From Militarization to Democratization: The Transformation of Turkey’s Counter Terrorism Strategy (CTS)

Turkey is both historically and geopolitically one of the most important countries in the region. Not only was its capital regarded as the birth place of one of the most enduring empires (the Ottoman Empire) in the history of the world, but also its geographic location at the intersection between Europe and Asia confers a special geopolitical significance. Throughout history, Turkey became a major centre for trade and migration from and to the region. Turkey, notwithstanding its past religious authority, is also secular as it became the first Islamic state to officially relinquish the Islamic caliphate in the early 1920s and to embark on a process of Westernization, secularization, industrialization and democratization. Such rapid and large transformations have inevitably been associated with a rise in violent extremism (VEm) in the country. To be sure, Turkey has long struggled with the phenomenon of violent extremism whose roots go back to the 1880 first Kurdish rebellion. V Em, however, evolved and endured in Turkey. Today, VEm represents one of the salient features of the Turkish political system, influencing not only the country’s social fabric but also its international relations. The Turkish prime minister has recently ‘defined terrorism as the biggest obstacle’ before the political, economic and democratic development of Turkey (JTW, 2010).