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DSC4012 – Terrorism
Chapter 7 - Nationalistic and Endemic Terrorism
Dr. E. Buchholz
Learning Objectives: Chapter 7
 Summarize the EOKA revolt on Cyprus, FLN in Algeria, and Mau Mau in Kenya.
 Explain the danger posed by Russia’s breakaway states.
 Describe the political and security issues surrounding violence in Chechnya.
Learning Objectives: Chapter 7
 Summarize the terrorist issues facing Turkey.
 Describe ethnic tensions in China’s Xinjiang province.
 Explain the rationale behind China’s policy toward Uighar separatism.
 Briefly summarize Sikh separatism in India.
Learning Objectives: Chapter 7
 Define the term endemic terrorism.
 Explain the relative importance of terrorism in light of Africa’s other issues.
 Summarize political conditions in western and central Africa.
CYPRUS 1955–1959
 UK claimed Cyprus as a crown colony after World War I and established its Middle
East military headquarters
 Georgios Grivas created the Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (National
Organization of Cypriot Fighters or EOKA) to overthrow the British government,
which had occupied Cyprus since WWI.
A series of attacks began in April 1955.
Clandestine campaign of violence.
Wanted to tie up large numbers of troops in an urban environment.
CYPRUS 1955–1959
 In response to pressure from international allies, British citizens, the United
Kingdom bartered a deal with the EOKA in 1959
 Received independence, but not unify with Greece.
 Eventually the Greek and Turk communities were partitioned.
THE BATTLE FOR ALGIERS
1954–1962
 France invaded and occupied parts of North Africa in the 19th century
 France directly incorporated the northern part of Algiers and administered it
The majority of Algerians deeply resented the loss of ethnic autonomy
The Algerian National Liberation Front, FLN, was formed and its purpose was violent
revolution (blind terrorism)
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THE BATTLE FOR ALGIERS
1954–1962
 The FLN began its campaign in 1954, launching 70 clandestine attacks
Massacred entire groups of colonial families
Slit the throats of the victims
FLN stuffed women’s handbags with explosives and they frequently targeted places
with large numbers of French youth
 French responded with crackdown on Algerian population
Mass arrests and torture
THE BATTLE FOR ALGIERS
1954–1962
 Algeria received independence in 1962 as counterterrorist tactics drove Algerian
sympathy toward the FLN and French citizens lost their taste for a dirty war
THE MAU MAU IN KENYA
1950–1960
 Rumors of a violent movement taking place in the Kikuyu tribal area
 Rebel Kikuyas began assembling in the forests of western Kenya around 1950
Fueled by anger over loss of land, they began burning fields of European farmers
THE MAU MAU IN KENYA
1950–1960
 Differences between Mau Mau movement and previous revolts in Algeria and
Cyprus
Based in rural areas
Mau Mau was based on tribal rites and ceremonies
Violence was frequently typified by massacres
Overwhelming British military and police response with massive detainment and
torture
Mau Mau insurgents suffered the brunt of casualties
Repression destroyed Mau Mau
THE MAU MAU IN KENYA
1950–1960
 Mau Mau movement failed in the field
 Governmental policy was ruthless
Over 90,000 Mau Mau suspects were interned during the state of emergency
Conditions of custody were appalling
Thousands of suspects were tortured
 Kenya would gain its independence, and a former suspected Mau Mau exile would
become its president
Breakaway States and Crime
 Russia still suffers from environmental troubles, a poor health system, and sharp
declines in life expectancy.
It also suffers from organized crime and corruption.
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 The former Soviet Union broke into fifteen new nations in the early 1990s—The
Russian Federation
Breakaway States and Crime
 Five states declared their independence
Nargorno-Karabakh
South Ossetia
Abkhazia
Transnistria
Chechnya
 Chechnya is the only one whose claim to independence Russia has been successful
in countering, but fighting continues to rage there.
 Although jihadists have come to the area, the actual problem is one of nationalism.
Chechnya
 Guerrillas and terrorists in the Russian-controlled province of Chechnya called on
nationalism in a struggle for autonomy
 Although Russia has been able to assert more control in Chechnya than in other
breakaway states, Chechnya has experienced savage fighting and terrorism
Chechnya as a Nationalistic Revolt
 Chechens seek legitimacy in the nationalistic struggle
 The current dispute can be traced directly to the communist era when Joseph Stalin
imposed Soviet power in the region
 Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russians and Chechens have fought two
conventional wars for control of the area
Chechnya as a Nationalistic Revolt
 Shamil Basayev
Planned the takeover of a Moscow theatre in 2002 and Beslan school in 2004
 ibn al Khattab
A Saudi jihadist leader
Became known for his ruthlessness
Assassinated in 2002
 Salman Raduyev
Took more hostages than any other terrorists
Went mad
Chechnya as a Nationalistic Revolt
 About 50 Chechen rebels, including Black Widows, took over Moscow Theatrical
Center during an evening performance
 They took 700 people hostage
 Before Russian forces had restored order, about 200 people were dead, many killed
by the sleeping gas
(See p. 173)
TURKEY’S STRUGGLE WITH TERRORISM
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 Turkey has suffered 40,000 deaths from terrorism since 1980
 In 1994, several thousand Turkish young people began to attend militant private
religious schools in Pakistan
 Pakistani-trained young people eventually resulted in a jihadist movement in
Turkey lead by Habib Akdas
Al Qaeda in Turkey
 Beginning in 1994, Turkish youths began to attend militant madrassas—private
religious schools—in Pakistan
 They returned to Turkey with a Islamic agenda
 Led to jihadist movement led by al Qaeda splinter group El Kaide Turka (al Qaeda in
Turkey)
 Habib Akdas led the charge
 Attacked British consulate
 Killed in 2004
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
 Kurds are an ethnic group inhabiting parts of southern Turkey, northern Iraq, and
northern Iran
 The PKK targets Europeans, Turks, rival Kurds, and Turkish government supporters
 By 1990, PKK leaders stated that they would strike only “legitimate” Turkish targets
and began to speak of nationalism
The Kurdish Conflict
 When other groups received national sovereignty at the end of World War I, the
Kurds remained divided among the three nations
 PKK turned to urban terrorism, targeting Turks throughout Europe and Turkey in
the 1990s
 After years of challenges, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the PKK is a
foreign terrorist group, thus a federal crime to support it.
Abdulah Ocalan
 Leader of the PKK
 Wanted semiautonomy for the Kurds
 Shifted position from “scientific socialism” to Marxist Islam to achieve the greatest
support.
 Although the Kurds have long been victims of oppression, the PKK is a terrorist
organization, which overshadows Kurds’ struggle for nationalism.
Abdulah Ocalan
 1999, Turks captured Ocalan in Kenya and sentenced him to death.
 Members of the EU may not invoke capital punishment. As Turkey was lobbying to
join the EU, it reversed the death sentence.
 2006, Ocalan ordered the end of a suicide bombing campaign and called for peace
between Turkey and the Kurds.
CHINA’S PROBLEM IN XINJIANG
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 The Uighars are ethnic Turkmen and they have lived in and governed parts of the
Xinjiang province for 200 years
 The Chinese have settled the area with ethnic Chinese, displacing the Uighars
 China fights for Xinjiang because it has China’s largest oil and gas reserves
Sikh Separatism in India
 After India was partitioned in 1947, some Sikhs sought independence in Punjab
 In 1984, Indian military forces entered the Sikhs’ most sacred site and engaged in a
bloody battle with armed militants
 By 1988, more than a hundred people per month had lost their lives
Sub-Sahara Africa
 Endemic terrorism
Form of terrorism created by artificial divisions of tribes, families, and ethnic groups
 Unique brand of terrorism
Ethnic cleansing
Child armies
Wars by self-appointed militias
Crime and corruption
Internal strife
Sources of African Terrorism
 Terrorism is only one problem among many others in Africa:
AIDS Pandemic
Most poverty-stricken region on earth
Thousands of homeless orphans
Genocide
Women and children exploitation
Child armies
Slavery
Starvation
Lord’s Resistance Army
 Joseph Kony, self appointed militia leader
 Has conscripted thousands of children, forcing them to fight
 Roams through Uganda, southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and
the Central Africa Republic
 Primary tactics mass murder mass rape, theft, and enslavement of children
The rebels are known for abducting tens of thousands of children, killings and brutalities
like the chopping off lips, legs and arms of innocent civilians. The rebels' excuses for these
atrocities have always been that the civilians are betraying them by reporting their
presence to the government army and therefore deserving the atrocities.
Oil Regions
 Oil fields in Sub-Sahara Africa are attractive to the United States:
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 “Sweet Crude”
Oil has a lower concentration of sulfur, and it is easier and cheaper to refine into
gasoline
Oil fields are closer to the east coast of the United States than the Middle East
Africa is increasing its oil production
Oil Regions
 Terrorism has not been a major issue, but should be viewed as a potential problem
 U.S. foreign policy misses areas where jihadists have tremendous potential
Countries like Nigeria and Liberia appear on the strategic foreign policy radar screen
Liberia presents another example of misguided U.S. policy
Instead of intervening, the U.S. took the posture of providing humanitarian aid, and the
state feel creating a haven for terrorist groups
 “Big Man”
An important person in a tribe or clan.
An autocratic ruler.
U.S. often allies with governments that support antiterrorist activities even if they have
poor human rights records
 Kenya
U.S. military uses its ports
U.S. government entities are housed there
 Sub-saharan Africa
British has maintained a humanitarian approach to Africa
U.S. has had a security approach
Chapter Take Aways
 Quite a bit of nationalistic terrorism came in the wake of World War II as European
colonial empires began to break apart.
 Cyprus and Algeria became the forerunners of urban ideological terrorism.
Chapter Take Aways
 Kenya served as the stage for a quasi-religious uprising, and although the Kenyans
would eventually win independence, it people were brutally repressed during the
Mau Mau rebellion.
Chapter Take Aways
 Terrorism continued to evolve in nationalistic, ethnic, and religious movements in
Russia, break-away semi-autonomous states in the former Soviet Union, Turkey,
China, and India.
 Africa has experienced endemic terrorism due to artificial national boundaries
imposed by Europeans.
 While terrorism is a horrendous problem, poverty and the AIDs crisis have been the
cause of most of Africa’s suffering.
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