Another highly contentious issue that has plagued the relationship between Turkey and Greece consists of terrorism. The issue of terrorism became a serious challenge in Turkish–Greek relations particularly in the mid-1980s. Turkish authorities argued that the Greek government supported the terrorist organisation known as the Kurdish Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê, PKK), while Greek authorities responded by stressing Turkey's human rights violations against the Kurdish community. Allegations of Greek support to the PKK were prominently reflected in the statements of Turkish securitising actors. In particular, the bilateral relationship reached its ‘lowest ebb’ following the capture of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK, at the residence of the Greek Ambassador to Kenya Georgios Costoulas in 1999. Despite all denials by Greek officials, this crisis revealed Greece's involvement in the issue. This chapter supports the assessment that Turkish actors securitised the link between the PKK and Greece by employing security rhetoric in their statements.

The Roots of PKK Terrorism in Turkey

For almost forty years, the Turkish military has been engaged in direct conflict with the PKK, a terrorist organisation active primarily in the country's southeastern region. The organisation has been an important political actor also in neighbouring countries, such as Syria, Iran and Iraq. This is partly related to the PKK's success in mobilising masses and becoming a social movement with mass appeal in the diaspora (Baser, 2015). The armed terrorist organisation first appeared in Turkey in 1984, under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan; the subsequent conflict has claimed more than 40,000 lives. In fact, the roots of the PKK can be traced back to the early 1970s, a time when Ocalan studied theories of revolutionary activity and clandestinely organised a party that aimed at starting a communist revolution by means of guerrilla warfare and establishing a separate Kurdish state (Criss, 1995, 18). The organisation was built on a Marxist-Leninist ideology and benefitted from the liberal atmosphere of the 1961 Constitution, which offered opportunities for diversity. To achieve its main objective of establishing an ‘Independent, United and Democratic Kurdistan’, the PKK has maintained its armed struggle not solely against the Turkish state, but also against its own kin (Criss, 1995, 19; Ozcan, 1999, 64).