Islamic State recruits ask for amnesty in homelands
By Nasir Ali
URFA, Turkey— Islamic State fighters who fled Syria into neighboring Turkey after Tal Abyad was recaptured by Kurdish and opposition forces last week, say they are willing to return to their communities if offered amnesty.
A group of former ISIS recruits who now reside in the Turkish border town of Urfa told Rudaw they fled Syria in hope of going back to their families.
“I’ve no idea where to go,” a 24-year-old former recruit from the Kurdistan region said without saying his name.
“They will imprison me if I go back to Kurdistan and if I return to Daesh I could be executed for treason,” the young man said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
He said when ISIS withdrew from Tal Abyad, he and many of his fellow jihadists took the chance and left the area disguised as refugees with the rest of the inhabitants.
Rudaw met a number of young men, most of them in their early 20s, in a local hotel in Urfa some 30 km from the Syrian border where thousands of refugees have already fled the recent clashes in Tal Abyad.
Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the opposition Free Syrian Army recaptured Tal Abyad, known as Gire Sipi to Kurds, last week after a week-long siege of the ethnically mixed town.
“I’ve come here to find my brother and take him back to Germany,” said a German national who had travelled to Turkey only to find out his brother was captured by YPG fighters.
“I saw my brother handcuffed on YouTube in YPG custody,” the man said, adding his young brother wanted to leave ISIS long before Tal Abyad offensive.
“I can show them his many e-mails in which he clearly expresses that he wants to come back home to Germany if he’s not charged,” he said, adding that he is now hoping the YPG would release his brother.
According to a European Union’s estimate, some 10,000 foreign fighters have joined ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Most countries have ruled out amnesty for their citizens who seek to quit foreign militant groups in return for going home.
"If you go abroad to join a terrorist group and you seek to come back to Australia, you will be arrested. You will be prosecuted and jailed," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said last week, denying reports that his government was negotiating with potential defectors.
Kurdish authorities have warned they will prosecute anyone who has joined ISIS regardless of the degree of their complicity with the group.
Rudaw also met young men in Urfa who said they had no regrets for fighting with ISIS. They said they left Syria because of the severe clashes in Tal Abyad, but would return soon.
“They told me to fight in Tal Abyad. But the fight was too heavy, so I came here as a refugee and will be back again soon,” a young man from Mosul said.
URFA, Turkey— Islamic State fighters who fled Syria into neighboring Turkey after Tal Abyad was recaptured by Kurdish and opposition forces last week, say they are willing to return to their communities if offered amnesty.
A group of former ISIS recruits who now reside in the Turkish border town of Urfa told Rudaw they fled Syria in hope of going back to their families.
“I’ve no idea where to go,” a 24-year-old former recruit from the Kurdistan region said without saying his name.
“They will imprison me if I go back to Kurdistan and if I return to Daesh I could be executed for treason,” the young man said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
He said when ISIS withdrew from Tal Abyad, he and many of his fellow jihadists took the chance and left the area disguised as refugees with the rest of the inhabitants.
Rudaw met a number of young men, most of them in their early 20s, in a local hotel in Urfa some 30 km from the Syrian border where thousands of refugees have already fled the recent clashes in Tal Abyad.
Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the opposition Free Syrian Army recaptured Tal Abyad, known as Gire Sipi to Kurds, last week after a week-long siege of the ethnically mixed town.
“I’ve come here to find my brother and take him back to Germany,” said a German national who had travelled to Turkey only to find out his brother was captured by YPG fighters.
“I saw my brother handcuffed on YouTube in YPG custody,” the man said, adding his young brother wanted to leave ISIS long before Tal Abyad offensive.
“I can show them his many e-mails in which he clearly expresses that he wants to come back home to Germany if he’s not charged,” he said, adding that he is now hoping the YPG would release his brother.
According to a European Union’s estimate, some 10,000 foreign fighters have joined ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Most countries have ruled out amnesty for their citizens who seek to quit foreign militant groups in return for going home.
"If you go abroad to join a terrorist group and you seek to come back to Australia, you will be arrested. You will be prosecuted and jailed," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said last week, denying reports that his government was negotiating with potential defectors.
Kurdish authorities have warned they will prosecute anyone who has joined ISIS regardless of the degree of their complicity with the group.
Rudaw also met young men in Urfa who said they had no regrets for fighting with ISIS. They said they left Syria because of the severe clashes in Tal Abyad, but would return soon.
“They told me to fight in Tal Abyad. But the fight was too heavy, so I came here as a refugee and will be back again soon,” a young man from Mosul said.