The Reemergence of Hizballah in Turkey
By Matthew Levitt
With secularism, PKK terrorism, and other Turkish issues becoming international concerns in recent months, a dangerous Islamist trend has been overlooked: radical groups inspired more by the revolutionary ideology of Iran than domestic issues such as Kurdish nationalism are staking their own claim to power. One such group is Hizballah in Turkey (HiT), a Kurdish faction recovering from a government crackdown after years of violence. Although HiT's current efforts seem limited to aggressive social activism, the group's track record, like the PKK's, makes future violence likely.
In a new Washington Institute Policy Focus monograph, Rusen Cakir, a senior correspondent for the Turkish daily Vatan, explores this little known sunni extremist group. The full study is available here.