Last modified: 2024-07-20 by ian macdonald
Keywords: kurdistan | kurdish workers party | partiya karkeren kurdistan | pkk | hammer and sickle (red) | hammer and sickle (yellow) | torch | star (red) | star (yellow) |
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![[PKK Flag]](../images/k/krd}pkk2.gif)
image by T.F. Mills
A state of war has existed since 1980 as the Turkish government
has repeatedly sought to crush the radical Marxist rebellion of the
Kurds. Abdulla Ocalan founded the Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan
(PKK, or Kurdish Workers' Party) in 1978.
T. F. Mills, 27 September 1997
According to WikiPedia: "The current PKK flag used since 1995".
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_Karayilan
Esteban Rivera, 29 July 2008
One ammendment should be made to the already reported flag of the PKK: this was the flag
used between 1995 and 2002. The current flag is this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan_Workers%27_Party#mediaviewer/File:Flag_of_Kurdistan_Workers_Party_(PKK).svg
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan_Workers%27_Party )
One can see the current flag in the following pictures:
- http://www.kizilbayrak.net/uploads/tx_news/kck-genel-kurul-AA.jpg
(second flag from left to right, source:
http://www.kizilbayrak.net/rss/kck-sisteminde-degisiklige-gidildi/ )
- http://www.bakurd.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/kongra-gel.jpg
(first flag from left to right, source: http://www.bakurd.com/?p=4450
)
The PKK (and its affiliated organizations) is considered a terrorist
group not only by Turkey ( http://www.mfa.gov.tr/pkk_kongra-gel.en.mfa
) but also by several other countries. In this picture, it shows its
support to the Farc (
http://www.hezenparastin.com/eng/images/farcli_yoldaslar.jpg , first
flag from left to right ), another terrorist organization, from
Colombia.
Esteban Rivera, 14 September 2014
PKK changed its name in 2002 to Congress for the Freedom and Democracy of the
Kurds (KADEK) and adopted a new flag (red with a sun in canton and a red five
pointed star within. KADEK was enclosed in European list of terrorist and in
April 2004 follow United States (of course this a political view and PKK and
KADEK are not terrorist but self defending).
In October 2003 KADEK was the base of the mass organization KONGRAGEL (Kurdistan
Peoples Congress) and in April 2004 United States declared them as terrorist
organization (together KADEK). Kongragel flag you pointed in your message
Kongragel joined in 2005 a wider new mass organization called Koma Komalen
Kurdistan (Confederalism in Kurdistan) that declared a cesez le feu in 2006 and
renamed Koma Civakên Kurdistan (Peoples Confederation of Kurdistan). The flag
(under both names) is green with a yellow sun in the centre and a red five
pointed star within. As far I know is not classified as terrorist organization.
A legal party called Democratic Solution for Kurdistan is acting in
Kurdistan-Iraq using (from 2009) the same flag but
changing the star for a rose as you can see in
http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partit_de_la_Solució_Democràtica.
The flag that you believe is the current one for the PKK, in fact is not. PKK
today don't exist. The flag is, and always was, the flag of Eniya Rizgariya
Netewa Kurdistan (Kurdistan National Liberation Front) a frontal organization of
PKK and some supporters out of the party, religious, leftist but not communist,
etc... all pople or groups for the national independence. Their main task was
give political support to Hêzên Rizgariya Kurdistanê (Armed Brigades of
Kurdistan) the armed military wing of the PKK.
Jaume Ollé, 14 September 2014
![[PKK old Flag]](../images/k/krd}pkk.gif)
image by Jaume Ollé
This is the former flag of the PKK. This flag is in the line of
the communist flags.
Jaume Ollé, 30 November 1996 & Jacob Zhu,
25 May 1998
![[PKK Flag Variant 1]](../images/k/krd}pkk1.gif)
image by Jaume Ollé
![[PKK Flag Variant 2]](../images/k/krd}pkk3.gif)
image by Jaume Ollé
These variants of the PKK flag have been reported in Gaceta de
Banderas [ban] and
Flaggenmitteilung [fmL] #117,
repectively.
Jaume Ollé, 04 October 1997
image by Victor Lomantsov, 07 July 2003
A.Basov of Minsk told me he saw many times the flag of Kurdish nation in Russia: a
red field with a red five-pointed star on a yellow many-pointed star.
Victor Lomantsov, 07 July 2003
I've encountered this flag on the Internet as the flag of PKK (or KADEK
after changing the name). That explains why Kurds use this flag!
Onur Ozgun, 07 July 2003
image by Eugene Ipavec, 03 September 2005
Red star in center of 21-pointed golden sun disc in the upper hoist of a red
flag. This seems to be a variant of the original PKK flag, since it has the star
and the red background of the PKK original flag but also the sun disc of the
Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq.
Eugene Ipavec, 03 September 2005
Other PKK-related flags can be seen in
this video
interview with Murat Karayilan, from elapsed time 0:44 onwards, as well as
other flags in
this video.
Esteban Rivera, 29 August 2010
Koma Civakęn Kurdistan (KCK), a Kurdish organization founded on 20 March 2005
by Abdullah Öcalan as Koma Komalęn Kurdistán (KKK) and renamed in 2007. The
"Declaration of Democratic Confederalism in Kurdistan", issued by Öcalan on 20
March 2005, prescribes the flag as "on a green background a yellow sun with a
red star".
Source:
http://www.freemedialibrary.com/index.php/Declaration_of_Democratic_Confederalism_in_Kurdistan
Ivan Sache, 29 August 2010
The KKK (Koma Komalęn Kurdistan / Kürdistan Demokratik Konfederalizm) is a umbrella
organization grouping pro-PKK sectorial organizations and allied movements.
Jaume Ollé Casals, 06 July 2012
image by Eugene Ipavec, 23 November 2005
A news photo at Yahoo.com shows a PKK flag, green, with a
40-rayed yellow sun disk (20 long, 20 short) and a red star at its
center. The photo is captioned:
"A demonstrator flashes a V-sign before outlawed Kurdistan Worker's
Party flag during the 'democracy and peace' demonstration organised by
local non-governmental groups and pro-Kurdish parties in Diyarbakir,
Turkey."
Eugene Ipavec, 23 November 2005
![[KDP of Iran]](../images/k/krd}ufe.gif)
image located
by Ben Cahoon, 19 October 2005
The depicted flag was shown in a rally of Kurds in Brussels on 1st October
2005, reported by euronews.net. The Kurds were protesting against the efforts of
Turkey to join the EU. The flag was shown together with the red flag with
green-edged yellow circle including a red 5-point star. So I think it is the
flag of another Kurdish Socialist group.
Description of the flag:
Ratio unknown. The flag is rectangular. There is a yellow (FIAV-Code Y) sun on a
plain green (FIAV-Code V+) ground. The sun includes a red (FIAV-Code R) 5-point
star.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 30th October 2005
![[KDP of Iran]](../images/k/krd-krdprty.gif)
image located
by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 02 April 2006
![[42 ray variant]](../images/k/krd_pkk42.jpg)
image located
by Mark Brader, 10 July 2013
On May 1 this year, when Communists and socalists often hold events, I
happened to be at Trafalgar Square in London, and I photographed someone
carrying a flag I hadn't seen before.
The version I photographed is a combination of above flags, but it has 42
points, alternating long and short. As far as I can tell from the photo, the
orientation of the red star and the long points of the yellow star matches your
third flag, i.e. the former has one point straight up and latter has one
straight down.
However, it looks slightly inexact, as though either it was at least partly
handmade or else there is some deliberate slight asymmetry. And since it's being
hand carried, the "up" direction isn't 100% clear.
The colors look closest to the third one on your page.
Mark Brader, 10 July 2013
Notice a nice optical illusion - the yellow rays spin around the red star
when you do. And to think some of you think that we needed to modernize our
layout - we are at the forefront of digital graphic effects here!
Peter Loeser, 29 July 2013
image located by
Esteban Rivera, 03 September 2005
I found this image on WikiPedia of some Kurdish demonstrators in London. The
other flag bears the image of the captured leader of the PKK, Abdallah Ocalan.
Esteban Rivera, 03 September 2005
Another picture (upper left at
http://www.rfi.fr/actufr/articles/054/article_28600.asp) shows this flag.
The report (10 June 2004) concerns cultural and political developments in Turkey
positive to the Kurds.
Jan Mertens, 04 September 2005
This flag, along with the 3rd variant of
the PKK flag are seen in
this picture taken during what is now known as the "February 15, 2003
anti-war protest", "a coordinated day of protests across the world against
the imminent invasion of Iraq. Millions of people protested in approximately 800
cities around the world. According to BBC News, between six and ten million
people took part in protests in up to sixty countries over the weekend of the
15th and 16th; other estimates range from eight million to thirty million".
No further reference of the origin of either the Öcalan flag or the
3rd PKK variant flag is mentioned.
Esteban Rivera, 29 July 2008
image by Polat C. Akkas, 26 September 2013
Flag name is in Turkish 'önderlik' in Kurdish 'serokatî' in English 'leadership'.
Polat C. Akkas, 26 September 2013
image by Ivan Sache, 29 August 2010
Another flag (photo) may already have been reported (horizontally divided red above
green, a large yellow sun in the centre).
Jan Mertens, 04 Sep 2007
This is the flag of the Kongra Gel (People's Congress, aka Kongra Gelę
Kurdistan, Kurdistan People's Congress), the parliament-like body of the KCK.
Ivan Sache, 29 August 2010
But it would have to have been the other way up - green over red. And looking
closely at this capture, there is a hint of what might be the red star in the
middle of the yellow sun.
I note that this flag, and the one which
Ivan cites, have the sun with alternating long and short rays. The
well-known flag used by the Kurdish Regional Government
in northern Iraq has a sun with rays all of the same length. I wonder whether
this is a design change for aesthetic reasons or whether it has symbolic/political
significance.
André Coutanche, 29 August 2010
image by Jaume Ollé Casals, 06 July 2012,
modified by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 18 September 2014
Flag related to PKK with face of Ocalan and a flag of the KKK (Koma Komalęn Kurdistan /Kürdistan Demokratik Konfederalizm) at each side.
Jaume Ollé Casals, 06 July 2012
The stars on the GIF image shall be rotated for 180 degrees in order to have
the same position as those from the photo.
Tomislav Todorović, 06 July 2012
Here's another image of a KKK/Öcalan flag
here. (Source:
http://peaceinkurdistancampaign.com/tag/newroz/
).
We
could use this image, which IMHO is a little bit better than the one we currntly
have displayed.
Esteban Rivera, 01 July 2014
Yesterday on RCN local news channel a news report on the ongoing conflict in Iraq and Syria (most likely produced for VICE news outlet) showed combatants of the PKK with several flags and pennants.
image located by Esteban Rivera, 14 September 2014
(screenshot of the news broadcasted by RCN on
September 13, 2014).
The report is titled "La lucha del PKK en Irak" (The PKK's struggle in Iraq, in Spanish) In this picture can see from left to right, the following:
1) UFE (A green pennant with a red five-pointed star in the middle).
This same pennant can be seen in
UFE 14-45, second from left to
right).
It also can be seen
here
(second flag from left to right.
Source), and it bears an important fact to highlight, and that is: that also
the YPG (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, People's Protection Units) which is
the yellow Pennant with a red five-pointed star, has also a flag, and
not only its pennant as previously reported by Hoang Nhan Nguyen on a video by VICE news showing several
UFE's).
2) Yekîneyên Jinên Azad ên Star, YJA STAR - Free Women's Units, an armed
Unit, whose flag is very similar in design to the Kongra-Gel.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Women%27s_Units
This flag has the same
pattern as the already reported KPC flag but has a red five-pointed
star in the middle of the yellow sun.
3) Leadership flag (often called Öcalan flag). This flag is called the leadership flag (as pointed out by Polat C. Akkas on September 26, 213). My conclussion is that it is called as such because it portrays its leader's face (Abdullah Öcalan, a.k.a. "Apo").
4) HPG (Hêzên Parastina Gel, People's Defense Forces, formerly called the Kurdistan National Liberty Army (ARGK).
For additional information go to: PKK (official website)
and HPG (official website)
Esteban Rivera, 14 September 2014, 19 June 2024
image located by Esteban Rivera, 19 June 2024
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Women%27s_Units
image located by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 August 2008
It is probably a flag of the PKK, because on that photo Abdullah Öcalan
stands right in front of the flag.
Description: In the centre in a light (probably yellow) field is a dark
(probably red) 5-point star surrounded by a darker(probably green) garland of
grain. The star is superimposed by a falcon or hawk with two crossed MPs at his
feet.
Source: Erich FEIGL: "Die Kurden", ISBN 3-8004-1322-1, p.246
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 August 2008
This is actually the flag of the Mahsun Korkmaz Academy a military training camp for the PKK established in 1986 named after the first Kurdistan People's Liberation Army which evolved into the HPG (People's Defense Forces) military commander Mahsun Kormaz. I am not aware of the existence of a flag for this camp so for now, there is only the logo.
image
located by Esteban
Rivera, 19 June 2024
Source:
https://www.timesofisrael.com
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahsum_Korkmaz_Academy,
https://ku.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art%C3%AA%C5%9Fa_Rizgariya_Gel%C3%AA_Kurdistan
and
https://ku.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%AAz%C3%AAn_Parastina_Gel
Esteban
Rivera, 19 June 2024
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