Abstract:

The political violence in the world, which rose in the late 1960s, has also affected Turkey. In those periods, along with the terrorist wave called the New Left Wave, the number of left-based terrorist organizations and ethnic separatist/nationalist terrorist organizations has rapidly increased. Furthermore, with the influence of the religious wave that began in the 1980s and evolved globally since 2001, Turkey has been the target of all kinds of terrorism. According to the Global Terrorism Veritaban (GTD), Turkey has been the scene of 4,387 violent actions carried out by 70 organizations or groups during the 1970-2017 period. The aim of this study is to explore the historic development of terrorism in Turkey from the 1960s to the present day. In this context, a general framework regarding terrorism incidents in Turkey has been presented, primarily based on the data in the GTD. Subsequently, a classification was made as leftist ideology-based terrorism, ethnic nationalist/separatist terrorism, religion-based terrorism, and global terrorism, taking into account the terrorist organizations that have/are operating in Turkey. Within the framework of this classification, the prominent terrorist organizations were examined in the light of information obtained from open sources. In Turkey, organizations with similar characteristics in the regime or border change share have periodically changed their strategy according to regional and international developments, mostly depend on external support and historically continued, open to cooperation with illegal national and international organizations.

Abstract:

The rise of political violence in the world at the end of 1960s affected Turkey as well. Along with the New Left Wave, which is a wave of terrorism erupted at that time, the number of left-ideological and ethnic separatist/nationalist terrorist organizations increased rapidly. Additionally, with the effect of the religious wave started in 1980s and evolved to a global dimension after 2001, Turkey has been the target of all types of terrorism. According to the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), Turkey became the target of 4.387 violent actions carried out by nearly 70 terrorist organizations or affiliated groups between 1970 and 2017. The aim of this study is to examine the historical development of terrorism in Turkey from the 1960s to the present. In this context, a general framework is drawn with this study primarily related to terrorism incidents in Turkey, based on data retrieved from the GTD. Subsequently, based on the information about the terrorist organizations which have been active in Turkey, a classification was generated as left-ideology-based, ethnic nationalist/separatist, religious-based and global terrorism. Within the framework of this classification, the prominent terrorist organizations were examined in the light of information obtained from open source. The results show that terrorist organizations in Turkey have similar aims in terms of the regime and the border changes; that they are mostly dependent on foreign support and open to the cooperation with the national and international illegal entities; that they revise their strategies periodically based on the regional and international developments; and show continuity historically. 

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