WASHINGTON – Thousands of fighters have fled their home countries to join the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, including the chief of the counter-terrorism program in a Central Asian country.
Col. Gulmurod Khalimov, who was highly trained by the U.S., left his post in Tajikistan, posting a video online last week as proof. While perhaps the most notable example, Khalimov is only one of an estimated 4,000 people who have left nations in central Asia to join ISIS, according to the International Crisis Group.
“What does this say about the current effort to stop terror-minded men and women from volunteering and traveling to the Middle East?” Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., asked at a hearing about the recruitment of foreign fighters from Central Asia. The hearing took place on the anniversary of ISIS’ capture of Mosul, Iraq. “Clearly, our government – working with others … must take stronger action to combat radicalization beyond our borders.”
In a step toward this goal, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, of which Smith is a co-chairman, held a hearing to discuss recruitment of foreign fighters from Central Asia countries. The commission, also known as the Helsinki Commission, focused on the five countries in the region: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The reasons for joining ISIS, also known as IS, ISIL or Daesh, are complex and vary based on the situation. But with four of the five countries having a population that is over 80 percent Muslim, according to the Pew Research Center, religion can be a pulling force.
“Frustrated and excluded, people who would not have considered fighting with the longer-established [Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan] or Taliban perceive IS as the creator of a novel political order, a more universal purpose: the creation of a caliphate,” Jennifer Leonard, deputy director of the International Crisis Group, said. “An imam from southern Kyrgyzstan compared it to Afghanistan, [and] told us that ‘Syria is about principles, not colonialism.’”
Research suggests that many central Asians are not being recruited from their home countries but instead from Russia. As migrant workers, they “are often subject to ghettoization,” Daniel Rosenblum, deputy assistant secretary of state, said.
Rosenblum, who directs the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, said, “Many regularly experience discrimination, harassment and humiliations from both the public and the authorities.”
These poor living conditions, combined with the promise of an Islamic utopia, fosters the pull to Syria.
Just as the motivations are complex, so are the profiles of those who join.
“There is no single profile of an IS supporter from Central Asia,” Leonard said. “There are 17-year-old hairdressers, established businessmen, women abandoned by husbands who have taken second wives in Russia, families who believe their children will have better prospects in a caliphate, young men, school dropouts and university students.”
While thousands of fighters have been recruited from these countries, the numbers represent only 20 percent of the estimated 20,000 who have joined ISIS, according to the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence.
However, the fighters from Central Asian nations “could present a risk to regional security and stability,” Leonard said.
The State Department is working with local governments to slow recruitment, Rosenblum said. These measures include supporting summits in Kazakhstan and Turkey to combat violent extremism and training security forces in anti-terrorism tactics.
The Helsinki Commission is a bipartisan and bicameral agency under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Stacy Hope, the group’s communications director, said. It is chaired by a representative from the majority party in the House and a senator from the majority party in the Senate. While the commission does not have any inherent legislative power, commissioners can introduce bills based on information from the commission.
Reach reporter Jaelynn Grisso at jaelynn.grisso@scripps.com or (202) 408-1493. SHFWire stories are free to any news organization that gives the reporter a byline and credits the SHFWire. Like the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire interns on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
About Jaelynn Grisso - Summer 2015
Jaelynn Grisso is a Summer 2015 reporter for the SHFWire from Ohio University.