The Gladio was a secret guerrilla group created and armed by the Turkish government with the help of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) during the height of the Cold War. It was to be activated behind enemy lines if the Soviet Union ever occupied Turkey. Similar units were apparently created in some other West European states, which also were members of NATO. Some have speculated that elements of the Gladio were used by the Turkish government in the early 1990s in the extrajudicial murders of reputed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) sympathizers.
See also Deep State.
Historical Dictionary of the Kurds. Michael M. Gunter.