From Armed Conflict to Political Conflict: Terrorist Organizations Transformed to Political Parties

Abstract

Although the strategy used by terrorist organizations and political parties is different, the most obvious thing in common is that they have a political goal. In countries where terrorism is widespread, it is observed that there are poverty, corruption, injustice in political representation, and instability, and non-inclusive political institutions. In order for a terrorist organization to abandon acts of violence, these reasons must be eliminated to a certain extent. Transformation of organizations to political parties takes place by combining structural and strategic factors. In this context, how and under what conditions a terrorist organization turns into a legal political party identity is the subject of this study. For this purpose, terrorist organizations with a long history and an important sociological basis examined comparatively. It has been observed that the transformation to political parties takes place through peace processes and self-dissolution. Negotiations with terrorist organizations can start under a combination of conditions as follows; realizing that no solution can be reached with violence, weakening the organization, the emergence of a serious need for reconciliation, the support of the national and international public opinion for this reconciliation, focusing on the solution of the factors that motivate the conflict