ULUSLARARASI POLİTİKA

It would be valid to argue that structural factors (push factors) and individual ones (pull factors) can accompany each other in an individual’s journey to radicalization. The table below summarizes these factors:

Enabling factors:

Extremist mentors (extremist religious figures, right or left-wing charismatic leaders), access to extremist online communities, social networks with VE associations, access to weaponry or other relevant items, lack of state influence, an absence of family support.

The line between radicalization and violent extremism, and terrorism needs to be drawn in order to avoid interchangeable use of the terms. Once radical actors engage in violent acts, the ideational transformation is already completed and these acts fall under the heading of “violent extremism”.

The Jewish  movement is regarded as the first terrorist organization and thus, predecessor of all the terror groups. It emerged as a reaction to the Roman Empire’s rule in Palestine during its Imperial period, and its increasingly oppressive measures against the Jews and gradual loss of their autonomy within the Empire. The movement is also known as the Sicarii –due to their use of daggers or sicae in Roman in assassinations- whereas some other accounts argue that Sicarii is a splinter group previously part of the broader Zealots which had limited political goals and a more decentralized organizational structure, more of an “angry mob” movement.

The Reign of Terror

The Reign of Terror was a response to the rise of oppositional groups especially in Vandée resulting in a civil war and rising threat of being surrounded by enemies. The famous “September decree” of 1793 officially declared that the Reign of Terror is “the order of the day” and thus the republic would use terror against its “enemies” in order to preserve the republic and the achievements of the revolution.

The anarcho-terrorism in Russia in the 19th century is widely regarded as the predecessor of many modern terrorist organizations. Their “success” in assassinating quite high level officials, even including a tsar himself, namely Alexander II, and even more importantly their use of dynamites which opened up a new page within the context of the methods of terrorism made them a very important case in the history of terrorism.

As stated before, radicalization, and terrorism cannot be attributed to a particular religion, ideology, nationality, sect, or any other sort of identity and/ or mindset. Both rightist and leftist ideologies, at their extremes, can lead to radicalization and even terrorism. Several groups, such as DHKP-C in Turkey, Baader Meinhof in Germany, and Red Brigades in Italy can be mentioned under this category.

However, it should be noted that neither primarily ideologically-motivated terror groups can be limited to these groups, nor the groups which are not clearly designated as terrorist groups internationally, such as Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi movements that can be identified as extreme-right groups occasionally resorting to violence (and thus can be classified as violent extremists, too, if not full-fledged terrorist organizations) do not carry out ruthless terror attacks against people coming from different ideological, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, including assaults, murders, burning homes and refugee camps etc.

Terrorism with religious motivations, sometimes mixed with ethnic feelings, too, is a form of terrorism which can be regarded as the oldest form of the phenomenon. As mentioned earlier, the Zealots had a political goal (destroying the Roman rule in the Palestine), had an organization, and committed violent acts, thus, complying with all classical three components of a terrorist organization. The Assassins also had a strong religious motivation derived from the Shi’a’s Ismailiyya interpretation. Putting aside these religiously motivated terror groups in the history which were already covered, other terror groups and terrorist tactics adopted by states with religious motivations will be discussed in this section. The link argued to be exist between terrorism with religious motivations and Islam and Muslims will also be challenged after having a brief overview of different terror groups with different religious motivations sometimes attacking their co-religionists due to sectarian differences, bombing people with chemicals in order to “bring the apocalypse earlier” or “purify the world”, and killing people just because of their different religious identity.

The tragic incident of the 9/11 attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda and subsequent declaration of a “Global War on Terror” by the then US President George W. Bush resulted in a higher attention to the subject more than ever. Even though Al-Qaeda and ISIS/ISIL/DAESH are the two most “famous” examples of this category, various groups with different religious motivations resorted to terrorism over centuries.

UNSC Resolution 2242 emphasizes the important roles that women can play against violent extremism, it directly refers to violent extremism for the first time, calls for more active participation of women into both struggle against it and for preventing the negative effects of terrorism on women. Thus, with UNSC Resolution 2242 women have not been only regarded as the victim of radicalization and violent extremism, it also attributed such an active role for the first time as an important actor within the context of radicalization and violent extremism.

The book states that radicalization is affected by both structural factors and individual factors.

According to the book, violent extremism is defined as  “The use of and support for violence in pursuit of ideological, religious or political goals.”

The concept of VE is not limited to be part of a violent act. Supporting, advocating, planning, organizing etc. such kinds of attacks are also regarded as components of VE. In line with this inclusive approach, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) defines violent extremism as “advocating, engaging in, preparing, or otherwise supporting ideologically motivated or justified violence to further social, economic or political objectives”.

The book states that "Within the context of radicalization, violent extremism, and terrorism, the Internet, social media, messaging and video apps are used for several key purposes".

The book says that internet can be used for several key purposes, such as propaganda, recruitment, planning attacks, training, and collecting financial resources for attacks

The book summarizes the function of women in the radicalization process as follows:

Women can diagnose the process of radicalization much earlier compared to other parts of the society thanks to their close relations with their sons, husbands, relatives, and students. (this takes us to I.

Such a privileged position also dons women with the capability to play an important preventive role through personal communication as well as to offer effective psychological help. (this takes us to II)

 As another positive role women can play, regarding the “formers” or “returnees”, women’s privileged role can help rehabilitation process. (this takes us to III)

The push and pull factors (structural and individual factors) are felt more deeply by the youth most of the time

In the book, Disengagement is defined as the process of making the individual abandon the active organization in which he/she either took part in violent acts or not.