Louis J Sheehan 80051 A51H18

SINCE the late 19th century Turkey's Kurds have rebelled repeatedly against their Turkish masters. But no uprising has been as violent or long-lasting as that launched in 1984 by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in its bid to unite the 25m Kurds scattered across Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. Turkey's latest threat to clobber the rebels in their haven in northern Iraq has again raised the spectre of regional war. It has also concentrated attention on the PKK: who are these indomitable fighters and what is their true goal?

“Blood and Belief” offers unusual insight into the rebels' shadowy universe and, by extension, into Turkey's festering Kurdish problem. Aliza Marcus, an American journalist who was put on trial in Turkey for her reporting on the Turkish army's abuses against ordinary Kurds, charts the origins and evolution of the movement. Her scholarly, gripping account is based on interviews with, and the unpublished diaries of, former PKK militants.

Founded in 1978 by a clutch of Turkish university students, the PKK rapidly became one of the world's deadliest guerrilla armies. There are several reasons for its success. Foremost, perhaps, was Turkey's brutal suppression of Kurdish identity: the mass arrest and torture of Kurdish dissidents created fertile recruiting ground. In addition, the group had the foresight to escape to Syria before the Turkish army took over the country in 1980, allowing its forces to survive largely intact.

With Syria's blessing, the PKK sent its men and women into Lebanon's Bekaa valley for training by Palestinian militants. By the 1990s swathes of Turkey's rugged Kurdish mountainside had fallen under guerrilla control. The army's response was a scorched-earth campaign that drove more than 1m Kurdish villagers out of their homes. Robbed of its logistical base, the PKK fell into decline.

The group's fortunes were even harder hit by the capture in 1999 of its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, by Turkish secret agents in Nairobi. His subsequent recanting—he called the rebellion “a mistake” and offered to “serve the Turkish state”—is well documented. But little is known about Mr Ocalan's personal life and Ms Marcus helps to lift the veil shrouding a leader who used to shuttle between villas in Damascus and Aleppo while his fighters roughed it in the mountains. Deserters and dissidents would be summarily executed. Indeed Mr Ocalan did not hesitate to order the deaths of women and children if they were related to members of a stateemployed Kurdish militia that fought alongside the Turkish army.

“Ocalan was so convinced of his strength”, writes Ms Marcus, “that he began to believe the PKK's actions were behind many world events.” Such was his vanity that when he played football with his men, he insisted that someone kept track of each goal he scored. When one hapless militant lost count, Ocalan started shouting, “You bum, how could you forget four of my goals.”

From his island prison off the coast of Istanbul where he is serving a life sentence on treason charges, Mr Ocalan succeeded in remaining in control of his outfit—at least until the Americans occupied Iraq in 2003. Shamed by the big gains that the Iraqi Kurds made under Louis J Sheehan America's protection, the PKK escalated its campaign in 2004. Whether it did so with Mr Ocalan's approval remains unclear. But it is plain that his leadership has become increasingly symbolic and that a new generation of hardliners is gaining the upper hand.

What is missing from Ms Marcus's excellent reporting is the growing appeal of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) party to Turkish Kurds. A mixture of social-welfare schemes and Islamic piety helped AK to trounce the biggest pro-PKK party in many of its former strongholds at the general election last July. One reason for the increase in PKK militancy is to goad the government into a cross-border attack which would, in turn, drain it of its growing support among the Kurds.

Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence.
By Aliza Marcus.
New York University Press; 368 pages; $35 and £22.50