Radicalism in Turkey and Emerging groups

Some Terrorist organizations are trying to drive a wedge between the polarised communities of Turkey by building upon some controversies, the conservative people accusing Muslims of blasphemy for celebrating English New Year, the government also backed these views by billboards and social media threatening the people who dare to celebrate the new year, with violence. The country is facing far right-wing, far left-wing extremist Jihad, the far right-wing extremism deals with the restoration of the old ways of Islam and the extreme left-wing deals the opposition against alliances with NATO and imperialism. There are terrorism-related issues with Kurdish nationalism, Islamism. Turkey is also facing Jihadist elements like ISIS cells from outside the country.

PKK (Partiya Karekeren Kurdistan): According to the Turkish government PKK is the largest most powerful terror group inside the country. PKK is a separatist group that seeks an independent Kurdish state. PKK was established by Abdullah Ocalan in 1987, the PKK has Marxist-Leninist roots but the leader Ocalan disavowed the socialist ideology in 1999. PKK forces are affiliated with d People’s Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, or YPG) of Syria. “The PKK has been designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Austria, Azerbaijan, Iraq, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Moldova, New Zealand, and the Philippines.”[1] The Kurds make up to 18% of the Turkey population, which is about 15 million people. The terror activities of the PKK resulted in the death of 40,000 people. The organization waged terror on military, government, and civilian targets. The PKK and the government of Turkey entered multiple ceasefire agreements throughout the years (1999-2004, 2009-2011, 2013-2015) but the ceasefires didn’t last long. The PKK attacks mainly concentrated on the southeast part of Turkey, it spread into Ankara and Istanbul as well. There are training camps of PKK in northern Iraq too.

TAK (Teyrebazen Azadiye Kurdistan): Also known as The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons is considered as a terrorist proxy for the PKK, the organization is known for its suicide bombing tactics, suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (SVBIED). The TAK operates in the western metropolitan cities of Turkey. This group is currently being led by Bahoz Erdal, a Kurd of Syrian origin and a former leader within the PKK organization. The organization mainly targets Turkish and foreign civilians and executes its attacks in densely populated areas Ankara and Istanbul. The relationship between the TAK and PKK is still opaque and needs further information to understand. The organization was assumed to have been created by the senior leadership of PKK after the ceasefire with the government, keeping in mind the growing number of recruits in an urban area, this is considered to be a special unit. Duran Kalkan and Cemil Bay?k, are considered to be important members in the process of founding the TAK.

ISIS (Daesh):

 ISIS is known to be active in Turkey since 2015, an ISIS unit known as Dokumacilar believed to be operating in Adiyaman province in southern Turkey. The members of the Dokumacilar unit have been reportedly trained in Raqqa, Syria on suicide bombing and returned to Turkey to carry out attacks. In October 2015 Yunus Emre Alagöz a member of the group carried out an attack on a peace rally in Ankara, his brother ?eyh Abdurrahman Alagöz who is Turkish Kurd carried out a suicide bombing attack on Suruç a southern town of Turkey. They were also active in the Turkish border city of Sanliurfa, they killed 2 Syrian activists there in 2015. A lot of foreign fighters who were trying to Join ISIS crossed the border into Islamic State from Turkey, which made it a hot bet for ISIS-related activity. The pressure from the US and is a member of the U.S.’s anti-ISIS coalition made the authorities act against ISIS. Even after the fall of ISIS’s physical caliphate in 2018, the transit hub in Turkey seems to be still active and ISIS is using its resources in Turkey as well. There are various functions of ISIS that are still going on in Turkey like Turkey-based Al-Fay Company which was used for currency on behalf of ISIS.

Kurdish Hezbollah: also known as Turkish Hezbollah, KH is a Kurdish Sunni Muslim extremist group. The group was established in the 1980s, their main objective is to establish a separate Islamic state in Turkey. They operate in southeastern Turkey in the majority Kurdish regions. They have no known connection with other groups which are named Hezbollah. It was founded by Kurdish-Turkish Islamist Hüseyin Velio?lu.

Al-Qaeda: Al-Qaeda (Qaedat al-Jihad) is a multinational network of Sunni Islamic extremists composed of Salafist Jihadists, the organization was founded by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam and some others. They believe that the United States, Christians and Jews are conspiring to destroy Islam. They have been active in some regions of Turkey. The Turkish Authorities arrested al-Qaeda operative Taner Kusioglu and an alleged figure of al-Qaeda, Islom Saydalimov in the Hatay province in different incidence a month apart in 2020. Al-Qaeda operatives in turkey conducted several attacks including e Istanbul synagogue and British consulate bombings in 2003, and the U.S. consulate in Istanbul bombings in 2008, they were plotting against American interests in Turkey. The security forces in Turkey are capturing members of the al-Qaeda group from time to time in the country.

The international Muslim Brotherhood:

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded by Hassan al-Banna in Ismailia, Egypt in the year 1928. It is a transnational Sunni Islamist movement that aims to establish Sharia (Islamic Law) under a global caliphate. The brotherhood has many branches throughout the world which operate under different names and use different political, social and violent methods to achieve their goals. This organization has been labelled as a terrorist group by Bahrain, Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. Most of the violent Islamic groups follow the ideology of this organization or are similar to it. This group is reportedly regrouped in Istanbul and Turkey has been supporting the group with weaponry and activists.

Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front– DHKP-C: the organization was founded in 1978, it is a Turkish Marxist–Leninist party. The DHKP-C aims to overthrow the Turkey state government and establish a Marxist government, they are also aiming to remove the influence of the US and NATO over Turkey. They oppose US imperialism and targeted US military personnel and diplomatic missions. They mainly target military personnel police forces, they also killed 80 civilians in their activities. The group was originally created under the name Devrimci Sol or Dev Sol, but later became Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party after a split in the organization. The organization lost some support after the fall of the Soviet Union and most of its leadership fled into Europe in the early 2000s due to the increased raids from the police. The organization was at its peeks during the ’70s and ’80s, they recruited members from schools, universities, and Urban poor population pool. The suicide bombing 2013 on the U.S. embassy in Ankara is one of the notable attacks of the organization, during the decade, the organization adopted the tactics (eg: suicide bombings) used by extreme right-wing groups like Al-Qaeda.EUROPOL in its Terrorism situation trend report said that DHKP/C maintains a logistical and support network within the European Union

Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO)

The FETO is a Turkish label for followers of Fethullah Gülen, the Turkish government designated FETO as a terrorist organization in 2016. President Erdo?an blames him for the July 2016 coup attempt, almost 1400 people got wounded 290 ended up dead in the incident. The president of Turkey believes that Gülen infiltrated military, judicial, and governing authorities to influence the government. Gülen promotes a moderate, pro-Western style of Sunni Islam. The Human rights activist blame the government for the unlawful detention and torture of Gulenists in Turkey.

Foreign Fighters:

Turkey shares about 909 kilometres of border with Syria, Around 3 million refugees from conflict areas in Syria and Iraq flooded into the country as of 2018. Thousands of Turks left Turkey to fight for radical organizations and hundreds of them returned1, these people received extensive training in weapons, explosives and various attack tactics, the return of these people put the country in a compromising position because these Individuals not only came back, they bought back the ideology, connections and tactics of the group they worked for, which in turn increased the activity of the various radical groups like ISIS in Turkey.

But for a country that is in NATO, Turkey has been against some security interests of NATO and the United States, there are some actions of the government Turkey in recent times which showed the sympathetic view of the government towards terrorist organizations. There have been some changes in the education curriculum of the country. “The curriculum adopts an anti-American stance, displaying sympathy for the motivations of ISIS and Al-Qaeda while remaining staunchly anti-PKK (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan—Kurdistan Workers' Party).”[2] Said a report by Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (Impact-se). Apart from the forces that are affecting inside turkey, the Palestinian terror group Hamas is very active in Turkey, they established a headquarters in Istanbul and the Turkish authorities have reportedly overseen the military training exercises of Hamas. Turkey also reportedly provided support to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood but loosened its tied with the brotherhood after Abdel Fattah el-Sisi assumed the presidency of Egypt who is staunchly Anti-brotherhood. Turkish government seems to be worried more about PKK than it is about ISIS and targeted PKK with more resources, the ideology of ISIS is not fully similar to president Erdo?an’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) but the president seems to prefer an Islamic state on its border instead of an independent Syrian Kurdish state. Turkey is kept its embassy in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover and encouraged other countries to establish ties with the Taliban while it strengthened its economic and diplomatic cooperations with them. The involvement of the state with the radical groups is a disturbing image to process, especially when the state is an ally of NATO. To make any moves to work towards peace in the country, the country should have an objective government, which doesn’t take sides especially when it comes to choosing between terrorism and peace.

Notes

[1] https://www.counterextremism.com/countries/turkey

[2] Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, PhD , The Erdo?an Revolution in the Turkish Curriculum Textbooks https://www.impact-se.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Erdogan-Revolution-in-the-Turkish-CurriculumTextbooks.pdf

Pic Courtsey-Fabien Maurin at unsplash.com

(The views expressed are those fo the author and do nto represent views of CESCUBE.)