COUNTERGUERRILLAS

   One tactic that helped Turkey win the war against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the 1990s was to use military special forces, ozel tim (the gendarmerie's special forces) and ozel hareket tim (police special forces). These were military units trained to use deadly covert, antiguerrilla tactics to defeat and destroy the PKK and also dry up civilian support for the PKK by destroying civilian villages, among numerous other tactics. Usage of these counterguerrillas called upon traditions dating back to the 1960s and earlier in which Turkey employed right-wing groups to defeat the states' internal enemies.

   See also Jitem.