Counterterrorism in Turkey : Policy Choices and Policy Effects toward the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)

This book proposes an inclusive way of examining Turkish Government’s counterterrorism policies toward the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a guerilla insurgency and terrorist group. Contrary to most of the counterterrorism studies that focused on single aspect of the phenomenon, this book offers multi-level analyses from multiple perspectives using both, quantitative and qualitative data analyses. That is, this study analyzes the Turkish Government’s counterterrorism policies not only from the policies’ perspective but also from the perspective of the PKK’s internal dynamics.

Counterterrorism in Turkey comprehensively analyses Turkey’s counterterrorism policies in the context of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), an ethnicity-based guerrilla insurgency group employing terrorism.

Contrary to most of the counterterrorism studies that focused on single aspect of the phenomenon, this book offers multi-level analyses from a variety of perspectives using both quantitative and qualitative data sets. Examining what measures have been taken so far, and what these policies really mean to the PKK and its sympathisers, Unal examines counterterrorism policies from both the perspective of the government and the PKK. The work evaluates whether policy choices so far have been effective (and in what circumstances) and how they have affected both levels of terrorist violence in Turkey and the nature of this violence.

This work provides a valuable contribution to the literature on counterterrorism and will be of interest to both practitioners and scholars of terrorism studies, extremism and ethnic conflict.