SUMMARY

TAK (Teyrêbazên Azadiya Kurdistan: Kurdistan Freedom Falcons) was an armed group that fought an intrastate armed conflict against the Government of Turkey. It was founded in 2004 by some former PKK members who criticized the groups’ allegedly softening stance towards the Government of Turkey and found the group insufficient in terms of achieving its political goals. Though it is claimed to be a splinter group, the relationship between TAK and PKK is far from clear and some experts consider the group as a semi-autonomous proxy of PKK.

TAK mainly operated in western Turkey, especially in metropolitan cities and drew attention with its suicide attacks. Though there is very little information about the membership structure of the group, based on the suicide attackers, the group recruited mostly young people in their mid-20s.

TAK’s political goals were ambiguous. Despite its name, the group never outright stated that it was fighting for an independent state for the Kurds. Rather, it clearly expressed its dislike for what it called “the fascist Turkish state”. Furthermore, TAK on a number of occasions, declared that it followed the ideology of PKK-leader Abdullah Öcalan, and at the time of the founding of the group, Öcalan was no longer calling for independence from Ankara. Based on this, UCDP coded TAK’s incompatibility as being over government power. In the group’s founding statement, it specifically announced that it would target tourist areas in the country. By doing so, it deliberately targeted civilians.

According to some analysts, Bahoz Erdal – one of the leaders of PKK – was the leader of TAK. Nevertheless, this information was not verified.

The group has reportedly cooperated with the PKK but the extent of cooperation remained unclear.