麻豆精品

On August 15, 1984, G眉ne艧 Murat Tezc眉r watched on television as the violence in Turkey grew. That day, the Kurdistan Workers 麻豆精品 S� Party (PKK) launched an uprising against the Turkish government. The group, which was established in the late 1970s, had a history of violence, but this was something else. The PKK demanded the establishment of a Kurdish state within and beyond Turkey 麻豆精品 S檚 borders. (Kurdistan today occupies parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Armenia.) They claimed to fight the perceived oppression of Kurds, the largest minority group in Turkey, whose language, names and culture were banned in 1980 following a militant coup of the Turkish government.

Tezc眉r, who later earned a B.A. in international relations and political science from Bo臒azi莽i University in Istanbul, never experienced the violence firsthand.

His family members never joined the militant groups and were never subjected to violent acts. He had opportunity and education. So, as a teenager, watching events play out behind the safe distance of a screen, says Tezc眉r, it was easy to view those picking up arms or planning attacks as terrorists. But age and education gave him more perspective.

麻豆精品 S淚f there 麻豆精品 S檚 one guy who blows himself up and kills a bunch of people, OK, it 麻豆精品 S檚 terrorism. There 麻豆精品 S檚 no question about that, 麻豆精品 S� says Tezc眉r. 麻豆精品 S淏ut if [that violence] comes from entire communities being radicalized and pursuing more militant goals, it becomes something different. 麻豆精品 S�

Tezc眉r eventually headed to the United States, specifically the University of Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. in political science. As he worked toward his degree, a question nagged him: What would have happened had he been born in a different part of Turkey 麻豆精品 S� perhaps the southeast, where the violence and oppression were most prevalent?

麻豆精品 S淲ould I have chosen the same route that these people did and become a militant 麻豆精品 S� fight and basically get killed before reaching the age of 25? 麻豆精品 S� Tezc眉r asks. It is one thing to kill people over politics, he says, but there was a tougher question he couldn 麻豆精品 S檛 quite sort out: Why would ordinary people 麻豆精品 S� people who hadn 麻豆精品 S檛 been directly affected by violence, people like him 麻豆精品 S� risk their lives for it?

Today Tezc眉r is the Jalal Talabani Chair of Kurdish Political Studies, one of the first positions of its kind in the U.S., and an associate professor of political science at UCF. He has spent the past decade exploring the answers to such questions. The theories he has studied for why ordinary people join armed movements and risk their own lives were clear-cut. Plenty of scholars have argued that the reason for such actions is selfishness. In other words, the fighter can gain money or social status by acting on behalf of a rebellion. There may be a family history of militantism or a seeking of revenge or justice.

But there was another group of rebel fighters who didn 麻豆精品 S檛 fit the mold.

麻豆精品 S淲hen you start asking questions like 麻豆精品 S楬ave you ever been targeted by the state forces? Was there anybody in your family who joined the insurgents? Did you participate in any political events? Were you very poor? 麻豆精品 S� Once you realize that most of the answers to these questions are negative, then you become more curious, because the classical explanations are not very helpful, 麻豆精品 S� Tezc眉r says.

These conversations were at the root of Tezc眉r 麻豆精品 S檚 research as he established and published the Kurdish Insurgency Militants Dataset, a document that accounts for the geographic, demographic, historic, socioeconomic and political motivators of more than 8,000 PKK militants who died between 1984 and 2012, as well as nearly 70 personal interviews with family members of the deceased conducted by Tezc眉r over the last few years.

One big motivation he found is what 麻豆精品 S檚 known as altruistic punishment, punishing a third party at the expense of oneself. He cites Greek mythology as an example, telling the story of Antigone, the sister of Polynices and Eteocles, two brothers who couldn 麻豆精品 S檛 agree on sharing power over Thebes and fought in a battle that took both of their lives. The king, Creon, vowed punishment by death should anyone bury or even mourn Polynices. But Antigone, the grieving sister, defied the king 麻豆精品 S檚 orders.

麻豆精品 S淢any individuals whose relatives joined the insurgency and got killed also have moral outrage when security forces do not allow for their proper burial, 麻豆精品 S� Tezc眉r says. 麻豆精品 S淎s a response, they join the insurgents, a behavior that can be characterized as altruistic punishment. 麻豆精品 S�

Violence and death don 麻豆精品 S檛 always have to be at the heart of altruistic punishment. In fact, after the financial crisis in 2008, Americans wanted to punish those who received American International Group (AIG) insurance corporation bonuses in 2009. According to James Surowiecki in a March 18, 2009, New Yorker article, the American people were so outraged at the hefty bonuses amid bank bailouts that they were willing to demand them back for the people, even though such a demand could ultimately cost individual taxpayers. 麻豆精品 S淚n other words, 麻豆精品 S� wrote Surowiecki, 麻豆精品 S減eople are willing to make themselves worse off 麻豆精品 S� in order to ensure that others don 麻豆精品 S檛 get undeserved rewards. 麻豆精品 S�

Tezc眉r recalls the story of a young Kurdish college student: The woman came from a lower-middle class family and didn 麻豆精品 S檛 live near the battle zone. As she headed for college, there was no sign she would join the insurgency. While at school, she developed a collective perception of the Kurdish people, and she identified with it, becoming a Kurdish activist. A few months later she disappeared. She had joined the insurgency and fought for three or four years before she was killed.

麻豆精品 S淚f I 麻豆精品 S檓 a Kurdish individual, and I feel that my political identity 麻豆精品 S� not necessarily my personal identity 麻豆精品 S� is under threat, then I am more likely to take risks to fight against these dangers, 麻豆精品 S� Tezc眉r says. 麻豆精品 S淭his means that I am more likely to take arms and fight so that the Kurdish identity can survive. 麻豆精品 S� The student’s sacrifice was for the larger cause 麻豆精品 S� the community.

麻豆精品 S淵ou are willing to take some personal cost to punish the people who are responsible for the suffering of your own people, 麻豆精品 S� Tezc眉r says. Think of the protestors and counterprotestors in Charlottesville, Virginia, when white nationalist marchers and the Black Lives Matter protestors collided 麻豆精品 S� a mass of individuals risking their own safety and lives for the larger groups they identified with.

Tezc眉r 麻豆精品 S檚 theory, backed by years of extensive research, is rooted in behavioral economics 麻豆精品 S� the idea that we are not always clear-cut individuals who make rational choices by carefully weighing the pros and cons of our decisions. Instead, many psychological factors contribute to our choices: subconscious or conscious biases, life circumstances and instant gratification at the cost of long-term goals. Tezc眉r saw how such factors were in play while interviewing the families of dead insurgents about why their loved ones joined a violent movement that came with a high chance of dying.

It all makes sense from a psychological perspective, says Charles Negy, UCF associate professor of psychology. Even if an individual hasn 麻豆精品 S檛 been directly affected by specific circumstances, there are 麻豆精品 S渕ultiple factors, multiple determinants that would influence someone to join a group that would be inclined to engage in violence for a cause, 麻豆精品 S� he says. When we identify with a group, we can lose sight of the fact that we are individuals with different life experiences. Individuals tend to do things when they 麻豆精品 S檙e in a group that they might not do if they were alone, such as when the previously nonviolent college student chose to fight the Turkish military.

麻豆精品 S�Collectively identifying with some identity characteristic (such as race or kinship) is not necessarily a bad thing. People could just be proud of where they come from, 麻豆精品 S� says Konstantin Ash, an assistant professor of political science at UCF who grew up in Russia watching the collapse of the Soviet Union, the uprising in the south of Chechnya and an attempted coup.

Ash, who also studies why ordinary people engage in political conflict, interviewed 1,000 people in Kyrgyzstan 麻豆精品 S� both Kyrgyz and Uzbeks 麻豆精品 S� in 2017 for a survey to determine why people spontaneously engage in ethnic riots.

Kyrgyzstan saw plenty of violence after the fall of the Soviet Union, says Ash. The collapse left an immediate imbalance within the mountainous region of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, where no clear boundary had been drawn. Large swaths of ethnic Uzbeks woke up in an ethnically Kyrgyz-majority nation.

Great violence erupted in 2010 with hundreds 麻豆精品 S� largely Uzbeks 麻豆精品 S� killed when young men took up arms, fought for several days against their neighbors, then put down their weapons and went about their lives.

To study the phenomenon, Ash randomly assigned respondents in inflammatory stories and saw how they affected their response to the riots 麻豆精品 S� whether or not they felt violence was warranted. 麻豆精品 S淚 assign them a story of chauvinistic nationalism, telling them that Kyrgyz or Uzbeks are the only people responsible for the economic success of the country, for example. Then I ask whether it is acceptable to use violence against somebody in an opposing nation or group. 麻豆精品 S�

Through his study, Ash found that this sort of violence 麻豆精品 S� spontaneous violence with a wide swath of participants 麻豆精品 S� erupts due to exposure to chauvinistic nationalism and insecurity. 麻豆精品 S淚f people feel like there 麻豆精品 S檚 no higher authority that 麻豆精品 S檚 going to protect them or their family, then they 麻豆精品 S檙e more likely to say, 麻豆精品 S榃ell, we need to really defend things, 麻豆精品 S� or 麻豆精品 S榃e need to really go and get these people. 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S�

Spontaneous and planned violence by ordinary individuals can have a number of motivators, and while it 麻豆精品 S檚 tough to deny the role of rumor and propaganda, social identity theory may play another role. As Ash points out, when the Kyrgyz or Uzbeks were fed chauvinistic nationalism, they took their collective identity to another level. 麻豆精品 S淭hey weren 麻豆精品 S檛 just proud, they thought they were better than everybody else, 麻豆精品 S� says Ash.

For Tezc眉r and Ash, group identity is clearly a powerful factor in the political violence we see throughout the world today.

Negy emphasizes the risks involved in such thinking: 麻豆精品 S淚t is my own personal and professional opinion that no one should be so attached or blindly in love with a group identity because you may end up making some bad decisions. 麻豆精品 S�