Mapping Political Violence in Turkey: When Terrorism and Civil War Converge

This study introduces the Political Violence in Turkiye Event Dataset (POLVITED), a resource designed to provide a more comprehensive estimation of political violence in Turkiye. I employ the Matching Event Data by Location, Time, and Type (MELTT) methodology to integrate data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) and the Uppsala Conflict Data Programme Georeferenced Event Dataset (UCDP-GED). The findings reveal that UCDP-GED captures 60% of political violence incidents in T ¨urkiye, GTD records 40%, and only 15% of incidents are documented in both datasets. By eliminating duplicate records and mitigating reporting bias, POLVITED offers a more comprehensive representation of political violence in Turkey. Additionally, a comparison with official reports demonstrates that while reporting bias cannot be entirely eradicated, data integration significantly enhances dataset coverage and reliability.