Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s meeting with Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), at the Munich Security Conference was a quiet acknowledgement that America’s most effective ally against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq emerged from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a movement Washington still designates as a terrorist organization.
Abdi and Ilham Ahmed, another senior Kurdish official who attended the meeting, both once belonged to the PKK. Abdi left active PKK ranks years ago to fight the Islamic State in Syria. In Kobani in 2014 and 2015, as Islamic State terrorists advanced with tanks and artillery, Kurdish fighters under his command became the backbone of the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State that halted and eventually reversed the jihadists’ momentum. That battle marked the first major defeat of Islamic State on the ground.
The [PKK’s] listing was a concession to Turkey, a NATO ally that has long battled the group.
The scars of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq have disillusioned many Americans and bolstered reluctance to accept new military involvement in the Middle East. Yet Washington’s limited partnership with Kurdish forces in Syria stands as an exception. Even critics of American interventionism, including linguist Noam Chomsky, have acknowledged that U.S. support for the Syrian Democratic Forces helped prevent far worse atrocities.
And yet the PKK, founded in 1978 and placed on the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list in 1997, remains designated. The listing was a concession to Turkey, a NATO ally that has long battled the group. But the facts on the ground do not support continued listing.
The PKK has never targeted American interests. It has not attacked U.S. civilians or facilities, either in the Middle East or elsewhere. Over the past decade, its fighters stopped the Islamic State’s 2014 advance into Erbil and opened a corridor from Sinjar that allowed thousands of Yazidis to escape after Kurdistan Democratic Party peshmerga retreated or fled. Without the PKK’s intervention, the massacre would have been far worse. In Syria, Kurdish fighters linked to the PKK were among the first to confront the Islamic State head-on. Their resistance in Kobani became a turning point in the war.
To target the PKK at Turkey’s behest defies logic. Brett McGurk, then the U.S. envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition, acknowledged that nearly all foreign Islamic State fighters had transited through Turkey. Turkish journalist Can Dündar, now living in Germany, published documents suggesting that Turkey’s intelligence services facilitated support for Islamist militants in Syria. Ankara denies aiding ISIS, but the record of porous borders and permissive policies is well documented.
Ankara denies aiding ISIS, but the record of porous borders and permissive policies is well documented.
The irony is clear: While Washington continues to list the PKK as a terrorist organization, it works closely with leaders who emerged from it. Just days ago, under an agreement between the autonomous administration in northeast Syria and Syria’s new government, about 100 PKK guerrillas withdrew from Syria to the Qandil Mountains in Iraq. Among them was Bahoz Erdal, a senior commander who had spent years fighting the Islamic State. Their departure underscores how intertwined the anti-Islamic State campaign has been with PKK-linked networks.
Even if the PKK designation was legitimate, such designations were not meant to be permanent verdicts. Since the 1999 capture of its founder, Abdullah Öcalan, the PKK has undergone a significant ideological shift. It has abandoned its goal of an independent Kurdish state and renounced Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy. In its place, it has advanced a doctrine of “democratic confederalism,” emphasizing local self-governance, gender equality, and pluralism. The PKK has abandoned violent tools in its campaign to achieve Kurdish cultural and political rights.
The movement’s slogan, “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” (Woman, Life, Freedom) became the rallying cry of protests in Iran after the death of Jina “Mahsa” Amini in 2022. Few armed groups in the region have invested as heavily in women’s leadership and participation. This evolution does not erase a violent past, but it complicates the simplistic label of “terrorist.”
There is another reason to reconsider the designation. Turkey itself is engaged in renewed talks aimed at resolving the Kurdish question. Ankara has held direct or indirect discussions with PKK representatives, including Öcalan. If Turkey can explore dialogue, it is difficult to argue that the United States must maintain a blanket refusal even to reconsider the listing.
Rubio has the authority to reassess Foreign Terror Organization designations if circumstances warrant.
Delisting would not amount to an endorsement. It would, however, acknowledge changed realities and give the group the opportunity to present its case through a formal review process. Rubio has the authority to reassess Foreign Terror Organization designations if circumstances warrant. At minimum, Washington should initiate that review. The stakes are broader than one organization. Kurdish forces remain central to preventing an Islamic State resurgence in Syria and Iraq. Resolving the Kurdish question helps stability in the Middle East.
Rubio has met with a former PKK commander who commands the respect of both Kurdish fighters and American officers. He has an opportunity to move beyond inherited policy reflexes. Delisting the PKK, or at least beginning the process, would signal that the United States is willing to adapt its policies to evolving facts.
For decades, Kurdish leaders have asked Washington for protection. What many now seek is something more modest: recognition that those who stood with America against the Islamic State deserve a fair hearing, not a permanent label forged in a different era. There is absolutely no logic behind keeping the PKK as a designated terror group while the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and its leader, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, are welcomed in the White House. It is time to end such hypocrisy.
