ANKARA, Turkey — The rising wave of terrorism in Turkey’s big cities has sparked debates on the various aspects of the attacks, committed on what appears to be on a rotating basis by the Islamic State (IS) and the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a radical offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The discussion has focused on the reasons that made Turkey a playing field for terrorists and the security and intelligence failures behind the attacks. Another crucial topic, however, is the recruitment methods of terrorist groups and how young people are cajoled into becoming suicide bombers.

After the car bomb that the TAK detonated in the heart of Ankara on March 13, authorities identified the female suicide bomber as 23-year-old university student Seher Cagla Demir, which further fueled discussion on how young people are drawn to terrorist groups and the economic conditions that facilitate their recruitment.

According to March 23 figures by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), the country’s overall jobless rate stands at 10.3%, while unemployment is much higher at 18.5% in the 15-24 age group, with 22% among females and 16.5% among males. On a regional basis, unemployment is highest in the mainly Kurdish eastern and southeastern provinces, which, since last year, have been the theater of bloody urban clashes between the security forces and the PKK, coupled with terrorist attacks, lengthy round-the-clock curfews, massive destruction and civilian deaths. The area TUIK designates as TRC3, comprising the provinces of Mardin, Batman, Sirnak and Siirt, tops the unemployment list with 24.8%, followed by the TRC2 area, covering Diyarbakir and Sanliurfa, with 17.5%. Hence, rampant unemployment in the region — two times higher than the country’s overall — emerges as an important element driving recruitment to the PKK and IS, along with ethnic and political factors.

In an interview with Al-Monitor in September 2014, PKK commander Cemil Bayik said the number of new recruits had shot up despite settlement talks with Ankara at the time, exceeding the pace of recruitment in its heyday in the early 1990s. “There is a lot of alienation. The number of people joining our ranks last month has exceeded that in 1993. In 1993, around 1,000 people would join every month. Last month, 1,200 people joined,” he said. Government officials also confirmed the trend. Siirt Gov. Ahmet Aydin, for instance, publicly rang the alarm over dozens of young people joining the PKK from his province. Turkey’s top Kurdish political leader, Selahattin Demirtas, for his part, said the new recruitments were resulting from widespread Kurdish mistrust in the settlement process and urged Ankara to take confidence-building steps.