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Crime Law Soc Change (2016) 66:2157
DOI 10.1007/s10611-015-9601-7
Mustafa Coar nal1
Published online: 21 January 2016# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016
Abstract This study analyzes the distinction between terrorism and insurgency by drawing upon the case of the PKK conflict in Turkey. It provides a conceptual discussion through multi-dimensional analyses from the actor-oriented, the action-oriented, the purpose-oriented, and the ontology-oriented perspectives. In so doing, in addition to the organizational characteristics, it critically identifies the PKKs varying strategies of terrorist and insurgent violence, and their temporality and reasoning as the conflict unfolded to make conceptual inferences. This study found, first, that while the PKK as an actor indicates an insurgent character, the PKKs use of violence reflects intense terrorism action particularly after its military defeat. Second, the use of terrorism by the PKK reflects an inextricable overlap in temporality and a direct link with guerilla methods. Despite the PKKs terrorist and insurgent violence resulted from different factors and reasoning at the intermediate level; they are designed to converge at the overall aim of the PKKs political campaign. Third, the PKK violence reflects varying purposes of terrorism, e.g., intimidation, attrition, survival and group solidarity. Fourth, after reaching the tipping point that resulted in its military defeat in 1994, the PKK resorted to more indirect and asymmetrical violence in an increasing tendency to deflect state power and, thus, to coerce Turkey into a political compromise, i.e., a negotiated settlement.
Introduction
Distinguishing terrorism from other forms of political violence, particularly from insurgency, has raised questions about how to conceptualize terrorism. The different character and types of terrorism and other forms of political violence, along with the underlying reasons for an intrastate conflict, are the centerpieces of the discussion. Analyzing varying types of political violence together rather than separately to identify
* Mustafa Coar [email protected]; [email protected]
1 Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Adjunct at Bilkent University, Ankara,
Turkey
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22 M.C. Unal
how they relate to one another has been considered important lately in the literature. It is particularly crucial to...