The 15 August 1984 PKK attacks, which were led by

Mahsum Korkmaz Mahsum Korkmaz, also known as Agit (Kurmanji: Egîd) (1956 – 28 March 1986), was the first commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)'s military forces. Korkmaz moved to Lebanon in 1979 and alongside Kemal Pir was responsible for the recr ...

(known as "Agit"), marked the start of the last phase of

Kurdish–Turkish conflict Kurdish nationalism, Kurdish nationalist uprisings have periodically occurred in Turkey, beginning with the Turkish War of Independence and the consequent transition from the Ottoman Empire to the modern Turkish state and continuing to the prese ...

. Since the PKK's second party Congress, which was held from 20 to 25 August 1982 in

Daraa Daraa ( ar, دَرْعَا, Darʿā, Levantine Arabic: , also Darʿā, Dara’a, Deraa, Dera'a, Dera, Derʿā and Edrei; means "''fortress''", compare Dura-Europos) is a city in southwestern Syria, located about north of the border with Jordan ...

, Syria, it was decided that the PKK would start preparing for an insurgency inside Turkey. Training camps were opened in Syria and in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...

and propaganda teams were sent across the border to make contact with the local populations. After years of preparation, the PKK launched its first major attacks on 15 August 1984. The attack was led by the founder of the PKK's military wing. PKK forces attacked the gendarmerie station in

Eruh Eruh ( ku, Dih) is a town and seat of Eruh District of Siirt Province of Turkey. The town is populated by Kurds of the Botikan tribe and had a population of 8,895 in 2021. Neighborhoods Eruh town is divided into the three neighborhoods of Fari ...

Siirt Siirt ( ar, سِعِرْد, Siʿird; hy, Սղերդ, S'gherd; syr, ܣܥܪܬ, Siirt; ku, Sêrt) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the seat of Siirt Province. The population of the city according to the 2009 census was 129,188. History Pr ...

and killed one gendarmerie soldier and injured six soldiers and three civilians. Simultaneously, PKK forces attacked a gendarmerie open-air facility, officer housings and a gendarmerie station in

Şemdinli Şemdinli ( ku, Şemzînan, script=Latn, syr, ܫܲܡܙܕܝܼܢ, Šamzdīn) is a town and district located in the Hakkari Province of southeastern Turkey. It was previously in the Ottoman Vilayet of Van and the district centre was called Nevşehi ...

, Hakkâri and killed two police officers and injured one police officer and a soldier. Initially, Turkish authorities did not take the attacks seriously, however the attacks were followed up by a raid on a police station in Siirt on 17 August, which was soon followed by an attack that killed three of General Kenan Evren's Presidential Guards in Yüksekova and an ambush which killed 8 Turkish soldiers in Çukurca, in Hakkâri province. Insurgent violence in the predominantly

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

South-East of Turkey escalated heavily after the attacks. Around 2,500 people were killed during the conflict between 15 August 1984 and 1991. This number rose to 17,500 between 1991 and 1992The Kurds in Turkey
and the Turkish state puts the number of people killed by the insurgency at 44,000 as of September 2008.

References

{{Turkey-Kurdistan Workers Party conflict

PKK The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...

August 1984 events in Europe History of Hakkâri Province History of Siirt Province Kurdistan Workers' Party attacks 1984 crimes in Turkey 1984 in Turkey