Are We Really That Close Together? Tracing and Discussing Similarities and Differences between Greek Terrorist Groups Using Cluster Analysis

Abstract

This paper discusses the similarities and differences in both ideology expressed and practices employed by two terrorist groups that operated in Greece between the years of 1975 and 2017: Revolutionary Organization 17 November and Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei. Within this line of thought, we will briefly provide an outline of the political and ideological framework of the groups on focus in an effort to place them within the general historical and political context. We will then focus on the justification and deployment of the terrorist operations as presented in the communiques published, as well as other announcements and notes distributed in the Social Media by the members of those two terrorist groups. In this context, we elaborate on the tactics of the terrorist groups: their targets, the weapons used and the consequences suffered as a result of their actions are analyzed, in order to evaluate their ideological and - perhaps - ethical standing. To analyze the communiques of both organizations, two different text mining clustering techniques were applied and the outcomes enabled us to run a comparison between the two terrorist groups and also to examine the possibility of related means, ideology and people behind their different name.