Background:
Present-day Turkey was created in 1923 from the Turkish remnants of
the Ottoman Empire. Soon thereafter, the country instituted secular
laws to replace traditional religious fiats. In 1945 Turkey joined
the UN, and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. Turkey intervened
militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to protect Turkish Cypriots and prevent
a Greek takeover of the island; the northern 37 percent of the
island remains under Turkish Cypriot control. Relations between the
two countries remain strained, but have begun to improve over the
past few years. In 1984, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a
Marxist-Leninist, separatist group, initiated an insurgency in
southeast Turkey, often using terrorist tactics to try to attain its
goal of an independent Kurdistan. The group - whose leader, Abdullah
OCALAN, was captured in Kenya in February 1999 - has observed a
unilateral cease-fire since September 1999, although there have been
occasional clashes between Turkish military units and some of the
4,000-5,000 armed PKK militants, most of whom currently are encamped
in northern Iraq. The PKK changed its name to the Kurdistan Freedom
and Democracy Congress (KADEK) in April 2002.