Albanian children who fell prey to recruitment by Jihad extremists have shared for the first time detailed accounts of their traumatic experiences, after being influenced by radical parents and imams.
One of them, Abdi, the boy who was only 8 years old when he was sent to Syria by his parents, told Top Channel journalist Anila Hoxha details about his experience.
"I remember my father fighting against the Kurds and they killed him, and then we were in their hands. He also fought against Assad. My mother just stayed with us at home. When you go there, whether you're young or old, you'll learn and how it makes an impression, when they bomb you get a moment of fear. I stayed in Syria for ten years, I left when I was 8 and came back when I was 18, I saw massacres that no child at that age has ever seen. Once I was in a mosque and we had a car nearby, and a plane bombed it and many people were injured because they were near the mosque and you had to run away. I didn't take part in the fighting, I was little. The war started at six o'clock. The bombings started from six o'clock to six in the morning. They bombed, shot and you had to retreat slowly and you had nowhere to go to them. They made a deal: if you want, come, if you don't, you will be killed there," Abdi recounts.
The head of the Anti-Organized Crime and Terrorism Section at SPAK, prosecutor Vladimir Mara, stated that the recruitment of these children has attracted the attention of Albanian and foreign agencies.
He said that the children have been influenced by propaganda on social networks and by self-proclaimed imams, who have been active not only in Albania, but also in Kosovo and North Macedonia, leading these people towards radicalization and support for terrorist organizations in the Middle East.
"There has been propaganda on social networks, but also extraordinary influence from self-proclaimed imams who have exercised activity not only in the Republic of Albania but also in Kosovo and North Macedonia, leading these people towards radicalism and approaches different from that of the official religion. They have been recruited by imams and then increased their participation by distributing propaganda, enabling radicalism and supporting organizations in the Middle East," said Mara.
In an effort they saw as their Jihad, 144 Albanians traveled to Syria, including their wives and children, for a war that resulted in joining ISIS, an internationally declared terrorist organization that began as a rebel group against the regime of Bashar Al Assad.
Mehmet Durishti, former director of the Reception Center for Syrian Returnees, said that his team has treated a total of 28 children, some of whom were born in Syria.
He emphasized that there is a clear differentiation between those born in Albania and those in Syria, as the little ones born in Syria had experienced the trauma of the war from the age of 1-2, while the children born in Albania were older and experienced the trauma in a different way.
Psychologist Anxhela Peza said that children who have an imprisoned or missing parent often live in anticipation and without clear information about the parent's fate.
"All children who have a parent in prison or who have lost them are children who have been raised to believe that they have gone to God. There are children who may be waiting and wondering, because they may be in prison, may have passed away or may have been killed. They only know the latest information, there is no telephone or mail connection. There are associations that connect people who are there with those who are here," said Peza.
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