Kurdish Hezbollah

Kurdish Hezbollah (Kurdish: حیزبوڵڵای کورد, romanized: Hizbullahî Kurdî, Turkish: Kürt Hizbullahı) or Hizbullah, is a Kurdish Shia–Sunni Islamist militant organization, active against Turkey, and formerly against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) due to clashes that occurred between 1992 and 1995.

The organization, founded by Hüseyin Velioğlu, remains a primarily Kurdish group that has its roots in the predominantly Kurdish border of Southeastern Turkey and among Kurds who migrated to the cities in Western Turkey. The Kurdish Hezbollah began shifting increasingly towards Kurdish nationalism during Velioğlu's final years, and after Velioğlu's death, under İsa Altsoy's leadership, they disarmed and began focusing on charity work for the Kurdish population living in Turkey under various organizations. The Hezbollah reestablished in 2003 in Southeastern Turkey and "today its ideology might be more widespread than ever among Kurds there". Kurdish Hezbollah's influence was not limited to Turkey and it has also "left an imprint on Turkish Kurds in Germany." The Kurdish Hezbollah is closely affiliated with the Free Cause Party (HÜDA PAR).

In the 1970s, various Kurdish Islamists sought to work through democratic means to develop Islamism in Turkey. It initially remained a Kurdish group that had its roots in Southeastern Turkey, and Kurdish Islamists who migrated to the prosperous cities in Western Turkey. The group utilized poor economical situations of the Kurdish population and had built its social bases in their areas. Many joined the Turkish National Student Union (Milli Türk Talebe Birliği, MTTB), the youth organization of the National Salvation Party. With the closure of these after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, it appeared clear that the military was too strongly dedicated to secularism for the democratic route to be an option, and a group of Islamists launched the Union Movement (Vahdet Hareketi). The movement organised around two bookshops in Diyarbakır: Fidan Gündör's Menzil and Hüseyin Velioğlu's İlim. Until 1987, the groups gathered around these bookshops worked together. According to the Guido Steinberg, the Turkish government cooperated with the group against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

In 1987, when Hüseyin Velioğlu moved his bookshop to Batman, different opinions on leadership and armed actions resulted in the split of the two wings. The so-called İlim-wing, under the leadership of Hüseyin Velioğlu, insisted to start the armed struggle immediately. The dispute resulted in bloody fighting between the two factions. Between 1990 and 1993, the İlim group killed many members of the Menzil group, and ultimately emerged victorious. In 1993, the İlim group took the name Hizbullah.

The İlim group became known as Hizbullah in 1993, after emerging victorious from a bloody factional war between two wings of the Union Movement (Vahdet Hareketi) which had been established following the 1980 Turkish coup d'état's crushing of Islamist hopes for democratic success. Hüseyin Velioğlu's group had previously been known as İlim, named for his bookshop. In March of the same year, soon after Abdullah Öcalan was expelled from Ba'athist Syria, there were reports of an Iranian-brokered peace accord between KH and PKK.

According to Turkish security officials, the Kurdish Hezbollah was financed by and trained in post-revolutionary Iran, with the Iranian government allegedly using Islamic terrorist groups in order to establish Islamic governments throughout the Middle East.

Further groups within the Kurdish Hezbollah were named as Tevhid, led by Nurettin Şirin and Mehmet Şahin, and Yeryüzü, led by Burhan Kavuncu. Besides the town of Batman, Hezbollah was strongest in Cizre district of Şırnak, Nusaybin district of Mardin, and Silvan district of Diyarbakır province. For a long time, the village Yolaç was used as their base.

Initially, the Kurdish Hezbollah and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) had been allies, with some of the earliest Hezbollah fighters receiving their training in PKK camps. In the early 1990s, the organization became a direct threat to the already rising Kurdish separatist movement. The Hezbollah viewed the "PKK's claim to be the only true spokesman of Kurdish nationalism" as a "threat to its own identity", and dubbed the PKK as the Partiya Kafirin Kurdistan, meaning "Kurdistan Infidels' Party". As an Islamist organization, the Kurdish Hezbollah began as an oppositional force against the PKK, but have targeted both PKK militants and other people they considered "immoral" (people who drank alcohol, wore mini-skirts, etc.). Between 1992 and 1995 the Kurdish Hezbollah killed around 500 PKK members, for the loss of around 200 of its own.