Yerlan Karin – Central Asian Fighters in Syria: Classification, Factors, Scale Assessment

The war in Syria, like a magnet, pulled radicals from around the world, including Central Asian fighters. There are different figures on the number of Central Asian militants in Syria. Separate research was conducted in Kazakhstan under the leadership of Dr. Yerlan Karin to estimate and organize all the data, as well as determine the main factors of radicalization attracting young people from Central Asia to Syria. The research is comprised of several surveys of former combatants and is the first such study in the region.

Yerlan Karin is Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of Kazakhstan. He has been leading various analytical structures in Kazakhstan since 1998, was a Director of the Center for Anti-Terror Programs in 2004-2006, head of the Internal Policy Department in the Presidential Administration of Kazakhstan in 2008; Secretary on Strategic Development in Nur Otan National Democratic Party from 2008 to 2013; and Visiting Professor at American University in Washington, DC (USA), 2013-2014. He was appointed as Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of Kazakhstan in October 2014. Yerlan Karin is a leading expert in Kazakhstan on security and terrorism and is the author of more than 100 publications in Kazakhstan and abroad on issues of terrorism, national and regional security, and history of Kazakhstan.

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