Turkey's Kurdish conflict: What you need to know

Kurdish minorities constitute up to a fifth of Turkey's population and also live in neighbouring Iraq, Iran and Syria.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish movement which launched a guerrilla campaign in 1984 for an ethnic homeland in the Kurdish heartland in the southeast of the country, is yet to achieve its goal.

The Turkish government has struggled to maintain ties with its Kurdish population, who have often complained of maltreatment by the state.

BBC Turkish service's Alper Balli explains that the imminent withdrawal of the American troops from Iraq, and the worsening of the Syrian crisis could affect the entire region's issues with its Kurdish minorities.