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This thesis examines the historical roots and significance ofTurkey‘s decades-long struggle with terrorism. It argues that current perceptions of terrorism inTurkey are due to historical challenges to the country‘s territorial sovereignty. These challenges are rooted in the aborted Treaty of Sèvres at the end of World War I. Framed as a historical survey, this thesis concludes that terrorism inTurkey has been perceived as a threat to the territorial integrity of the state due to the legacy of territorial loss during the end of the Ottoman Empire and the nationalist separatist movements during the early Republican period. Although significantly different from early separatist movements, the threats posed by the Kurdistan Workers‘ Party (PKK) and the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) have been interpreted as an outgrowth of the irredentism and imperialism embedded in the Treaty of Sèvres. AsTurkey encounters new threats from religiously-motivated terrorism, policymakers continue to view separatist terror as the foremost threat and a continuation of this historical trend. http://archive.org/details/historicalrootso1094543883 Civilian, Naval Postgraduate School Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.