Understanding PKK, Kurdish Hezbollah and ISIS Recruitment in Southeastern Turkey

Kerem Övet, James Hewitt, Tahir Abbas*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

This paper provides an explanation for how the PKK, Kurdish Hezbollah, and ISIS, representing distinct ethno-nationalist, Islamist and ideologically motivated political movements, radicalize and recruit supporters in the regions of Eastern and Southeastern Turkey. In doing so, this paper contributes to ongoing theoretical debates about radicalization and recruitment. This study reveals how various regionally specific structural factors encourage radicalization and recruitment into violent politico-ideological movements. In particular, state oppression of ethnic minorities, economic inequalities, geography, and local demographics. While existing literature on radicalization focuses on push factors (structural) combined with pull factors (ideology), this research demonstrates that structural factors in Eastern and Southeastern Turkey are both push and pull factors in processes of radicalization.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)750-770
Number of pages21
JournalStudies in Conflict and Terrorism
Volume47
Issue number7
Early online date23 Feb 2022
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 23 Feb 2022

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

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