Quote Originally Posted by uwew View Post
Hello

Does anybody have any references to literature about the history of this campaign?

Regards,
uwe
This is an extremely though subject for an academic work. There are several reasons for this:

1. It maybe surprising for most non-Turkish researchers that, the Turkish Joint Staff is very open to academic scholars for historical studies. Archives of Cyprus operation, Independence War First World War were opened to many foreign researchers and historians. However, the struggle against PKK, officially called as "Ic Guvenlik Harekati" (Operation for Internal Security) is an ongoing operation. Thus, you may not get success at getting answers from Turkish military.

2. The literature has a lot of articles, books and other materiel directly and indirectly financed and/or suppported by PKK and its extensions. The book "Mehmedin Kitabi" is one of them: having an incredible number of inconsistencies and mistakes about military service and the situation in the SE region of Turkey. PKK, unlike many other seperatist terrorist organzations in the world, is extremely successful at PR campaigns. So you may find it difficult to get a neutral POV. (Note: The PhD dissertation at U of Helsinki is a shame for the university to say the least. I got the feeling that I'm not living in Turkey and elsewhere while reading it. Simply unbelievable. I will not be surprised if Ms Koivunen is already a member of YJA-STAR)

3. The subject extremely complex roots within political and socio-economic history, involving Ottoman Empire, First World War, Cold War, complex tribal relations, Syrian, Bulgarian and Soviet interventions, 1st adn 2nd Gulf Wars, Saddam, Esad and Iranian revolution etc. You should be "armed" with sufficient background in order to get a better understanding. Only after than you can better understand how a Marxist-Leninist organization can have a manifestation full of ethnic bravado and anthropological explanations (in early 1980's).

As for military / tactical POV, I can only wish you good luck, since even us Turkish citizens have the slightest idea on tactics and strategy by (an increasing) number of books by former / retired personnel who served in 1990's in the region.

Summary: Good luck. But don't expect to get a good number of sources from different POV's and sides. You will be bombarded by sources directly/indirectly supported by PKK and/or a huge number of NGO-supported materiel built up with micro-nationalist motives.