Pro-Government Militias

Pro-Government Militia Website

Hizbullah (Turkey)

Basic Group Information

Name assigned by coder: no
PGM ID Number: 248
Country: Turkey
Date formed: Jan. 1, 1985
    Accuracy of date formed: decade
Details of Formation: The emergence of the group is disputed. While government and army officials claim that they founded the group in 1985, there is also evidence that the group was created by Islamists following the 1980 Coup d’etat. In the second scenario the group factionalised in 1987 with respect to whether to take up arms; the faction promoting armed struggle won and in 1993 the group adopted the name Hizbullah. In this scenario, there is evidence that the Turkish government aligned itself with the group at some point during the 1980s (Wikipedia).
Date dissolved: Jan. 17, 2000
    Accuracy of date dissolved: day
Details of Termination: In 2000, Hizbullah kidnapped several businessmen in Istanbul; the army reacted with raids against Hizbullah (Wikipedia). Moreover, according to a news source, the army did not need the Hizbullah anymore as the PKK was defeated. Hizbullah’s military leader Edip Gümüş was killed alongside others and over 6000 members were arrested (Wikipedia). However, the group continued to be active, and killed regional police chiefs and police officers in 2001 (Amnesty 2002). That same year Hizbullah decided to end armed struggle and founded an association called “Solidarity with the Oppressed” (Wikipedia).
Termination Type(s): government defects

Former and Successor Group Information

Predecessor group(s): none
Successor group(s): none
Private Military Company? no
Former Group? unclear
    Former Armed Group? unclear
Former Rebel Group? no information
    Former Rebel Group UCDP ID: none
PGM Becomes Rebel Group? no information
    Successor Rebel Group UCDP ID: none

Government Relation, Support, and Training

Government Relation: informal (type 1)
Created by the Government?: unclear
    Main Creating Government Institution: none
Government Link(s): state (institution); sub-national government; military (institution)
    If link to party, name of party: None
Training and Equipment: yes
Shared Information and Joint Operations: no information
Shared Personnel: no
Type(s) of Material Support: military
State Sponsor(s): none
Other Connection(s):

Group Characteristics

Membership: religious
Primary Membership: religious
Alternative Primary Membership: no information
Location: South East, e.g. Batman
Force Strength: [unknown, unknown]
Target(s): rebels, insurgents, or other armed group; ethnic group; journalists
Purpose(s): intimidation of ethnic/religious groups

Ethnic Characteristics

Ethnic Target(s): Kurds (Turkey)
    Quality of Information for Ethnic Targeting: given
Ethnic Membership: none
    Quality of Information for Ethnic Membership: not applicable
Ethnic Purpose: Kurds (Iraq)
    Quality of Information for Ethnic Purpose: given

Other Information

Other Information: The Hizbullah is also known as Kurdish Hizbullah or with its alternative spelling “Hezbollah”. It is a Sunni Islamist militant organisation (Wikipedia) and is not related to the Lebanese group of the same name.

New Variables from Meta-Analysis

Purpose

Purpose: The Turkish government and army cooperated with the Hizbullah against the Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK (Wikipedia). They allegedly profited from the factional fighting.
Relative Benefit(s) of PGM Use unknown

Treatment of Civilians

Treatment of Civilians: Over time, Hizbullah started to target not only the PKK but also people they considered to be with low morals (i.e. did not follow Islamic rules). They also killed journalists, mainly Kurds (Wikipedia).
Type(s) of Violence against Civilians: killing

Reasons for Membership

PGM Members Coerced? no
PGM Members Paid? no information
Reasons for Membership: According to the scenario in which the group was founded by Islamists, the group initially consisted of Islamists who wanted to develop Islamism in Turkey and believed that the democratic route would not be feasible (Wikipedia).
PGM Members Killed? often

PGM Size

Size: There is no estimate on size during the PGM’s existence but after the Hizbullah ceased to be pro-government, for 2002/2003 it is estimated they had somewhere between a few hundred and 20,000 members.

Weapons and Training

Weapons and Training: had C-4 explosives (Wikipedia), automatic rifles, rockets and hand grenades. News sources suggest that they received these weapons from the Turkish government. → the red part has not yet been added, as it depends on the coding decision for the date of formation, because the evidence suggesting this is before the current date of formation.

Organisation

Organisation: According to one of the founding scenario, the Hizbullah was founded by and had close ties to the army; Arif Doğan, a retired colonel of the army claims to have created it, as well as JİTEM (Wikipedia). News sources report links to the Batman governor and Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, who had allowed the distribution or weapons to this group.

Reference(s) for Meta-Analysis

Amnesty International. 2002. “Fear for torture and ill-treatment/fear for safety.” AI Index: EUR
44/047/2002. 17 October.

Wikipedia. “Turkish Hezbollah”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Hezbollah

Evidence