Çağatay Balcı

Social movements have strategic functions for terrorist organizations. Accordingly, terrorist organizations try to instrumentalize social movements. In this context, the types of instrumentalization of social movements by terrorist organizations can be classified in three different ways: “narrativistic,” “tactical” and “seizing.” This study examines the instrumentalization strategy used by the PKK/PJAK during the Mahsa Amini protests in Iran in 2022. In this context, it tries to explain how the PKK/PJAK transformed the protests into a “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” campaign as a result of the use of these three different forms of instrumentalization in line with its own organizational propaganda strategy. The methodological approach of the study was qualitative research. A literature review on terrorist organizations and social movements was conducted. Organizational data on the PKK/PJAK’s exploitation of the Mahsa Amini protests in Iran in 2022 was then collected and classified. In this context, the study sought to answer the following research questions: Why do terrorist groups seek to instrumentalize or exploit social movements? Under which circumstances and how terrorist organizations can instrumentalize social movements? How did the PKK/PJAK exploit and instrumentalize the social movement in 2022, in Iran, and how did it transform this movement into the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi campaign in the context of its organizational strategy?