The PKK: Coming Down from the Mountains

by Paul White

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a militant political group known as the PKK, is infamous for its extreme violence. The struggle it has waged for Kurdish independence in southeastern Turkey has taken in excess of 40,000 lives since 1984. Less well known, however, is the fact that the PKK now embraces a non-violent end to the conflict; its leader, Abdullah Öcalan, ordered a ceasefire in March of 2013 and engaged in peace negotiations with the Ankara Government. Whether or not these tentative attempts at peacemaking will mean an eventual end to the bloodshed, these events will have potentially huge ramifications for Turkey and the surrounding region.

This book charts the ideological evolution of the PKK, as well as its origins, aims, and organizational setup. In doing so, Paul White provides the only authoritative and up-to-date analysis of one of the most important non-state political players in the contemporary Middle East.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Middle East, Political Science

200 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2015

About the author

Dr Paul White works as an independent consultant in Jakarta, Indonesia. He has taught Middle East Politics courses at Deakin University in Melbourne; at Macquarie University in Sydney; and at the University of Sydney’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. He was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and serves on the board of directors of the Kurdish Institute, Washington DC.

Reviews

[Sookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to both review and critique. First half of the book breifly deals with history of Kurds and origins of the PKK. From here, White reports what's known of the the PKK today since the late 90s when the leader of the movement was detained. From here on, White further delves into modern day middle east geopolitical events and influence of Kurds - either explicit or implicit.
White tries to take an unbiased approach to view the movement and the group as is, as he refers to several news reports from various media outlets and not just mainstream western and reports published by non government research groups.
It's a lot to take in, no doubt but the information here will add additional understanding to existing conflicts.

[Lawrence John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indispensable history of the PKK from the 80s to 2014. Not too in depth, but a good primer on the story and development of the PKK, and very well researched and sourced.

[Anil Cantepe · Rating 2 out of 5]

wikipedia başlığı gibi bir kitap olmuş. yazar her ne kadar pkk tarihine ve organizasyonel yapısına hakimse de türkiye tarihine ve son dönemdeki güncel gelişmelere uzak bir görüntü çiziyor.

[Aziz Odilon · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The PKK: Coming Down from the Mountains' was an interesting and pretty smooth read. It would be enjoyed by anyone seeking an introduction to the organisation's chronicle in conjunction with elements of Kurdish history.
Paul White has included a very thorough bibliography and the text is teeming with references to all kinds of sources, including manifestos, statements, news articles etc. This could potentially prove to be very useful to anyone (me included) that would like to learn more about the PKK's past as well as current situation.
One thing that I found as a downside was the somewhat repetitive or recursive pattern of the first half of the book with regards to events.
Apart from that it was quite informative and easily swept through.