International Terrorism Violence in the Essay

The Kurdish Conflict:

Originally, the PKK was established in the relative absence of any other peaceful alternatives to preventing anti-Kurdish brutality perpetrated by the Turkish government

(Evans, 2007). In principle, the Kurds have a legitimate complaint for human rights

abuses and political suppression by the Turkish government, but the tactics resorted to by the PKK have undermined the credibility of their demands notwithstanding their grounding in recognized concepts of human rights and political autonomy.

However, the PKK became recognized, rightfully, as a terrorist group in the 1980s, by virtue of its affiliation and joint military operations, primarily in Lebanon,

with another terrorist group, the infamous PLO (Evans, 2007; Scheuer, 2004). It is widely believed that the ongoing cycle of violence between the PKK and Turkish military forces have cost more than 35,000 lives since 1984, when the PKK initiated its campaign against Turkey.

The collapse of the Soviet Union significantly weakened the PKK because the circumstances compelled Syria to turn over Ocalan to Turkish authorities, prompting even more violence on the part of PKK supporters (Evans, 2007).

Since then, the PKK

has undergone many changes but its continuing sporadic use of violence to achieve its legitimate goals (at least as far as establishing an independent Kurdish state is concerned)

in response to political challenges and setbacks criminalizes otherwise legitimate objectives.

References

Dershowitz, a. (2003). The Case for Israel. New York: Wiley & Sons.

Evans, M. (2007). The Final Move Beyond Iraq: The Final Solution While the World

Sleeps. Florida: Frontline.

Larsen, R. (2007). Our Own Worst Enemy: Asking the Right Questions About

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