Active vocabulary

1. to carry out/ to perform the act of threatening/ intimidating act

2. to adopt certain points

3. to determine common concept of terror

4. to take specific precaution in case of emergency

5. to apply developed tactics fit out with destructive arms

6. on the purpose of destroying territorial integrity of the state

7. to ruin the authority and to change secular system

8. to demolish the rights and freedom

9. the warrior of freedom

10. to provoke the social classes by manipulating their racial differences

11. to victimize innocent people.

12. to diminish the armed enemy forces

13. to subvert the present public order and peace

14. to struggle for national independence

15. to commit offensive crimes

16. to cause impact involving political expectation

Comprehension check

I. Answer the following questions to check how carefully you have read the texts:

1. What characteristic of terror is supposed to be the most significant? Dwell on the others

characteristics defining this notion.

2. Is terrorism different from traditional political crimes and methodical, organized, systematic acts of

murdering? Give your reasons.

3. Who defines terrorist as the person who knows only science of demolishing?

4. What definition of terror is given by Law of Terror Prevention?

5. What common links and differences can be singled out in all the given definitions?

II. Now decide whether the statement is true or false; correct those that are wrong:

1. Even though terror is a frequently used term for the actions in question today, there are many other definitions which are accepted and recognized widespread.

2. The person who is a terrorist for one can’t be a warrior of independence for the other one.

3. The most significant characteristic of terror is that it chooses the target randomly, and this random determination of victim causes the independence they try to achieve on the individuals in greater impacts.

4. Unlike the society's peaceful attitude by means of democratic persuasion and behavior, terrorism, for reaching political targets, is not different from traditional political crimes and methodical, organized, systematic acts of murdering, kidnapping, intimidating and destruction.

Text b the purpose of terrorist activities

The aims of the terror organizations display differences depending on the countries they take action in and the groups they are directed by.

It is possible to explain the purpose of terrorism under the approaches known up today as building up a new government on the grounds of their ideologies annihilating the present regime and system by the way of using violence this approach is explained clearly in the cases of terror at courts.

The terror organizations assert that they aim to have a more peaceful and fair style of life in loyalty of the ideology they support, getting rid of the government and the leaders they regard as unjust and cruel.

For the sake of this, terrorists consider themselves as the society's unknown warriors and sacrificing volunteers whose activities have not been understood and appreciated yet. They suggest the idea that the unconscious public is unable to conceive of the good things which are done for them, and that's why, it is not possible for the public to join the action, yet as time goes on, people will become conscious and take part in organized activities. Until then, the conscious groups of people in minority should lead and carry out the struggle on behalf of public.

The aim of the terror, which is reflected in the society, seems to be subverting the political regime in the long run. Nevertheless, there should be some other aims in the short run. It is possible to summarize these short run targets in this fashion:

1. First of all, destruction of the regime and the politic system taken as targets and weakening the existing authority.

2. Letting the foreign public as well as the national public hear their claim and drawing their attentions on this.

3. Getting rid of the negative thoughts on their claim weakening the public's power of resistance with the help of intimidating people, and forcing the people accept their case.

4. Providing the support of people in masses and participants in the society they partially manage to apply force and authority.

The basic aims of the terror organizations at the first stage are to make doubts about the political system in the minds of people, and to weaken the moral authority of the government. As the result of this, the chaos resulted from these activities will make the leaders appear to be incapable and the people in masses will riot against the system, which those leaders represent. Briefly, the first target of the political terror in the short run is to paralyze the system and intimidate the public.

On the other hand, when terrorism is used as a tool by some powers to get some political and economic advantages, the aim is revealed different. On occasions like these, the purpose of the terrorism is to create a certain atmosphere in the state and society taken as the target to obtain a profit.

In keeping the states, which have strategic importance like Turkey in a terror atmosphere, the goal of terror is only to provide the maintenance of this atmosphere. In accordance with this, as a political tool for struggle, terror is also used for a state's weakening another state.

Particularly, when the issue is approached in an economic point of view, the fact of preventing a country from using its resources for the necessary fields by the way of terror is obviously seen. In other words, rather high cost of struggle against terror cause the states, which have already insufficient resources to transfer the money to be spent for that struggle instead of making use of it for the potentially productive areas for that state's own development.

Occasionally, terror reveals to be a factor, which jeopardize the integrity of the state and the peace providing contradictions among elements of society, which are asserted to have different ethnic structures, and which live in the same country sharing a common destiny. The manipulation of ethnic structure of the society appears to be a good source for terror in the course of time.

When artificially or naturally formed ethnic structure becomes a source and exploited by the terror, the reactions occurring gradually against this element transformed as an ethnic minority can lead to a potential dispute seriously. Trying to make the groups of people who have different cultural backgrounds and points of views fight with each other using the tool for terror results destroys integrity, unity, and order of the society. This is another aim of terror.

In Turkey, the presence of religious or secular-ant secular separations into groups and forcing these groups of people to fight by the means of offensive games appear to be examples of terror. In the operations of violence, this does not have targets taken to masses of people, destroys public sense of security.

Therefore, there would be huge gaps formed between the government and society in the context of social security. In a country, the public who constantly lives with terror face to face has reactions against terror and terror organizations, and express them in very different ways. The impact of terror activities may cause complete insensitivity or, in contrast to that, the behaviors of violence to violence which forms the terror.

Terrorists try to cause reactions fitting their purposes. For them the effect of the operation is important, not the operation itself. Hence, in most of the terror events, there is no any reaction between the victims chosen randomly and the terrorist himself. Terrorist behaves indifferently to his victims. The personality of the victim is not significant in many operations. The important issue is the thing, which the victim represents. This situation is the point, which exhibits the immorality of terrorism.

In order to let the public hear their voice, terror organizations need to make propaganda. They perform any kind of activities, which put themselves and their ideologies on the agenda. In Turkey, terror organizations claim some dead bodies, make impressions of looking after the people who suffer from various negative factors so that they can let public hear about their voice. They pursue to exploit any kind of event, which will serve their purposes, making own economic, military and political order dominant all over the world. According to their point of view, in order to attain to this purpose, imperialism works with military and economic organizations like NATO and IMF, the World Bank.