Without the assistance of local actors, Russian influence in the Western Balkans would disappear overnight. But the opposite is also true. As long as local politicians can capitalize on invoking Moscow’s long shadow, Russia will remain a salient part of the Balkan landscape.
Introduction
This concept note was commissioned by the Global Community Engagement and Resilience
Fund (GCERF) to contribute to a better understanding of current efforts to prevent and counter
violent extremism (P/CVE) in the Western Balkans, and more specifically to provide an
overview of the most immediate needs in rehabilitation and reintegration (R&R) of ex-ISIL
fighters and their family members in the region. Such a mapping exercise was assumed to
produce useful recommendations for policy planning and budgeting of P/CVE and R&R
activities in the Western Balkans. In order to fulfill this goal, the scope of this paper was
widened to include supplemental data and analysis that should provide more factual background
and context-specific insight. Though a slight diversion from the original extent and format of
the paper, this change allows for the presentation of more nuanced complexities and,
consequently, to more fine-tuned policy responses to P/CVE and R&R in the Western Balkans.
Abstract: The primary purpose of this article is to explain the meaning and consequences of foreign fighters’ participation from Western Balkan countries (WB6) in armed conflicts in Syria and Iraq. In the first part, the issue of foreign fighters is discussed in historical terms. The author focuses on the examples o
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the ethno-religious conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the second part of the text, the definition framework of foreign fighters’ concept and its evolution towards foreign terrorist-fighters is discussed. Then, a detailed analysis of the main problem is conducted,
and several research questions are answered: 1) What is the scale of the phenomenon of Balkan volunteers (e.g., their number, the structure of origin, and others) in comparison to fighters from other regions? 2) What are their motivations and goals, and what are their recruitment process and ways of
moving into the war zone? 3) What is the threat posed by returning fighters to the security of the Western Balkans, and how do individual states counteract this phenomenon? The author uses mainly the following research methods: critical content analysis (literature, scientific articles, documents, reports, press materials), and historical and comparative analysis. The author’s visits to this country in 2018-2020 constituted an essential contribution to the part concerning the case of Kosovo.
Abstract: Over 1,000 adult male foreign fighters, women, and minors from the Western Balkans spent time in Syria and Iraq and around 500 from the region are still there, including children born in theater. After seven years of fighting and at least 260 combat deaths, the last active jihadi unit from the Western Balkans in Syria and Iraq is a modest ethnic Albanian combat unit fighting with Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib. The rest of those remaining in Syria and Iraq, mostly minors, are held in Kurdish-controlled IDP camps. Some 460 others have gradually returned home, making the Western Balkans the region with the highest concentration of returning foreign terrorist fighters in Europe and creating a long-term security challenge compounded by inadequate resources and the threat posed by homegrown jihadi militants.
Introduction and context
In recent years there has been an increasing concern about the potential for violent right-wing extremism
(VRWE) in the Western Balkans: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Kosovo*1, Montenegro, North
Macedonia and Serbia. The region has been historically perceived as politically volatile with a history of
violence that stems from right-wing (political) ideologies and actions.2 Experts and officials from the Western Balkans raise concerns about the spread of right-wing extremism (RWE) in the context of political conflict.
Thus, this paper focuses on both not-yet-violent and violent extremist movements and activities in the
Western Balkans.
Last April, a Bosnian court sentenced Munib Ahmetspahic to three years in prison after a guilt admission agreement with the prosecutor. From 2013 to 2018, Ahmetspahic fought in Syria with Jabhat al Nusra and returned to Bosnia with a serious leg amputation. He was detained at the airport in Sarajevo in November 2018. However, Ahmetspahic […]
Countries along the Balkan route are stepping up border controls in an attempt to stem irregular migration. An increasing number of migrants have been taking this route since this summer — what accounts for this phenomenon? Several hypotheses exist.
Bulgaria has detained 70 people suspected of having entered the country as migrants using irregular means. Some had to be rushed to hospital having suffered exhaustion, according to regional police forces.
The police operation took place at a parking lot on a highway near the southern Bulgarian city of Sliven early on Sunday, which is located about 100 kilometers north of the country’s border with Turkey.
It is just after midnight when they arrive at the registration centre in Dimitrovgrad on Serbia’s eastern border with Bulgaria.
The 17 Afghan men are all exhausted after a seven-hour walk over the mountain that forms the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. Their faces, hands, and arms are covered in scratches and their eyes are bloodshot from fatigue.
Restrictions on media freedom, unpunished violations by officials and alleged violence by police continued to be problems in south-east European countries in 2020, said a new US State Department report.
The US State Department’s 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which was published on Tuesday, warned that countries in the Balkans and south-east Europe have continuing problems with media freedom, censorship and violence against journalists, while officials are not being sanctioned for rights violations.