ABSTRACT

The ideological near civil war between left-wing and right-wing extremists in the 1970s caused some 5,000 deaths; more than 200 people died in subsequent attempts by Marxist terrorists to undermine the state; Islamist terror (which will be described later) added probably another 1,000 dead. Appalling as these figures are, they are dwarfed by the death toll of more than 35,000 people who perished in the terror campaign conducted by the separatist PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan/Kurdistan Workers Party) during the 24 years of its existence (1978-2002). Compare this with the 800 or so victims of the Basque separatist terror group ETA, killed over a period of 34 years (1968-2002), and the 1,800 people killed by the IRA (nearly 650 of them civilians) since ‘Bloody Friday’ in July 1972.1 All three organisations are classed as vehicles of ethnic terrorism. But the term must be refined. ETA and PKK emerged as Marxist-Leninist revolutionary organisations in communities where Marxism-Leninism had little support. They killed in order to intimidate their opponents within their own communities, as well as in the civil and military services of the states from which they wanted to secede. Their Marxism-Leninism concealed an extreme form of nationalism, which it would be more accurate to describe as racist. Public opinion in democratic Western countries has been slow to recognise the sheer nastiness of these ethnic terrorists. For too long, well-meaning liberals, and even the authorities of democratic states, listened to the excuses offered for terrorist crimes. This is true even of the United States, where front organisations were allowed to collect funds from Irish Americans which sustained the terror campaign of the IRA. September 11 was a rude awakening from fancy to reality. But there is this difference: while ETA and the IRA benefited from a degree of toleration by foreign governments, the PKK enjoyed the active support of some of Turkey’s neighbours. This goes some way to explaining the vast scale of the havoc it caused. When the support was withdrawn, the PKK collapsed, at least in its old form and with its old strategy.