Kurdish nationalist party.
It was founded in Turkish Kurdistan in 1978 and sought to establish an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey . It attacked Turkish interests and fellow Kurds suspected of collaboration with the Turkish government, often from bases in Iraq and Syria. The group's leader, Abdullah Öcalan, was arrested by Turkey in 1999 and was thereafter tried and convicted of treason. At its peak, it claimed 5,000–10,000 members. See also Kurd .