Kurdish Hezbollah (, )The real challenge to secular Turkey, The Economist, 31 Aug 2006TTurkish Hezbollah (Hizbullah) / Kurdish Hezbollah , turkishweekly.net, also known as HizbullahAslı Aydıntaşbaş, Murder on the Bosporus, Middle East Quarterly, June 2000, pp. 15–22, Meforum.org. Retrieved on 2011-02-09. or Turkish Hezbollah, is a Kurdish Shia–Sunni Islamist militant organization, active against Turkey,Gareth Jenkins Tales from the crypt , Al-Ahram Weekly, 3–9 February 2000, Issue No. 467Ufuk Hiçyılmaz, Aksiyon, 31 January 2005, Maskeli Hizbullah’ın hedefi cemaatler and formerly against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) due to clashes that occurred between 1992 and 1995.
The organization, founded by Hüseyin Velioğlu, remains a primarily Kurdish group that has its roots in the predominantly Kurdish border of Southeastern Turkey and among Kurds who migrated to the cities in Western Turkey. The Kurdish Hezbollah began shifting increasingly towards Kurdish nationalism during Velioğlu's final years, and after Velioğlu's death, under İsa Altsoy's leadership, they disarmed and began focusing on charity work for the Kurdish population living in Turkey under various organizations. The Hezbollah reestablished in 2003 in Southeastern Turkey and "today its ideology might be more widespread than ever among Kurds there". Kurdish Hezbollah's influence was not limited to Turkey and it has also "left an imprint on Turkish Kurds in Germany." The Kurdish Hezbollah is closely affiliated with the Free Cause Party (HÜDA PAR).
Background In the 1970s, various Kurdish Islamists sought to work through democratic means to develop Islamism in Turkey. It initially remained a Kurdish group that had its roots in Southeastern Turkey, and Kurdish Islamists who migrated to the prosperous cities in Western Turkey. The group utilized poor economical situations of the Kurdish population and had built its social bases in their areas. Many joined the Turkish National Student Union (Milli Türk Talebe Birliği, MTTB), the youth organization of the National Salvation Party.The Kurdish Ḥizbullāh in Turkey. Oxford Islamic Studies Online. By: Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Nader Entessar, Martin Kramer, Joseph A. Kéchichian, Emrullah Uslu. Source: The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World With the closure of these after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, it appeared clear that the military was too strongly dedicated to secularism for the democratic route to be an option, and a group of Islamists launched the Union Movement (Vahdet Hareketi). The movement organised around two bookshops in Diyarbakır: Fidan Gündör's Menzil and Hüseyin Velioğlu's İlim. Until 1987, the groups gathered around these bookshops worked together.Turkish sympathy for militants grows Common Dreams News CenterHizbullah raporunda, örgütün İran İstihbarat Servisi'ne bağlı Pasdar'la büyük benzerlik gösterdiği kaydedildi: 'Askeri eğitim İran'da yapılıyor' , TBMM'nin Hizbullah Raporu – Bölüm 1- Cumhuriyet Gazetesi'nden; cited in the daily Cumhuriyet of 2 February 2000. According to the Guido Steinberg, the Turkish government cooperated with the group against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
In 1987, when Hüseyin Velioğlu moved his bookshop to Batman, different opinions on leadership and armed actions resulted in the split of the two wings.Mehmet Faraç, Cumhuriyet, 19 January 2000, Hizbullah'ın kanlı yolculuğu (archive link) The so-called İlim-wing, under the leadership of Hüseyin Velioğlu, insisted to start the armed struggle immediately. The dispute resulted in bloody fighting between the two factions.Human Rights Watch, 16 February 2000, What is Turkey's Hizbullah? Between 1990 and 1993, the İlim group killed many members of the Menzil group, and ultimately emerged victorious. In 1993, the İlim group took the name Hizbullah.
History
The İlim group became known as Hizbullah in 1993, after emerging victorious from a bloody factional war between two wings of the Union Movement (Vahdet Hareketi) which had been established following the 1980 Turkish coup d'état's crushing of Islamist hopes for democratic success. Hüseyin Velioğlu's group had previously been known as İlim, named for his bookshop. In March of the same year, soon after Abdullah Öcalan was expelled from Ba'athist Syria, there were reports of an Iranian-brokered peace accord between KH and PKK.Turkey and the War on Terror, Andrew Mango, (Routledge, 2005), 65.
According to Turkish security officials, the Kurdish Hezbollah was financed by and trained in post-revolutionary Iran, with the Iranian government allegedly using Islamic terrorist groups in order to establish Islamic governments throughout the Middle East.The Turkish Counter-Terrorism Experience, Suleyman Ozeren, Organizational and Psychological Aspects of Terrorism, Ed. Centre of Excellence Defence against Terrorism, (IOS Press, 2008), 159.Turkish Hezbollah, Encyclopedia of Terrorism, Ed. Harvey Kushner, (Sage Publications Inc., 1993), 368-369.The Kurdish Question and Turkish Foreign Policy, Kemal Kirisci, The future of Turkish foreign policy, Ed. Lenore G. Martin, Dimitris Keridis, (MIT Press, 2004), 295.
Further groups within the Kurdish Hezbollah were named as Tevhid, led by Nurettin Şirin and Mehmet Şahin, and Yeryüzü, led by Burhan Kavuncu.Radikal, 3 July 1999, Radikal-online / Türkiye / TÜRKİYE'DEKİ İSLAMCI KURULUŞ VE ÖRGÜTLER . Radikal.com.tr. Retrieved on 2011-02-09. Besides the town of Batman, Hezbollah was strongest in Cizre district of Şırnak, Nusaybin district of Mardin, and Silvan district of Diyarbakır province. For a long time, the village Yolaç was used as their base.
Initially, the Kurdish Hezbollah and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) had been allies, with some of the earliest Hezbollah fighters receiving their training in PKK camps.Peaceful Islamist Mobilization in the Muslim World: What Went Right, Julie Chernov Hwang, 2009, pp. 34, In the early 1990s, the organization became a direct threat to the already rising Kurdish separatist movement. The Hezbollah viewed the "PKK's claim to be the only true spokesman of Kurdish nationalism" as a "threat to its own identity", and dubbed the PKK as the Partiya Kafirin Kurdistan, meaning "Kurdistan Infidels' Party". As an Islamist organization, the Kurdish Hezbollah began as an oppositional force against the PKK, but have targeted both PKK militants and other people they considered "immoral" (people who drank alcohol, wore mini-skirts, etc.).Milliyet, 23 March 2007, Hizbullah davasında 9 yıl sonra karar; (Turkish). Retrieved 21 October 2009. Between 1992 and 1995 the Kurdish Hezbollah killed around 500 PKK members, for the loss of around 200 of its own.
In 2007, after the assassination of Hrant Dink, his friend Orhan Alkaya suggested that the three-shot assassination technique was a signature mark of the Kurdish Hezbollah. Some of the major terrorist attacks carried out by the Kurdish Hezbollah allegedly include an April 1999 suicide bombing in Bingöl, and the 2001 assassination of Diyarbakir police chief Gaffar Okkan and five other police officers.Evan Kohlmann, National Review, 25 November 2003, Terrorized Turkey: Pointing fingers at al Qaeda The group also targeted journalists who wrote about its activities, particularly those who wrote about the collaboration between them and the Turkish government. It was believed that the group gets support from the Turkish Armed Forces for its conflict against the PKK. Journalists, mainly Kurds, associated with 2000'e Doğru and Özgür Gündem were particularly targeted (see List of journalists killed in Turkey).Hurriyet Daily News, 31 January 2000, Hizbullah is prime example of state's 'playing one against the other' policy
Turkish military support The Kurdish Hezbollah claimed that they do not work with Turkey and that it is mere PKK propaganda, while Turkey also hated Hezbollah throughout their entire existence but only tolerated them at first, due to them fighting the PKK. A former JİTEM agent confirmed that the Turkish government had offered assistance to the Kurdish Hezbollah against the PKK, although Hüseyin Velioğlu kept refusing it, stating that the Kurdish Hezbollah really hates Turkey and aims for peace with the PKK. Alt URL The PKK also exaggerated links between Turkey and the Kurdish Hezbollah, to discredit Kurdish Hezbollah and to distract the public from the fact that the PKK itself was infiltrated by Turkish agents before.Understanding Turkey's Kurdish Question, Fevzi Bilgin, Ali Sarihan, 2013, pp. 168
The weekly 2000'e Doğru of 16 February 1992 reported that eyewitnesses and sympathizers of Kurdish Hezbollah had informed them that members of the organization were educated in the headquarters of Çevik Kuvvet, the rapid deployment force of the General Directorate of Security (Turkish National Police), in Diyarbakır. The article's author, Halit Güngen, was killed by unidentified murderers two days after the article was published. Namik Taranci, the Diyarbakir representative of the weekly journal Gerçek ("Reality"), was shot dead on November 20, 1992 on his way to work in Diyarbakır. Again, the previous edition of the magazine had examined relations between the Turkish state and Kurdish Hezbullah. Hafiz Akdemir, reporter for Özgür Gündem ("Free Agenda"), was shot dead in a street of Diyarbakır on June 8, 1992, after reporting that a man who had given refuge to assassins fleeing a Hezbollah-style double killing in Silvan was released after only six weeks in custody, without even appearing in court. The 1993 report of Turkey's parliamentary investigative commission referred to informations that the Kurdish Hezbollah had a camp in the Batman region where they received political and military training and assistance from the Turkish security forces.Akkoç v. Turkey, Application Nos. 22947/93, 22948/93, Judgement of 10 October 2000 , European Court of Human Rights judgment concerning Akkoç v. Turkey case, section II, C
Former Minister Fikri Sağlar said in an interview with the paper Siyah-Beyaz ("Black-White") that the army not only used the Kurdish Hezbollah, but actually founded and sponsored the organization. He maintained that such a decision had been taken in 1985 at the highest levels: the National Security Council.Cited in the 2000 Human Rights Watch report relying on the book of Faik Bulut and Mehmet Farac: Kod Adı: Hizbullah (Code name: Hizbullah), Ozan Publishing House, March 1999. On 17 January 2011 Arif Doğan, a retired colonel in the Turkish army who also claims to be a founder of JİTEM, while testifying in court in the Ergenekon case, declared that he set up Hezbollah as a contra group to force to fight and kill militants of the PKK. The organization was originally to be called Hizbul-Kontr ("Party of the Contras"). According to journalist Faik Bulut, some members of the Kurdish Hezbollah were caught in Istanbul with 40 kg of C-4 explosive and valid Turkish National Intelligence Organization identity cards in January 2000.Hurriyet Daily News, 27 January 2000, Hizbullah: The Susurluk of the Southeast
Human resources In December 2003 Corry Görgü put the number of militants as high as 20,000Corry Görgü: "Die Anschläge auf die Synagogen in Istanbul und die Rolle von Staat und Hizbullah" a figure presented by the Center for Defense Information as well.In the Spotlight: Turkish Hezbollah, the article was written in December 2003. Retrieved 23 October 2009. Information provided by the Intelligence Resource Program of the Federation of American Scientists based on the 2002 Patterns of Global Terrorism report suggests that the organisation possibly has a few hundred members and several thousand supporters.Turkish Hizballah. Fas.org. Retrieved on 2011-02-09. Ufuk Hiçyılmaz stated that the group had about 1,000 armed members.Maskeli Hizbullah'ın hedefi cemaatler; Turkish article published in the journal Aksiyon on 31 January 2005. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
Trials (2000–2011)