Voice of the Indirect Victims: Qualitative Analysis of the Impact of Terrorism on Turkish Young Adults

ABSTRACT

The experiences of young adults vicariously exposed to the terrorist attacks in Turkey were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 participants who were recruited by word-of-mouth. The analysis revealed three superordinate themes: (a) the recollections of terrorist attacks, (b) psychological impacts, and (c) ways of coping. The first of these themes represented the specific characteristics of terrorist attacks that affected the participants more adversely than any other negative life event. The latter two themes reflected the psychological impacts of the terrorist attacks and how the participants coped with these psychological outcomes. The results showed that the psychological repercussions of terrorist attacks for indirect victims were similar to those reported for direct victims. Although adverse impacts were reported, some psychological growth outcomes were also revealed. These results are discussed with their meanings and implications for the youth.

KEYWORDS:

• Interpretative phenomenological analysis
• terrorist attacks
• indirect victimization
• ongoing terrorism
• emerging adulthood
• youth
• qualitative analysis
• psychology of terrorism

Disclosure of Interest

Authors Deniz Okay and A. Nuray Karanci declare that they have no conflicts to report.

Ethical Standards and Informed Consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation, i.e. Middle East Technical University Human Subjects Ethics Committee. Informed consent was obtained from all participants for being included in the study.

Notes

¹ “10.11.2015” terrorist attack: This attack was attempted by two suicide bombers from ISIS targeting a rally supporting peace in Turkey (“Labour, Peace and Democracy” rally).

² “17.02.2016” terrorist attack: The perpetrator group of this attack was TAK, an extension of the Kurdish nationalist separatist terrorist group PKK, and the target group was the Turkish military (in “Kızılay” district). The attack was attempted on military cars and resulted in 28 deaths and 60 injuries, mostly military personnel but also civilians who were nearby.

³ “13.03.2016” terrorist attack: This attack, the perpetrators of which was again TAK, targeted the most crowded main street and also a park in Ankara, i.e. “Güvenpark”, (again “Kızılay” district) killing almost 38 civilians including two students from Middle East Technical University, and leaving 125 injured.