Home > Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources > Introduction to Separatist Terrorism

Separatists seek nationalist aims, usually desiring to secure self-determination or home-rule for a certain faction or geographic community. Separatist terrorists (also called nationalist terrorists) use acts of terror to force the creation of a new state, or to join with another existing nation with which the separatist community is closely aligned.

Many groups who engage in separatist terrorism claim that they are neither extremists nor terrorists, but are rebels or freedom fighters. Separatist groups successfully garner international attention and sometimes even sympathy for their causes. Separatist actions that use violence against unarmed citizens who are not directly related to the conflict, however, constitutes terrorism.

The editors have chosen several articles that focus on separatist terrorism in Russia, Israel, Spain, and Ireland. Both the Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA) and the Irish Republican Army (IRA)...