current turkish armed conflicts around the world

This reflected the understanding that ‘the initiation and waging of war was an exercise of sovereign power, a prerogative held by State, suitable for regulation by international law’. Prior to the mid-twentieth century, international humanitarian law (‘ ihl’) dealt exclusively with armed conflict between States. Accordingly, it concludes that the conflict between the pkk and the Turkish security forces qualifies as a non-international armed conflict within the meaning of both Common Article 3 and customary international humanitarian law. The article also ascertains that Turkey is clearly bound by the provisions of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, including Common Article 3, and customary international humanitarian law.

It establishes that the pkk qualifies as an organised armed group under responsible command and has the operational ability, structure and capacity to carry out ‘protracted violence’, to respect fundamental humanitarian norms of international humanitarian law and to control territory.

It demonstrates that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (also known as the pkk), as a party to the conflict, fulfils the three main criteria laid down in conventional international humanitarian law and developed by indicative factors in international jurisprudence for assessing the existence of a non-international armed conflict in the context of Common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions: being an organised armed group, having the ability to engage in ‘protracted violence’, and complying with law of armed conflict. This article assesses the applicability of the criteria for non-international armed conflict to the situation in South-Eastern Turkey.

Current turkish armed conflicts around the world