Engagement in the PKK and “Identity Work” of Three Generations of Combatants

Abstract

"People typically have multiple identities that vary in salience and pervasiveness. This identity results from a process of socialization and structures the individual behaviour. Identification with a group is the result of an “alignment” of personal and collective identities. In order to study this process of alignment, from a micro-sociological perspective, we conducted an empirical sociology survey among 63 activists of the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK). In the light of the model developed by Snow and McAdam (2000) on identity work, we highlighted the prevalence, in terms of “identity convergence,” of “identity research” over “identity appropriation,” including in a holistic and so-called terrorist organization such as the PKK. We also emphasized the primacy of “identity amplification” in the processes of identity construction of these Kurdish combatants. Keywords: PKK, “identity work”, armed political commitment, terrorism, collective identity."