Another Look at the Kurdistan Workers' Party

In a recent report, the "Wall Street Journal" (WSJ) illuminates the human face of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). It is not a terrorist group in the usual sense of the word. The aim of the PKK is only to establish a Kurdish nation and is not to spread terror in the West.

The WSJ writes, "The [PKK's] largely pro-West stance, and its deployment of female fighters like Ms. Ruken, has brought sympathy from Western governments and populations. Hundreds of volunteers from the U.S. and Europe have enlisted with the group since 2014."

In the above photo is Sinjar Mountain, to which thousands of Yazidis had fled from the Islamic State (IS). As IS terrorists converged on the mountain to kill them, the PKK guerrillas punched through the terrorist lines and created a humanitarian corridor that allowed the Yazidis to escape.

This sort of humanitarian rescue is not the behavior of a terrorist group. The PKK is a different creature.

The European Commission should re-evaluate the PKK and possibly re-label it a separatist group (like the one that started and won the American war for independence in the 1700s) instead of a terrorist group. Also, if Berlin can shove the Turks aside and help the Kurds to establish their nation, then the PKK will surely retire.

Berlin should ignore Washington on matters involving the Kurds. Washington committed a grave error by not partitioning Iraq and by not giving the Iraqi Kurds their own nation.