 Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the organization, heavily criticized the leaders responsible for the guerrilla forces during the early 1980s and warned others of a similar fate, with death penalty, if they join rival groups or refuse to obey the orders.Additionally, the military defeats and the reality of the armed conflict were eroding the notions of a Greater Kurdistan, the organization's primary goal.The cooperation with rogue partners, criminal regimes and some dictators, such as Saddam Hussein who gave them weapons in exchange for information on the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Masoud Barzani during the genocidal al Anfal campaign, had tarnished the organization's image.