hezbollah's ceasefire with the PKK,[8] the Hezbollah's increasing presence among Kurds in southeast Turkey,[15] as well as the growing hostility from Hezbollah towards Turkey, the Turkish authorities could not ignore Hezbollah anymore, and arrested more than 6,000 of their members from 1997 to 2000.[16]

Turkish authorities accused Hezbollah militants of dressing like Suleymancis or Nurcus (a group they frequently targeted), and impersonating them in public to avoid being suspected of terrorism.[9]

Turkish authorities cracked down on Hezbollah and began tracking their movements. Hezbollah leadership, on high alert, began executing any of their members who they suspected of being informants for Turkey or the MİT. Hezbollah increased their hit-and-run attacks against Turkish authorities and civilians.[10]

Turkish intelligence stated that the Kurdistan Islamic Movement and the PKK helped Hezbollah throughout the insurgency.[9] A Turkish police chief even referred to PKK and Hezbollah as being different fingers on the same hand.[17][18] After the arrest of Abdullah Öcalan in 1999, Turkish authorities began focusing on Hüseyin Velioğlu, whose location was unknown due to him constantly moving around.[9][10]

During the 1990s, Hezbollah had committed around 593 murders and 43 kidnappings.[10] In 1998 they kidnapped and later killed the Islamic feminist activist Konca Kuriş.[19] They also kidnapped Nurcu activist İzzettin Yıldırım while he was preparing for tarawih on December 29, 1999. His dead body was found in a Hezbollah cell house during the 2000 Istanbul raids.[20][21]

The 1997 killing of Uğur Mumcu was blamed on both the PKK[22] and Hezbollah.[23] Mustafa Karasu alleged that Mumcu was killed by the Turkish state in order to prevent his spreading the fact that the PKK was had been infiltrated by the MİT.[24]

During the beginning of the year 2000, Turkish authorities launched raids on various houses in Istanbul, especially a villa in Beykoz, in which they killed Hüseyin Velioğlu, leading to the decline of Hezbollah. The Turkish government later launched a huge crackdown in which they arrested over 15,000 of the estimated 20,000 Hezbollah members.[25][26][4] According to Turkey, Hüseyin Velioğlu was in Iran for a period of time and had returned to Turkey 2 months before the raids.[27][28] Years later, American tech company IBM extracted files from undamaged hard drives from computers which Hüseyin Velioğlu shot at in an attempt to destroy evidence during his shootout with Turkish police in Beykoz. IBM sent the files to a Diyarbakir court.[29] A Turkish parliamentary report revealed that in 1995, 400–500 Kurdish teenagers had been sent by Hezbollah to Iran for military training, in preparation for an offensive against Turkish forces.[8]

The last major attack of Kurdish Hezbollah, and possible retaliation for the killing of Hüseyin Velioğlu, was the 2001 assassination of Gaffar Okkan, a Turkish police officer stationed in Diyarbakir, whom they had given death threats earlier, in which 5 other police officers were killed.[30]

The Turkish state cracked down on Hezbollah in mosques, in which led to almost all mosques being cleared of Hezbollah activity. Thousands of Kurdish sheikhs accused of giving pro-Hezbollah lectures were given prison sentences. Hezbollah recruitment had diminished.[31] Hezbollah members who weren't arrested began hiding in large numbers,[32] and hundreds of high-ranking Hezbollah members had fled to Iraq, Syria, or Europe before they could be arrested.[33] A Hezbollah member who went into hiding admitted how he had to carry a pocket-size copy of Risale-i Nur so that the Turkish police would not accuse him of being a Hezbollah member.[31] Hezbollah members who were arrested claimed to have been tortured by Turkish authorities, with the claims of torture being mentioned in Urgent Actions (UA) of Amnesty International.[34][35]

In 2002, under İsa Altsoy, the Kurdish Hezbollah ended its armed activities and began focusing on charity work for the Kurdish poor, as part of various rebranded organizations.[4][13]

On April 27, 2009, Turkish police raided a Hezbollah house in Elazığ, in their largest operation against the group since Istanbul 2000, in which they found a video of the murder of İzzettin Yıldırım.[20][21]

The Kurdish Hezbollah was an Islamic extremist group, although it had diverse members, ranging from the vast majority who were Sunni, to small Twelver Shia and Salafi minorities, all with the goal of a Sharia-ruled independent Kurdistan. Hüseyin Velioğlu managed to keep the different factions united by emphasising their shared Kurdish Muslim identity, and by avoiding sectarianism. After Velioğlu's death and the rupture of Hezbollah, the Sunnis either joined the various Hezbollah rebranded organizations or left Turkey, while the Shia and Salafi minorities returned to their normal lives.[31] Many of the members who left Turkey started reorganising in Europe, especially Germany, and began opening Hezbollah rebranded organizations, as well as pro-Hezbollah mosques.[36]

Legacy

Niyazi Palabıyık, the police chief who led the raids on Hezbollah in 2000 in Istanbul, while recalling on the incidents, referred to Hezbollah as "a very barbaric organisation".[37]

After Hezbollah ended its armed activities in 2002, former Hezbollah members created the "Solidarity with the Oppressed" (Mustazaflar ile Dayanışma Derneği or Mustazaf Der) in 2003.[38] It also became known as the Movement of the Oppressed (Turkish: Mustazaflar Hareketi). Mustazaf Der was active in organizing mass meetings in Kurdish cities to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad's birthday (Mawlid).[39] On 20 April 2010 a court in Diyarbakir ordered the closure of Mustazaf-Der on the grounds that it was "conducting activities on behalf of the terrorist organization Hizbollah."[39] The decision was confirmed by the Court of Cassation on 11 May 2012.[40]

In December 2012, a political party known as the Free Cause Party was founded. The Free Cause Party is a controversial topic in Turkey.[41] The Free Cause Party was attacked many times by Turkish nationalists.[42] Free Cause Party members were also beaten in Trabzon in 2023, in which Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu blamed that attack on Ümit Özdağ, whom he accused of inciting it, and announced that he had filed criminal complaints against Özdağ to Turkey's Human Rights and Legal Affairs Presidency.[43] In 2022, the Büro-İş Union appealed to the Turkish Supreme Court to close the Free Cause Party due to its Hezbollah background and its many accusations of having violated the Turkish constitution.[44] Büro-İş accused the Free Cause Party of violating articles 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 41, 42, 68, 69, 174, and 176 of the Turkish constitution, as well as Insulting Turkishness.[45] The Free Cause Party was the target of the 2023 Adana attack.[46]

References

  1. ^ The Turkish Counter-Terrorism Experience, Suleyman Ozeren, Organizational and Psychological Aspects of Terrorism, Ed. Centre of Excellence Defence against Terrorism, (IOS Press, 2008), 159.
  2. ^ Turkish Hezbollah, Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Ed. Harvey Kushner, (Sage Publications Inc., 1993), 368-369.
  3. ^ The Kurdish Question and Turkish Foreign Policy, Kemal Kirisci, The future of Turkish foreign policy, Ed. Lenore G. Martin, Dimitris Keridis, (MIT Press, 2004), 295.
  4. ^ a b c Elitsoy, Aslı (June 2017). The Kurdish Hizbullah and Its Shifting Attitude towards Kurdishness and the Kurdish Issue in Turkey.
  5. ^ Gürbüz, Mustafa (2013). Bilgin, Fevzi; Sarihan, Ali (eds.). Understanding Turkey's Kurdish Question. Lexington Books. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-7391-8402-8.
  6. ^ Kürt Sağı'nın Kimlik İnşası: Hizbullah ve Zehra Vakfı Örneği; Ali Murat İrat, pp. 123
  7. ^ Kurdish Hizbullah in Turkey, Mehmet Kurt, pp. 31
  8. ^ a b c "Implications of Turkey's Anti-Hizbullah Operation | The Washington Institute". www.washingtoninstitute.org. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  9. ^ a b c d "Türk Hizbullahı'nın derin tarihi". Haber7.
  10. ^ a b c d "Hizbullah cinayetleri". YeniOzgurPolitika.com. March 31, 2023.
  11. ^ Turkey and the War on Terror, Andrew Mango, (Routledge, 2005), 65.
  12. ^ Kurdish Hizbullah in Turkey, Mehmet Kurt, pp. 38
  13. ^ a b "Release of Radical Group's Leaders Causes Shock in Turkey". Voice of America. 2011-01-31. Retrieved 2024-01-22.
  14. ^ Elitsoy, Aslı (June 2017). The Kurdish Hizbullah and Its Shifting Attitude towards Kurdishness and the Kurdish Issue in Turkey.
  15. ^ Mehmet Faraç, Cumhuriyet, 19 January 2000, Hizbullah'ın kanlı yolculuğu (archive link)
  16. ^ Kurdish Hizbullah in Turkey, Mehmet Kurt, pp. 37-38
  17. ^ An online edition of the Annual Report 2000 of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey Archived 2012-02-26 at the Wayback Machine is available on the website of the Democratic Turkey Forum
  18. ^ "Beykoz'daki Hizbullah operasyonunu yöneten emniyet müdürü ilk kez konuştu: 250 insanın katili Edip Gümüş'ü tahliye ettiler!". T24.
  19. ^ "It's official: Konca Kuris murdered by the Hizbullah terrorists". Hurriyet Daily News. 23 January 2000.
  20. ^ a b "Hizbullah'ın öldürdüğü İzzettin Yıldırım kimdir? İzzettin Yıldırım kaç yaşında? İzzettin Yıldırım nerelidir?İzzettin Yıldırım'ı kim öldürdü? -". haymanagazetesi.org.
  21. ^ a b "İzzettin Yıldırım cinayetinde sır çözüldü". Risale Haber. February 18, 2010.
  22. ^ "28 Şubat'la ilgili iddialar var". Sabah (in Turkish). 27 July 2008. Retrieved 19 December 2008. Oğuztan, Mumcu'nun yanı sıra Jandarma Genel Komutanı Orgeneral Eşref Bitlis ve JİTEM Komutanı emekli binbaşı Ahmet Cem Ersever'in devlet sırrının ortaya çıkmaması için öldürüldüklerini iddia etti.
  23. ^ Ekşi, Oktay (27 December 2008). "Mumcu cinayeti aydınlanırken". Hürriyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 27 December 2008.
  24. ^ Ergenc, Erdinç (30 July 2008). "MİT ajanının sızdığını PKK'lılar da kabul etti". Sabah (in Turkish). Retrieved 28 December 2008.
  25. ^ Corry Görgü: "Die Anschläge auf die Synagogen in Istanbul und die Rolle von Staat und Hizbullah"
  26. ^ In the Spotlight: Turkish Hezbollah, the article was written in December 2003. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
  27. ^ The Turkish Counter-Terrorism Experience, Suleyman Ozeren, Organizational and Psychological Aspects of Terrorism, Ed. Centre of Excellence Defence against Terrorism, (IOS Press, 2008), 159
  28. ^ The Kurdish Question and Turkish Foreign Policy, Kemal Kirisci, The future of Turkish foreign policy, Ed. Lenore G. Martin, Dimitris Keridis, (MIT Press, 2004), 295.
  29. ^ "Hizbullah'ın harddisklerini IBM çözdü | Güncel". www.haber3.com. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  30. ^ "Turkish police chief killed in ambush". 2001-01-24. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  31. ^ a b c Kurdish Hizbullah in Turkey, Mehmet Kurt, pp. 43
  32. ^ Kurdish Hizbullah in Turkey, Mehmet Kurt, pp. 39
  33. ^ Kurdish Hizbullah in Turkey, Mehmet Kurt, pp. 41
  34. ^ See: EXTRA 64/01 of 14 September 2001 (Hacı Bayancık), UA 218/01 of 4 September 2001 (Hacı Elhunisuni), UA 209/01 of 22 August 2001 (Yasın Karadağ), UA 194/10 of 31 July 2001 (Edip Balık), UA 317/00 of 17 October 2000 (Fesih und Hatice Güler)
  35. ^ An online edition of the Annual Report 2000 of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey Archived 2012-02-26 at the Wayback Machine is available on the website of the Democratic Turkey Forum
  36. ^ Steinberg, Guido W. (2013-06-25). German Jihad: On the Internationalization of Islamist Terrorism. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-50053-1.
  37. ^ "Hizbullah'ın karargah evini basan Emniyetçi ilk kez konuştu". VeryansınTV (in Turkish). 2023-03-30. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  38. ^ Compare an article in the daily Radikal of 13 April 2013: Hizbullah: Tebliğ, Cemaat, Cihat; accessed on 15 April 2013
  39. ^ a b See an article of the International Relation and Security Network in Zurich of 15 June 2010 written by Gareth Jenkins A New Front in the PKK Insurgency, accessed on 15 April 2013
  40. ^ See an article of the portal timeturk.com Mustazaf-Der resmen kapatıldı! dated 11 May 2012; accessed on 15 April 2013
  41. ^ Hür Dava Partisi (Hüda-Par) Resmen Kuruldu Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine. Haberdiyarbakir.com (2012-12-17). Retrieved on 2013-02-09.
  42. ^ "Irkçı gruplardan HÜDA PAR önünde tehlikeli provokasyon". Bismil Haber: Diyarbakır Son Dakika Yerel Haberler (in Turkish). Retrieved 2024-01-21.
  43. ^ "HÜDA PAR'dan Özdağ'a suç duyurusu - [İLKHA] İlke Haber Ajansı". ilkha.com. Retrieved 2024-01-21.
  44. ^ Costu, Safak (2023-05-11). "Büro-İş Union Appeals to the Supreme Court to Close HUDA PAR Party". BNN Breaking. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  45. ^ "HÜDA PAR'ın kapatılması için Yargıtay'a başvuru". www.gazeteduvar.com.tr. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  46. ^ "HÜDA PAR Adana İl Başkanlığı'na saldırı". www.ntv.com.tr.
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