“Radicalization in the Mediterranean Region: Old And New Drivers” Conference

5 minute reading time

Having been hosted by ORSAM, New-Med Research Network and IAI (Instituto Affari Internazionali) on 14th December 2015, a conference titled “Radicalization in the Mediterranean Region: Old And New Drivers” was held.  

The conference started with opening speeches made by the Presidential Spokesperson Ambassador İbrahim Kalın, ORSAM President Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şaban Kardaş and Member of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy Massimo Cornelos. Senior foreign mission representatives in Turkey participated in the conference and speakers from various universities such as Oxford University, Harvard University, University of Southern Denmark, TOBB University, Ankara University also made contributions.

In his speech, Mr. Kalın mentioned that radicalization was a process and that process engorged itself on xenophobia and rise of Islamophobia, thus creating a vicious cycle. He himself also indicated that the instability and war in Syria formed a profitable basis at the point of radicalization and referred to the importance of providing stability in the region. Mr. Kalın continued his speech by drawing attention to the role that the integration of Muslim population especially in the West with equal opportunities plays in reaching the youth, demotivating the radicalization movement, developing the culture of living together and preventing terrorist activities characterized as 'homegrown'. Mr. Kalın, also underlined that current refugee crisis, attitudes towards refugees and increasing Islamophobia might act as potential radicalization motivation and that it was important to exercise due diligence in this sense.

In the first session where the root causes of the current regional instability was discussed, it was stated that the regional instability did not only have religious dimension but it was also necessary to consider the issue regionally and globally within the framework of changing platform after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Sectarian policies in the region were both beneath national unity and endangered regional instability even though some states used them to legitimate their foreign policy and find support in domestic policy. In addition, it was specified that states bear tremendous responsibility for foreign terrorist fighters’ (FTFs) heading out of the country and for the rehabilitation, integration and control of returning FTFs beyond the radicalization. During the session, Israeli-Palestinian relations were touched upon together with the reason why the two communities are in conflict despite the peaceful co-existence experience of the Muslim and Jewish communities, and especially the effects of 1967 War on this matter. It was also pointed out that the assistance to weak state mechanisms or collapsed states in the region should not be concerned as a tool of foreign policy, but attentively and urgently afforded with an enforcing and stabilizing attitude to required fields.   

During the second session about the phenomenon of the FTFs, the definition of FTF within the scope of the UN Security Council Resolution 2178 was referred. The significance of an integrated approach which also considers ethnical, right-wing and left-wing terrorism in terms of violent extremism instead of an approach degrading the issue to Islam or generally religion was underlined. It was also indicated that Turkey faced a threat within the scope of FTFs' passing but also their return and settlement in the country and therefore, the measures taken by Turkey against the FTFs were also mentioned. Additionally, the attention was drawn to the similarity between the motivations of volunteers joining the Spanish Civil War and those joining ISIS.

In the third session which was dedicated to de-radicalization and the interaction between religion and politics, the relation of violent extremism with religions was examined by giving the example of Mongol invasions. It was also highlighted that today’s terrorist actions could not be integrally attributed to Islam and they feed on the thought system of different movements which emerged with different interpretation of basic religious information and documents. Having laid emphasis on the importance of integrated approach to religious sources, it was discussed how extracting certain parts of these sources and intentional use of them for violence influenced radicalization.

During the question-answer parts of the panels, participants generally indicated that the past sufferings of radicalized masses, unequal ethnical or religious opportunities in their countries, weak family ties, economically unsatisfying life conditions, search for belonging and main lack of knowledge focused on either religion or politics played a serious role in radicalizing issues in terms of the motivations of radicalization. Therefore, it was underlined that not only ideological but also socio-economic reasons should be taken into consideration in this process.

Some measures for countering FTFs indicated throughout the conference can be enumerated as follows: running legal system and legal regulations on the basis of human rights, psychological and, if necessary, psychiatric support to people inclining towards radicalization and/or returning to their country, law enforcers’ excessive use of power and avoiding aggressive attitude while implementing counter-strategies, increase in and coordination of data-oriented researches, family counselling, de-radicalization of education, developing a counter-discourse against the discourses of violent extremist organizations. Within this scope, a travel ban including specific end points about FTFs, the importance of regional and international cooperation for reaching the youth which is a significant target at the point of radicalizations, necessity of studies about rehabilitation mechanisms and all these studies.