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The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), founded on Marxist-Leninist ideology, has begun to embrace an Islamic religious discourse in an attempt to regain support from its grass roots, a report drafted at last month’s National Security Council (MGK) revealed.

Following last year’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) election victory in the country’s southeast, where the terrorist PKK enjoys strong support, the PKK began to employ an Islamic discourse to appeal to the public in the region. The PKK and the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), which has links to the organization, accused the AK Party of abusing the religious beliefs of the people in the region. However the latest MGK report made it clear that the PKK has itself resorted to the method.

The PKK’s change of strategy also found its way into the defense statement of the AK Party in a closure case it currently faces over charges of anti-secular activity. In the case, Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya cited the AK Party’s appointment of imams for southeastern mosques without imams as an example of anti-secular activity. Presenting the AK Party’s oral defense to the Constitutional Court in early July, Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek submitted to the court a copy of the MGK report on the PKK’s use of religion in the region to counter Yalçınkaya’s allegations. Intelligence units from the Gendarmerie General Command and the Turkish General Staff had jointly prepared the report in question, which included the activities of the PKK in the recent period.

Following the MGK meeting, a written warning statement was issued to the Religious Affairs Directorate, asking it to take measures against the activities of the Men of Religion Aid and Solidarity Association established by the PKK. The statement asked the Religious Affairs Directorate staff to avoid membership in these associations. The Religious Affairs Directorate accordingly sent out a notice to local mufti offices warning them over the activities of these seemingly religious associations established by the PKK.

According to the MGK report, which includes information about the religious activities of the PKK and its extensions, the PKK is carrying out a systematic propaganda campaign against imams and men of religion. The terrorist organization, which in the past threatened imams in the region, has changed its strategy and is now trying to draw them into its ranks. The names of imams who refuse to wash the bodies of killed PKK terrorists -- a ritual performed for the dead in Islam -- are put onto a PKK hit list. For mosques without imams, the PKK appoints imams affiliated with the terrorist organization. The report also says the PKK pays graduates of imam hatip schools to serve at the village mosques in the region.

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