Generations and Violence

This book offers a qualitative cohort analysis in a comparative case study of national identity and political violence in the Basque and Kurdish contexts. Rooted in the author’s work concerning social reproduction mechanisms of political violence, it examines two non-state politico-military organizations, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA, Basque Homeland and Freedom) and Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK, Kurdistan Workers’ Party), the vanguard actors of two long-lasting ethnic conflicts in Spain and Turkey. It draws upon in-depth interviews conducted in the Basque Country and Kurdistan with former and active militants of both organizations who exercised violent practices to show how individuals in certain age groups share a specific range of experiences, a particular mode of thought, and historically relevant actions. This generational analysis illuminates a cause-and-effect relation explaining the emergence and continuity of armed struggle in specific time intervals. This volume will therefore appeal to a wide range of scholars and researchers of sociology, social movement, history, political sciences, and anthropology.