Congratulations to Goksel Demir on his successful PhD defence

Congratulations to Goksel Demir, for successfully defending his PhD thesis titled "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven But Nobody Wants to Die": PKK, Violent Extremism, Opportunity Structures, and Stake in Conformity" on February 27, 2025. 

Abstract

Understanding why individuals become involved in violent extremism is a key challenge in conflict and political violence studies. While there is an extensive literature that explores individual-level explanations, the interactions between these and localized structural and cultural factors—spanning regional, national, and international contexts—remain underexplored (Schmid, 2014). Violent extremists often cluster in regions with distinctive historical, cultural, and socio-economic profiles, suggesting that localized structural challenges are crucial in shaping individual choices to engage in violent extremism.

One such case is Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (Kurdistan Workers' Party; PKK), a Kurdish separatist group primarily active in Southeastern Turkey. Over the past 50 years, PKK has emerged as a persistent challenge to successive Turkish governments. This movement is situated within an evolving political context, characterized by rapid urbanization, large-scale immigration, and the expansion of economic sectors. The general question addressed by this study is how localized structural and cultural factors interact with individual vulnerabilities to drive recruitment into extremist activities. To better understand how PKK emerged and has persisted, this study employs a mixed-methods research design, integrating the qualitative life history narratives of 178 PKK members with quantitative data from police and census records. It applies criminological, sociological, and political-economic frameworks to identify the profiles of PKK members and examine the conditions under which recruitment to, and participation in, political extremism occurs.

The study finds that individuals with low stakes in conformity (i.e., low educational attainment, unstable job histories, and disrupted families) who live in environments that facilitate militant activities, particularly within communities sympathetic to extremist groups, are at higher risk of recruitment into violent extremism. Precursor events—such as trauma, family crises, and migration—play a decisive role in triggering involvement in extremist activities, especially when these factors intersect with enabling regional structural conditions.

While previous research often focused either on individual radicalization processes or structural factors in isolation, this study bridges the two by showing how structural opportunity structures shape individual pathways into extremism, particularly in conflict-prone areas like Southeastern Turkey. This integrated approach adds to the field by offering a comprehensive framework for understanding violent extremism. The findings contribute to broader understandings of political violence and extremism, highlighting how socio-economic and political factors drive individual involvement in extremist movements. The study's insights have practical implications for counter-extremism policies, particularly in regions experiencing similar socio-economic challenges. Future research could build on these findings by examining the spatial dynamics of extremist recruitment in other conflict-affected regions.