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The PKK has waged an armed insurgency against Turkey since 1984, initially with the aim of establishing a Kurdish state in the southeast of the country. Over time, the objective evolved into a campaign for autonomy and rights for Kurds within Turkey. Turkish officials took some steps to improve Kurdish rights, but the process collapsed in July 2015, after a series of violent attacks, including one by the Islamic State group that killed 33 pro-Kurdish activists. Since then, Turkey has cracked down on its pro-Kurdish movement and has jailed thousands of people.
Recently, the fall of Assad in a lightning rebel offensive has triggered intensified fighting between Turkish-backed and Kurdish groups in northern Syria.
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The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who have controlled northeast Syria for the past decade, are under attack from the Syrian National Army, an umbrella of militias fighting on behalf of Turkey, which regards the SDF as an extension of the PKK and wants to neutralize it as an independent fighting force. The conflict between militants and state forces, which has spread beyond Turkey’s borders into Iraq and Syria, has killed tens of thousands of people.
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