DUSHANBE, September 14, 2015, Asia-Plus – An article “Tajik Families Left Grieving, Wondering after Sons Join IS,” which was posted on Radio Liberty’s website on September 13, notes that Tajiks who had gone to Syria and Iraq had been radicalized in Russia and promised better jobs.
The article says Sherkhon Madkholov from Khatlon’s Hamadoni district in July 19 heard the terrible news that his son Nazirbek, 26, had been killed in Iraq.
It was Nazirbek”s older brother Murodbek who called home to break the news. But Murodbek is also in Iraq, with his wife and three children.
Both sons traveled to live in areas controlled by the militant group Islamic State (IS), though Murodbek claims he is not participating in the fighting.
The Madkholov family hails from the village of Saidqul Turdiyev in the Hamadoni district.
According to the local authorities, seven people from Hamadoni have gone to IS-controlled territories in Syria and Iraq. Three have been reported killed, including Nazirbek.
Nazirbek went to Iraq in March. Just three months earlier, he had taken his new wife to Moscow in order to find work. But he did not stay in Russia.
Madkholov first learned that Nazirbek had joined IS from the young man”s mother-in-law. Nazirbek first put his wife on a flight from Moscow to Kulob in Tajikistan, the mother-in-law said.
“He spoke to me three months later from Iraq. The last time he called was in May. I didn”t speak with him any more after that,” Madkholov said.
It seems Nazirbek was following in the footsteps of his older brother Murodbek, who had already gone to Iraq.
Murdobek”s journey started several years ago, when he went to Russia as a labor migrant. At first he worked in a service station, then he got involved in trading, though his father did not specify exactly what Murodbek bought and sold. At some stage after that, Murodbek must have become interested in religion. In 2012, he called his father to say he was taking his wife and two children to Egypt “on a cruise.” But he never came back, his father said. In Egypt, Murdobek”s wife gave birth to a third child, a daughter. At some point after that, the family traveled on to Iraq.
Madkholov says he talks to Murodbek occasionally by telephone. Murdobek”s wife is desperate to come home to Tajikistan, Madkholov says. But her husband won”t let her leave.
While Madkholov”s sons did get in touch with him to say they had gone to Iraq, other families from the Hamadoni district have not heard from their relatives, who are believed to be in IS-controlled territory.
The Interior Ministry told Odinamo Qurbonova that her son Safarali, who had been working in Moscow, was in Syria. The security authorities now say he is in Turkey, but his family is not sure where he is.
Qurbonova last spoke to him in April. She needed an operation on her spine and Safarali had promised to he would send her the money and come home to help her. But he never did.
Madkholov blames his sons” radicalization on the fact that they were “ignorant” and did not receive a proper religious education growing up.
But other local men who joined IS in Syria and Iraq had comfortable backgrounds, according to officials.
“Even people whose parents are intellectuals have gone there,” said Odinahmad Sharipov, the chairman of the local village council.
Sharipov pointed out that two other men who had been reported killed in Syria — Saidbek Yunusov, 31, and Mehrubon Murodov, 26 — had come from stable families and had a higher education.
The local men who had gone to Syria had been radicalized in Russia and promised better jobs, the village chairman claimed.
All seven men from the Hamadoni region who are thought to have gone to Syria or Iraq had been labor migrants in Russia.
“Everything that happens, happens in Russia,” said Sharipov. “There is no propaganda about Islamic states or jihad in our village.”
