Browsing by Subject "Radicalization"

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Open Access
Recruitment or enlistment? Individual integration into the Turkish Hezbollah
(Routledge, 2018) Ünal, M. C.; Ünal, T.
Radicalization and pathways to terrorism have been issues of dispute which owe their complexity to multiple dimensions and perspectives from different disciplines at different levels. This study focuses on the two competing perspectives on joining violent radical groups represented in the Hofman-Sageman debate: recruitment/facilitation or enlistment. It also elaborates on affiliative factors (kinship/first-circle-peers) and religiosity to analyze the conditions under which university students were drawn into Turkish Hezbollah (TH), a terrorist organization in Turkey. By using individual-level self-report data this study finds that kinship structures had a determinative impact on individuals’ enlistment through ‘Social Learning,’ specifically, on embracing TH membership as a ‘favorable definition’ and/or a ‘norm’ within their original habitat. Yet, weakened ‘Social Control/Bond’ from home/original habitat made students significantly more vulnerable to TH’s recruitment structures. This study argues that both approaches-recruitment and enlistment-have substantial explanatory power; however, under certain underlying sociological conditions. In that while weakened social bonds supplement recruitment, having militants in kinship structures particularly make young college students vulnerable to be drawn into violent radical networks through enlistment. This study also asserts that neither the religiosity of militants nor that of their families had a statistically significant effect on their integration into TH.
Open Access
Turkish foreign terrorist fighters and the emergence of a new kind of radicalization
(Routledge, 2016) Anaz, N.; Aslan, Ö.; Özkan, M.
This article is an attempt to answer a number of questions asked in the literature on radicalization and extremism: What motivates foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) from Turkey to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)? In what kind of environment does violent extremism become the choice for Turkish nationals to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq? How can Turkish nationals who join ISIS be profiled in terms of their socio-economic and cultural traits and how do these traits compare people from other nations who join and fight in terrorist organizations? Though their numbers remained minimal compared to the overall population, how can we explain the case of Turkish FTFs, when a peaceful and tolerant ‘Anatolian/Sufi Islam’ has reigned in the country and Muslims are well integrated in the social, economic, and political life of the country under the 13-year long rule of Islamic-oriented Justice and Development Party (AK Party)? What do these answers to these questions mean for Turkish Islam and possible de-radicalization programs? These questions will be addressed by semi-structured interviews conducted both with Turkish FTFs who have joined ISIS and with family members of some of those who have returned from fighting with ISIS. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.