Money Laundering Activities of the PKK

Introduction

Money laundering has long been used by organized criminal groups and terrorist organizations, whose financial benefits have remarkably increased as a result of engaging in lucrative businesses such as drugs, arms, and humans trafficking to conceal the origin of their illicit funds (Lilley 2006). While money laundering may be traced back to the emergence of money itself, money laundering for terrorist purposes is not an old phenomenon (Laciner 2008). It has emerged by the rapid process of globalization, globalized nature of the terror threat, and increasing need for the legal instruments for financial activities both domestically and globally (United Nations/Commonwealth Secretariat/International Monetary Fund 2009). A great deal of globalization process has taken place only after the second half of the twentieth century thanks to developments in technology and communication. Terrorist organizations and organized criminal groups alike have also gone global as a result of...