Abdullah Öcalan
He left Turkey in 1979, before the military coup of September 1980, which led to the imprisonment of thousands of members and sympathisers of the organization. In 1982 the PKK decided to resume guerrilla warfare inside Turkey and in August 1984 the military wing, the Liberation Units of Kurdistan (HRK), began operations. In 1985 the political wing was renamed the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK) and in 1986 the HRK became the Peoples Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK). Öcalan's pronouncements had become increasingly moderate through the 1990s, publicly he stated his desire to move the PKK away from violence and towards a political approach.