When defense becomes offense: the role of threat narratives in the Turkish Civil War of the 1970s

Abstract

This article examines the role of threat narratives in the process of group mobilization for political violence, focusing on the Turkish civil war of the 1970s. It argues that threat narratives promote political violence by identifying a certain politically mobilized group as “the enemy,” and they incite fear in people against this group. Threat narratives further broaden the cycle of violence by deliberately conflating and expanding the category of the enemy and leaving no space for neutrality or moderation