Definition: The PKK is the Kurdistan Workers Party, a militant Marxist-rooted rebel group that has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. The goal of the PKK, which has used tactics including assassination and bombings, is to carve an independent country of Kurdistan out of northern Iraq, parts of southern Turkey, and segments of Syria and Iran. Founder Abdullah Öcalan, captured by the Turks and serving a life sentence behind bars, still maintains a degree of control over the group’s activities from his prison cell.