Turkey became an independent state in 1918 upon the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. In 1923, the Republic of Turkey was established and after a period of authoritarian one-party rule under Mustafa Kemal, multi-party elections were held in 1950. Since then, the Turkish democracy has experienced periods of instability and military takeovers in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997. Turkey's population is predominantly ethnic Turkish, but houses an ethnic Kurdish minority (20 percent). Turkey intervened militarily in neighbouring Cyprus, when in 1974 a coup by nationalist Greeks threatened to result in the unification of Cyprus with neighbouring Greece. As a result of the short interstate conflict, the island was de facto divided in a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot sector. Turkey became the patron state for the latter and the only country that recognized the independence of the proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Ten years later, in August 1984, the PKK (Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan; Kurdistan Workers' Party) instigated an armed struggle against the Turkish government with the goal of establishing an independent Kurdish state. In the context of the intrastate conflict that continued into the 21st century the PKK frequently used one-sided violence.
In 1991 and 1992 fighting between government forces and a leftist rebel group, Devrimci Sol (Revolutionary Left), resulted in more than 25 battle-related deaths. Devrimci Sol had launched the intrastate conflict in an unsuccessful effort to spark a Marxist-Leninist style popular revolution. In 2005 another leftist group, the MKP (Maoist Komunist Partisi; Maoist Communist Party) engaged in an intrastate conflict with the Turkish government.
In 2003, the Abu-Hafs al-Masri Brigades together with the IBDA-C (Islami Büyükdogu Akincilar Cephesi; Great East Islamic Raiders Front) claimed responsibility for one-sided attacks committed in Istanbul.
The government of Turkey provided secondary warring support to the government of South Korea from 1950 to 1953. It also took part in the NATO military operation against the government of Yugoslavia (Serbia) in Kosovo in 1999. Moreover, Turkey sent troops to Afghanistan in 2001 to back the UIFSA (United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan) in the conflict with the government and later to support the USA against Al Qa'ida.
Since 1946 Turkey has been involved in the interstate, intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.

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