Ahmet Yiğitalp Tulga

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Comparison of Turkish and English-Speaking ISIS Sympathizers’ Twitter Content between 2015 and 2016

Abstract

The development of social media technologies has had a significant impact on individuals, organizations and societies. However, social media has not only affected people and communities, but also terrorist organizations have started to use social media platforms effectively. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is one such group that actively utilizes social media. Social media has played a critical role in formulating and disseminating ISIS’s strategies. Twitter is one of the most effective social media platforms used by ISIS, and it actively uses Twitter in predominantly Muslim countries such as Turkey. In this article, I use a dictionary-based method to compare and analyze 29,419 tweets from English-speaking supporters of ISIS and 40,526 tweets from Turkish supporters of ISIS between 2015 and 2016.

Keywords: Twitter analysis; Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS); Turkish and English-speaking ISIS supporters on Twitter; dictionary-based analysis

Link: https://brill.com/view/journals/iss/aop/article-10.1163-27730611-bja10013/article-10.1163-27730611-bja10013.xml

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Terrorism-Related Topic In The Language Of Fake News In Indonesia

The discussion on the relations between terrorism and social media mainly focuses on social media's role in spreading terrorism ideology and recruiting a member of the terrorist group. However, social media has also become means to share fake news related to terrorism. Considering the relationship between fake news and terrorism, the primary purpose of this study is to examine the content, language used, and emotion of fake news about terrorism in Indonesia. It also revelas what kind of language is used in fake news to manipulate the public and what emotions it appeals to? We analyzed fake news about terrorism in Indonesia using quantitative text analysis methods, such as sentiment analysis and dictionary-based analysis methods with R statistical software. We created two dictionaries covering religious and violent words, and fake news was examined under these two dictionaries. For reliability, we applied the "Split-half test" to the results and we reached similar results. This study shows that ISIS, Aceh, and terrorist action in Sulawesi are three dominant topics in fake news. Second, the language on fake news is mostly about terrorism and violence to create fear in society. Third, violence and religious language are equal in the language of misleading content. We interpreted the results obtained with the traditional fear of crime theory. We then discussed the significant results of this research and made effort to explain the reasons behind our research results. The study has a limitation because of the small number of fake news. Future studies may overcome this limitation by selecting multiple countries as cases or increasing the data range of fake news. The dictionary-based method we used in this study is relatively new to the literature and provides the opportunity to analyze fake news content effectively. Our results using the Dictionary-based method can provide valuable clues for policymakers in the counter-terrorism field.

Link: https://ejournal.upnvj.ac.id/index.php/JM/article/view/MJIHI%20_01

Monday, January 2, 2023

Examining ISIS's Turkish Sympathizers on Twitter

Abstract

Social media platforms have become a part of people's daily lives. However, developing social media technologies have affected not only people but also terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and social media has become an essential part of ISIS's strategies. ISIS effectively uses many social media platforms, especially Twitter, for propaganda, recruitment, and creating fear among people. ISIS also actively uses Twitter in Turkey. However, the number of academic studies focusing on the behavior, structure, communication, and relationship networks of ISIS sympathizers in Turkey is limited. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to reveal the structure, behavior, communication, and relationship networks of ISIS's Turkish sympathizers. Accordingly, this study focuses on the structure, behavior, communication, and relationship networks of ISIS's Turkish sympathizers. I will analyze them within four main analytical steps. The basic characteristics, structures, behaviors, and relationship networks of 2079 Turkish ISIS sympathizers are examined with the R computer program, and many remarkable findings are reached as a result of the analysis.

Keywords: ISIS' Turkish Supporters, Twitter Analysis, Network Analysis, Correlation Analysis, Social Media

LINK: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/icps/issue/74445/1183919

Sunday, July 17, 2022

THE IMPACT OF THE SOFT TERRORISM CONCEPT ON KOREANS AND JAPANESE

The development of social media and Internet technologies has increased the speed of news, and people have gained immediate access to information on many issues. However, it has also affected terrorist organizations by changing their methods, strategies, and visions. With these new methods and strategies, today’s terrorist organizations negatively affect the psychology of South Koreans and Japanese, who are not targets of global terrorism. Recent studies have shown that a significant proportion of Japanese and South Koreans are worried about terrorism despite their limited history of terrorism compared with the rest of the world. This research suggests that the fear of terrorism in these countries could be explained using the concept of soft terrorism. This study performed a quantitative analysis of the seventh wave of the World Values Survey using the ordinal logistic regression (OLR) method, finding that the fear of terrorism is attributed to active media sources such as the Internet for South Koreans and passive media sources such as social media for the Japanese.

DOI:
10.31720/JGA.6.1.9

Monday, July 4, 2022

ARE TAIWANESE AFRAID OF TERRORISM? THE IMPACTS OF HARD AND SOFT TERRORISM ON TAIWANESE

Technological developments in the last 20 years have affected people's daily lives and caused many innovations. The internet and social media are among the most important developments, and these developments have led to an increase in the speed of news and people's rapid access to information on various topics. However, progress in technology has also affected terrorist organisations. This effect has changed the methods, strategies, and visions of terrorist organisations. With these new methods and strategies, terrorist organisations could negatively affect the psychology of the people who are not directly affected by global terrorism. The best example of this is Taiwan. In this study, I focus on the impact of hard and soft terrorism on the Taiwanese. In this direction, I use the mixed-method approach in this study. I analyse the 7th wave of the World Values Survey with the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression method. Qualitative face-to-face interviews with Taiwanese will support the quantitative results.

Keywords:

The Soft Terrorism Strategy; The Hard Terrorism Strategy; Taiwan; Social media; Mass media

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

SRİ LANKA'DA ETNİK KATILIM VE ETNİK BÖLÜNMENİN TERÖRİZM ÜZERİNDEKİ ETKİSİ

Sri Lanka, birçok farklı etnik ve dinî unsuru barındıran Güney Asya’da bir ada ülkesidir. Bu unsurlar Sinhalalar, Tamiller, Burgherler, Avrupalılar, Hintliler ve Müslümanlardır. Sri Lanka'nın nüfusunun dörtte üçünü Sinhala etnik grubu oluşturmaktadır. Sinhalaların adaya 2000 yıl önce geldiği düşünülmektedir (Chalk 1998: 118-134). Tamiller, adada yaşayan en büyük ikinci etnik grup olup, ada nüfusunun %17'sini Tamiller oluşturmaktadır. Bazı akademik çalışmalar, Tamillerin adaya MÖ 500'de geldiklerini öne sürmektedir (Walter 2000: 40). Sri Lanka, birçok etnik topluluğa ev sahipliği ettiği gibi ada içinde birçok farklı dinin mensubu da yaşamaktadır. Adanın üçte ikisini Budistler, %22’sini Hindular ve Müslümanlar oluşturmaktadır (CIA 2019). Sinhala etnik grubunun mensupları genellikle adanın güney, batı ve orta kesimlerinde, Tamiller ise yoğunluklu olarak adanın kuzey ve doğu bölgelerinde yaşamaktadırlar. Tamil etnik grubu, kendi içinde iki alt gruba ayrılmaktadır. Bunlardan ilki Jaffna Tamilleri olup, adada yaşayan en eski Tamil topluluğudur. Hindistan Tamilleri ise ikinci gruptur. Hindistan Tamillerinin çoğu, Britanya Sömürge Dönemi’nde Hindistan'dan Sri Lanka'ya gelmiştir. Sömürge Dönemi’nde uygulanan birtakım yanlış politikalar, Sri Lanka’nın bağımsızlığı sonrasında ada nüfusunun büyük çoğunluğunu oluşturan Sinhalalar ve Tamiller arasında sorunlar yaşanmasına neden olmuştur (Chalk 1998: 120; Walter 2000: 25). İki etnik grup arasında yaşanan uzun zamanlı sorunların kökleri, Britanya Koloni Dönemi’ne kadar uzanmaktadır. Sri Lanka, 1948 yılında Britanya İmparatorluğu'ndan bağımsızlığını kazandı. Sri Lanka'nın bağımsızlığı sonrasında Tamiller siyasi, kültürel ve ekonomik hakları elde etme konusunda sorunlarla karşılaştılar. Sri Lanka'daki Tamil sorunun resmî başlangıcı da bağımsızlık sonrasında olmuştur. Adanın en büyük iki etnik unsuru arasındaki çatışmalar, sadece etnik farklılıklardan kaynaklanmamaktadır. Etnik farklılıklara ek olarak din, dil ve statü farklılıkları da iki etnik grup arasındaki sorunların nedenleri arasındadır. Bu çalışma, iki ana araştırma sorusuna cevap aramaktadır; “Etnik parçalanma, terörist faaliyetleri ve terör saldırılarını arttırıyor mu?” ve “Siyasi hayata etnik katılımın artması, terör saldırılarını azaltır mı?” Bu makalenin temel amacı ise “Sri Lanka’daki etnik temsil ve etnik parçalanma ile terör saldırıları arasındaki istatistiksel ilişkiyi” doğrudan incelemektir. Bu çalışma, literatürdeki etnik parçalanmanın ve etnik siyasi katılımın terör üzerinde belirleyicisi olup olmadığını soran ve farklı etnik gruplara ev sahipliği yapan ülkelerdeki terörizmin nedenlerini anlamaya yönelik araştırmalardan görece farklıdır. Bu makalede, etnisite ve terörizm arasındaki bağlantı, daha net bir şekilde incelenmektir. Bu çalışmanın ilk bölümünde, Sri Lanka'nın tarihi ve etnik gruplar arasındaki sorunun arka planı anlatılmaktadır. İkinci bölümde, konuyla ilgili akademik çalışmalarda ortaya çıkan farklı görüşler gösterilmektedir. Bu çalışma için nicel veri analizi yapılmış ve üçüncü bölümde bu veri analiz süreçleri açıklanarak veri analizinin sonuçları sunulmuştur. Dördüncü bölüm tartışma bölümü olup, verilerin analizi sonucunda elde edilen bulgular bu bölümde detaylı şekilde açıklanmaktadır.

Saturday, February 5, 2022

Hard and Soft Terrorism Concepts: The Case of ISIS

Nowadays, the development of technology has influenced daily life and caused many innovations. Social media, which is one of the most important developments of recent years, has increased the speed of news and people's access to information has sped up on many issues. Over the last few years, progress in technology, and especially the development of social media, has also influenced terrorist organizations. This effect has changed the methods, strategies, and visions of terrorist organizations. The technological innovations and advancements in modes of communication and social media have produced two distinct yet interrelated facets of terrorism, namely the hard and soft terrorism concepts. In this paper, I will elaborate on these two emerging concepts by taking up the case of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). This study is based on qualitative research methods. I analyze Google Trends to support my qualitative research. Based on this qualitative research, the paper aims to make some key observations and hopes to provide some thought-provoking analysis.

Keywords: ISIS, The Hard Terrorism Concept, The Soft Terrorism Concept, Social Media, Media