The 15 August 1984 PKK attacks, which were led by Mahsum Korkmaz (known as "Agit"), marked the start of the last phase of KurdishTurkish conflict.Since the PKK's second party Congress, which was held from 20 to 25 August 1982 in Daraa, Syria, it was decided that the PKK would start preparing for an insurgency inside Turkey. Training camps were opened in Syria and in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley and propaganda teams were sent across the border to make contact with the local populations. After years of preparation, the PKK launched its first major attacks on 15 August 1984. The attack was led by the founder of the PKK's military wing.PKK forces attacked the gendarmerie station in Eruh, Siirt and killed one gendarmerie soldier and injured six soldiers and three civilians. Simultaneously, PKK forces attacked a gendarmerie open-air facility, officer housings and a gendarmerie station in emdinli, Hakkri and killed two police officers and injured one police officer and a soldier.Initially, Turkish authorities did not take the attacks seriously, however the attacks were followed up by a raid on a police station in Siirt on 17 August, which was soon followed by an attack that killed three of General Kenan Evren's Presidential Guards in Yksekova and an ambush which killed 8 Turkish soldiers in ukurca, in Hakkri province.Insurgent violence in the predominantly Kurdish South-East of Turkey escalated heavily after the attacks. Around 2,500 people were killed during the conflict between 15 August 1984 and 1991. This number rose to 17,500 between 1991 and 1992 and the Turkish state puts the number of people killed by the insurgency at 44,000 as of September 2008.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK (Kurdish: پارتی کرێکارانی کوردستان / Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê) is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Since 1984, the PKK has utilized asymmetric warfare in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict (with ceasefires between 1999–2004 and 2013–2015). Although the PKK once sought an independent Kurdish state, in the 1990s its aims shifted toward autonomy and increased rights for Kurds within Turkey.

The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, the EU and some other countries; however, the labeling of the PKK as a terrorist organization is controversial, and some analysts and organizations contend that the PKK no longer engages in organized terrorist activities or systemically targets civilians. Both in 2008 and 2018 the EU Court of Justice ruled that the PKK was classified as a terror organization without due process, nevertheless the EU still classifies the PKK as a terror organization.The PKK's ideology was originally a fusion of revolutionary socialism and Marxism–Leninism with Kurdish nationalism, seeking the foundation of an independent Kurdistan. The PKK was formed as part of a growing discontent over the suppression of Turkey's Kurds, in an effort to establish linguistic, cultural, and political rights for the Kurdish minority. Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life. Many who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned. At this time, the use of the Kurdish language, dress, folklore, and names were banned by the Turkish state, including the words "Kurds" and "Kurdistan".The PKK has been involved in armed clashes with Turkish security forces since 1979, but the full-scale insurgency did not begin until 15 August 1984, when the PKK announced a Kurdish uprising. Since the conflict began, more than 40,000 people have died, most of whom were Kurdish civilians. In 1999, PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured and imprisoned. In May 2007, serving and former members of the PKK set up the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organisation of Kurdish organisations in Turkish, Iraqi, Iranian, and Syrian Kurdistan. In 2013, the PKK declared a ceasefire and began slowly withdrawing its fighters to Iraqi Kurdistan as part of a peace process with the Turkish state. The ceasefire broke down in July 2015. In March 2016, the PKK joined the Peoples' United Revolutionary Movement, an alliance with the aim of overthrowing the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Both the PKK and the Turkish state have been accused of engaging in terror tactics and targeting civilians. The PKK has bombed city centres and recruited child soldiers, while Turkey has depopulated and burned down thousands of Kurdish villages and massacred Kurdish civilians in attempt to root out PKK militants.