CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VI (1) Contemporary-Eurasia-VI-1-engl | Page 98

I NESSA A RZUMANYAN
Some parts of the Muslim minorities of Georgia have supported
one of the main goals of the Islamic State that is changing the world
order in its structure. In a short term many representatives of Georgian
youth from some regions started to feel the need to stand among the
Jihadi fighters. Muslim youth of Georgia, unsatisfied with the social
and legal condition they had been put in the state, “dissatisfied with
existing traditional norms, viewing various threats and searching for
various methods for eliminating injustice, including radical ones” 20
started to adjoin the Islamic State. These claims were later proved to
be true based on the interviews conducted with the citizens living in
Pankisi Gorge 21 . The above-mentioned factors contributed to the
evolvement of the ISIS recruitment processes from Georgia.
Reasons to become an IS fighter for Georgian citizens
As the literature studied suggests, the socio-economic background
of a person plays a big role in the recruitment process, some connect it
with education, others with the perception of Islam as a whole. The
case of Georgians is not an exception. The young men, who flee their
country in order to fight in Syria, also have their personal motives to
act so. However, while the majority of the literature covered proposed
that young men mostly from poor families choose to join ISIS in order
to financially help their families, case studies in Georgia show that
this is not necessarily true. As different interviews by BBC or CNN
show the two main driving forces are the “desire to become a hero”
and “radical islamization” 22 .
As mentioned earlier the rising interest in joining ISIS can be also
explained by rising dissatisfaction of being a minority and being a part
of Christian Orthodox society. Since Daesh is actively promoting
Islam and urging the Muslims to stop living under the rule of
“infidels”, they become the ray of hope for Georgian Muslims to fight
for their religion and get rid of the Christian governance. ISIS
Georgian members themselves have underlined the importance of
20
Ibid
Demytrie R., Jihadist shadow hangs over Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, 21.04.2016,
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36035312
22
Goguadze G. and Kapanadze S., op. cit.
21
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