Terrorism in Turkey

1970s

Terrorism in Turkey in the 1970s stemmed from the student protest movement in the 1960s. Leftist radicals first attempted to challenge the political regime by use of sit-ins, street demonstrations, and the establishment of a new political party, the Turkish Labor Party (TLP). After only receiving 3% of the popular vote in the 1965 election, and 2.7% four years later, leftist radicals began to turn to a more militant approach. Know how about the use of explosives and weapons were provided by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).^[3]

Left-wing terrorism began in 1969 when the Proletarian Revolutionaries and Proletarian Socialists formed the Federation of Revolutionary Youth of Turkey (Dev-Genç). Terror activities included bank robberies, bombings and kidnappings (for ransom). In 1971, the military declared martial law to arrest revolutionaries. By 1973, these incidents had stopped.^[4]:15

Two Armenian groups conducted a number of terror attacks aimed at Turkish diplomats, ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) and JCAG (Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide). These attacks spawned a period of ten years from 1975 to 1985. Their efforts were mostly based overseas, but some attacks occurred in Turkey such as the May 1977 bombing of the Istanbul airport and railway.^[4]:10-12

Between 1976 and 1980, more than 5,000 people were killed in hundreds of terrorist incidents.^[3]

1980s and 1990s

In the 1980s and 1990s, Jihadist terrorism in Turkey was an isolated phenomenon represented by the Turkish Hezbollah and the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front.^[5] Since the 2000s, there has been a rise in attacks from Islamist groups, some with links to Al-Qaeda.^[6] One group that has been studied by researchers is the Turkish Hezbollah.^[7]

In the 1990s, Islamic terrorist organizations were active in Turkey. Their objective was to bring down the secular democratic regime in Turkey and to establish an Islamic Sharia‐based state (similar to Iran). In July 1993, an arson attack took place where extremists set fire to a hotel where a cultural festival was taking place. Islamic groups attacked and threatened Jewish personalities and the Jewish community in Turkey.^[8]

In the course of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present) there were an estimated 30,000-35,000 deaths between 1984 and 2000.^[9] While the Turkish government position has been to classify the deaths in the conflict as terror related, other dispute this claim and allege human right violations by the Turkish authorities.^[10][11] In 1995, Human Rights Watch reported that it was common practice for Turkish soldiers to kill Kurdish civilians and take pictures of their corpses with the weapons, they carried only for staging the events. Killed civilians were shown to press as Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) "terrorists".^[12]

2000s

The Dokumacılar is an Islamic terrorist group composed of about 60 Turkish militants who joined ISIL. The group is responsible for the 2015 Suruç bombing which resulted in 32 deaths.

Other attacks, like the 2017 Istanbul nightclub shooting, were perpetrated by Islamic State.^[13] However, initially, the Turkish government avoided labelling ISIL as a terror organization.^[14]