The Nexus between Illicit Drug Trafficking and Terror: The PKK as an Example of Hybrid Transnational Threat

By Haydar Karaman

All terrorist groups need finance to operate. It is a means for certain groups to accomplish their objectives; for others, it is the aims itself per se. Terrorist groups are therefore involved in different levels of organized crime. One of them is illicit drug trafficking, which has a nexus with organized crime and terrorist groups. This study aims to demonstrate a better understanding of the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) evolution into an organized criminal organization and its funding sources. From this point of view, the PKK is classified as a narco-terrorist organization with strong financial motives in this paper. As it will be analyzed on paper, its financial motivations frequently have weighed in the same level as its political motivation. It began to act as a hybrid organization through transnational offences, and it has steadily strengthened its criminal capabilities. Its members retain their deceptive political rhetoric to perform their illegal operations more easily. The organization can also be defined as a hybrid transnational organized crime group by UN standards, given the severity of its crimes and its criminal network spanning the Middle East, Turkey, and Europe    

Manas Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 10(4), 2513-2527. 2021. 15p.