Hazen Rizgariya Kurdistan

(HRK)

   The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) created the HRK, or Kurdistan Freedom Brigades, in 1984 as a forerunner of the Kurdistan National Liberation Front (ERNK)—a popular front that also had a military function—and the Kurdistan Peoples Liberation Army (ARGK)—a professional guerrilla army, which subsequent to the capture of Abdullah (Apo) Ocalan in February 1999 was renamed the Hezen Parastina Gel (HPG), or Peoples Defense Force.

   The PKK announced the establishment of the HRK on 15 August 1984 by making two well-coordinated attacks on Eruh and Semdinli, villages in southeastern Turkey separated by rugged mountainous terrain and more than 333 kilometers apart. Both Turkey and the PKK usually give this date for the beginning of the PKK armed rebellion.

   Duran (Abbas) Kalkan was named the head of the HRK. He later broke with Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK leader, over the use of violence against Kurdish villages, which Kalkan believed hurt the party's recruitment efforts. Subsequently, however, Kalkan and Ocalan reunited. The HRK was abolished in 1986 after the creation of the ERNK in 1985 and the ARGK in 1986. At that time the PKK announced that public relations and support had been inadequate. Thus, the creation and abolishment of the HRK may be seen as an early attempt by the PKK to find a successful way to implement its involved long-term strategy.