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The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) as Criminal Syndicate: Funding Terrorism through Organized Crime, A Case Study

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 30; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10576100701558620

1521-0731

Mitchel P. Roth, Murat Sever,

Political Conflict and Governance

Abstract Scholars have long recognized that terrorist groups have engaged in transnational organized crime activities. But the question that comes up is, "When does a criminal enterprise become a terrorist group or vice versa?" Terrorist groups have used physical violence, participated in weapons and drug trafficking networks, immigrant smuggling, and money laundering. More recently a number of terrorist groups have established what Jonathan White has referred to as "illegal multinational criminal organizations." This article will examine the convergence of terrorism and organized crime through the prism of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). Notes Notes 1. Turkish Democracy Foundation, Fact Book on Turkey Kurds and PKK Terrorism, 1996. Available at (www.geocities.com/Capitol Hill/8572), accessed 12 February 2005. 2. A. K. Cronin, H. Aden, A. Frost, and B. Jones, Foreign Terrorist Organizations: CRS Report to Congress, 2004. Available at (http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/29722.pdf)., p. 53. 3. Because one of the authors is a member of the Turkish National Police and has worked at the Interpol Department in Ankara, the researchers have had access to sources beyond the usual academic and print archives. 4. B. H. Stanislawski and M. G. Hermann, "Transnational Organized Crime, Terrorism, and WMDs," Paper presented the Conference on Non-State Actors, Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction, CIDCM, University of Maryland, Baltimore, October 2004. 5. H. H. A. Cooper, Essential Readings on Political Terrorism: Analysis of Problems and Prospects for the 21st Century (Lincoln, NE: Gordion Knot Books, 2002). 6. W. Laqueur, Terrorism: A Study of National and International Political Violence (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977). 7. J. R. White, Terrorism: An Introduction, 4th edition (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2002). 8. Advisory Panel of Congress, First Annual Report to the President and Congress of the Advisory Panel for Terrorism. Available at (www.rand.org/nsrd/terrpanel/terror.pdf, 1999), accessed 23 June 2004. 9. U.S. State Department, "Foreign Terrorist Organizations Report." Available at (www.state.gov/www/global/terrorism, 1999, accessed 23 April 2005). 10. U.S. Department of Justice, "Terrorism in the United States 1997 Report." Available at (www.fbi.gov/publications/terror/terr97.pdf, 1998), p. 1, accessed 24 April 2005. 11. H. Abadinsky, Organized Crime, 8th edition (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2007); J. S. Albanese, "The Causes of Organized Crime: Do Criminals Organize Around Opportunities for Crime or Do Criminal Opportunities Create New Offenders?" Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 16(4) (2004), p. 411; M. Maltz, "Defining Organized Crime," in R. Kelly, K. Chin, and R. 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