Money-Laundering Activities of the PKK

Abstract

There are numerous terrorist organizations that use sophisticated methods to move their illicit funds through financial systems both at home and across the globe. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Kurdish: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê, PKK), an ethno-nationalist terrorist organization rooted in Turkey but operating in various countries including Turkey’s neighbors such as Iran, Syria, and Iraq, as well as in Europe has benefited from similar kinds of terrorism-financing activities for a long time. To finance its activities, it has engaged in terrorist-financing methods and laundered its illicitly gained funds by cash couriers or front companies through which it collects money under the name of donation or aid particularly in Europe, where its financial infrastructure heavily relies upon. The PKK has long been known to have engaged in various methods to find funding for its activities. While the main concern is not money itself for the group, financial activities have forced the PKK to find ways to maintain relationship with drug and weapons dealers as well as human traffickers from whom it takes commission charges. The financing activities of the PKK particularly in Europe make it necessary for the group to deal with financial management including setting up front organizations for money laundering. Using various kinds of NGOs and media organizations has allowed the PKK to engage in money-laundering activities. However, since the organization prefers not to use open financial institutions to move the funds, and its illegal money usually comes in the form of cash, it is becoming harder for law enforcement agencies to track money-laundering activities of the group.