Maybe if things calm down and these youth don't get killed, they will have a future much better than they had b before.
TRAUMA AND DEPRIVATION LEAD SYRIAN YOUTHS TO EXTREMIST GROUPS, SAYS NEW REPORT
Murtaza Hussain
May 19 2016, 9:36 a.m.
Photo: Manu Brabo/AP
THE PRIMARY FACTORS driving Syrian youths toward extremist groups are deprivation and personal trauma stemming from five years of civil war in the country, according to a report from International Alert, a British organization. Titled “Why Young Syrians Choose to Fight,” the report is based on interviews with 311 Syrians living in northern Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey.
The prime drivers for extremism were personal experiences of trauma, loss of economic and educational opportunities, and a desire for vengeance against the Syrian government, according to the British NGO. The Syrian respondents said these practical factors, rather than ideological beliefs, led many young men to support groups like Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State.
With unemployment reaching 90 percent in some areas of the country and no end in sight to the conflict, many of those interviewed said that a simple need to survive drove many youths to join with militants, whether they agreed with their ideology or not. “The economic situation for young men, inside Syria, is bad,” said one respondent living in the Syrian province of Idlib. “They are only able to survive by joining a military faction either to receive salaries or for robbery and waylaying.”
Another individual interviewed for the report, issued earlier this month, told the story of an 18-year-old who had been fighting with a Free Syrian Army unit that was unable to even maintain a supply of bullets. Despite disagreeing with the group’s ideology, the young man later joined Jabhat al-Nusra after it offered him bullets as well as a salary to continue fighting the government.
The civil war that started in 2011 following a government crackdown on peaceful protests has now claimed up to 470,000 lives, according to some estimates. Out of a pre-war population of 22 million, over 11 percent of the Syrian population is now believed to have been killed or injured. Average life expectancy has plummeted from 75 to 55 years. Millions more Syrians have become refugees in neighboring countries or in Europe.
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Trauma and Deprivation Lead Syrian Youths to Extremist Groups, Says New Report
TRAUMA AND DEPRIVATION LEAD SYRIAN YOUTHS TO EXTREMIST GROUPS, SAYS NEW REPORT
Murtaza Hussain
May 19 2016, 9:36 a.m.
Photo: Manu Brabo/AP
THE PRIMARY FACTORS driving Syrian youths toward extremist groups are deprivation and personal trauma stemming from five years of civil war in the country, according to a report from International Alert, a British organization. Titled “Why Young Syrians Choose to Fight,” the report is based on interviews with 311 Syrians living in northern Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey.
The prime drivers for extremism were personal experiences of trauma, loss of economic and educational opportunities, and a desire for vengeance against the Syrian government, according to the British NGO. The Syrian respondents said these practical factors, rather than ideological beliefs, led many young men to support groups like Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State.
With unemployment reaching 90 percent in some areas of the country and no end in sight to the conflict, many of those interviewed said that a simple need to survive drove many youths to join with militants, whether they agreed with their ideology or not. “The economic situation for young men, inside Syria, is bad,” said one respondent living in the Syrian province of Idlib. “They are only able to survive by joining a military faction either to receive salaries or for robbery and waylaying.”
Another individual interviewed for the report, issued earlier this month, told the story of an 18-year-old who had been fighting with a Free Syrian Army unit that was unable to even maintain a supply of bullets. Despite disagreeing with the group’s ideology, the young man later joined Jabhat al-Nusra after it offered him bullets as well as a salary to continue fighting the government.
The civil war that started in 2011 following a government crackdown on peaceful protests has now claimed up to 470,000 lives, according to some estimates. Out of a pre-war population of 22 million, over 11 percent of the Syrian population is now believed to have been killed or injured. Average life expectancy has plummeted from 75 to 55 years. Millions more Syrians have become refugees in neighboring countries or in Europe.
Continue reading at:
Trauma and Deprivation Lead Syrian Youths to Extremist Groups, Says New Report
