The replacement was intended to demonstrate the search for a peaceful solution of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict, after the capture of Abdullah Öcalan in 1999.[9] The HPG played an active in the peace negotiations between the Turkish Government and the PKK in 2013, as it hosted a delegation consisting of several politicians from the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and members of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) and agreed to release soldiers of the Turkish army as well as a Turkish politician, who they held captive.[10] In 2014, the HPG was involved in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Sinjar.[11]