TIGERS OF TAMIL: A GEOPOLITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DEFEAT

Year 2022, Volume: 9 Issue: 20, 309 - 335, 30.12.2022

Tolga Öztürk

Abstract

Sri Lanka has unique geographical features in terms of being an island country located just south of India. Sri Lanka was exposed to the terrorist activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, commonly known as the Tigers of Tamil, since the 1980s. As a result of long combat, the state ended its struggle with absolute victory against the Tigers of Tamil in 2009. It is not common to end the war with an absolute victory against terrorist activities carried out against states in many parts of the world. Although Sri Lanka is not a country with a wide range of possibilities, revealing the factors in winning this struggle constitutes the main aim of the study. The method of the study was the geopolitical theory of Nicholas Spykman, who lived at the beginning of the 20th century and produced significant works. Spykman, as one of the few theorists in geopolitics from the 20th century to the present, was a scientist who highly emphasized the impact of geography on politics. The geographical conditions behind the absolute defeat of the Tigers of Tamil by the Sri Lankan state, and that this can be verified with Spykman's theory, were presented in detail in the study. Consequently, the aim of this study was to analyze how the Tigers of Tamil were defeated by Sri Lanka, which cannot be considered as a powerful state, with the contribution of Spykman's geopolitical theory.

TAMİL KAPLANLARI: MAĞLUBİYETİN JEOPOLİTİK ANALİZİ

Abstract

Sri Lanka Hindistan’ın hemen güneyinde bulunan bir ada ülkesi olması bakımından şahsına münhasır coğrafi özellikler barındırmaktadır. Sri Lanka 1980’li yıllardan itibaren Tamil İlam Kurtuluş Kaplanları, yaygın bilinen adıyla Tamil Kaplanları’nın terör faaliyetlerine maruz kalmıştır. Devlet uzun mücadeleler neticesinde 2009 senesinde Tamil Kaplanları’na karşı mutlak zaferle mücadelesini sonlandırmıştır. Dünyanın birçok bölgesinde devletlere yönelik sürdürülen terör faaliyetlerine karşı mutlak zaferle mücadelenin sonlanması sıklıkla rastlanılan bir durum değildir. Sri Lanka’nın imkânları çok geniş bir ülke olmamasına rağmen bu mücadeleyi kazanmasındaki faktörleri ortaya çıkarmak çalışmanın temel eksenini oluşturmaktadır. Çalışmanın yöntemini ise 20. Yüzyılın başında yaşamış ve önemli eserler vermiş olan Nicholas Spykman’ın jeopolitik konusundaki kuramı belirlemektedir. Spykman 20. yüzyıldan günümüze jeopolitik hususunda dünyada sayılı kuramcılardan birisi olarak, coğrafyanın politika üzerindeki etkisini ziyadesiyle ön plana çıkaran bir bilim adamıdır. Tamil Kaplanları’nın Sri Lanka devleti tarafından mutlak bir şekilde mağlup edilmesinin arka planında ise coğrafi koşulların bulunduğu ve bunun Spykman’ın kuramı ile doğrulanabilir olduğu çalışmanın neticesinde detaylandırılmıştır. Sonuç olarak bu çalışmanın amacı Tamil Kaplanları’nın güçlü bir devlet sınıfında değerlendirilemeyecek Sri Lanka tarafından nasıl mağlup edildiğini Spykman’ın jeopolitik kuramı yardımıyla analiz etmektir. 

Keywords

Tamil Kaplanları, Sri Lanka, Nicholas Spykman, Terör, Jeopolitik

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