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At the end of World War I, the Treaty of Sevres proposes the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish state.
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Under the Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey is declared an independent state and plans for an autonomous Kurdish state are abandoned.
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Thousands of Kurds stage their first uprising against the Turkish government -- a move quickly suppressed. The rebellions start with a revolt led by Sheikh Said, who is hanged a few months later.
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Starting in 1936, through 1939, the Turkish government killed 13,806 people in the southeastern town of Tunceli, then known as Dersim.
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The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, is formed. Abdullah Ocalan is selected as the founding leader of the organization.
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Kurdish rebels begin an armed struggle against Turkey, resisting Turkification and seeking autonomy in the country’s largely Kurdish southeast.
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The PKK drops its declared objective of creating an independent state of Kurdistan in the southeastern provinces of Turkey.
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Election of first pro-Kurdish political party, the Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP.
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Turkey launches an air and ground offensive against Kurdish militants in Turkey and in northern Iraq after a series of coordinated attacks by the PKK killed 24 soldiers -- the worst loss of life for the Turkish army since 1993.
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Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan issues the Turkish government’s first official apology for the killings of 13,806 people during a bombing campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion between 1936 and 1939.