HISAR SCHOOL JUNIOR MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2017 Confronting Extremism Disarmament (GA-1) Combatting terrorism in Europe with regard to the recent refugee influx RESEARCH REPORT Recommended by: Deniz Akdeniz
Forum: Disarmament Committee (GA1) Issue: Combatting Terrorism in Europe with Regard to the Recent Refugee Influx Student Officer: Deniz Akdeniz Introduction The summer of 2015 Europe experienced the highest influx of refugees since the Second World War after Syria has become the top source of refugees. With the growing amount of refugees, the already existing terrorism attacks increased in Europe starting off with countries like France, Belgium, Germany and Turkey. Both refugee influx and terrorism are very important separate topics that has a bad effect on the world we live in. They have to be analyzed separately. Extremism means the holding of extreme political or religious views. By combatting terrorism, we can confront extremism as well because the source of terrorism is religious extremists. Definition of Key Terms Arab Spring: A revolutionary wave of protests and conflicts in the Arab world that toppled many authoritarian regimes. Asylum Seeker: A person who has left their home country as a political refugee and is seeking a place to stay, home in another. Extremism: The holding of extreme political or religious views; fanaticism. Bribery: The giving or offering of a bribe. General Overview Syrian Refugee Crisis and Europe s Reaction Syria is located in the Middle East, which is under Turkey and next to Iraq. Since the 1960s it s been led by the al-assad family who have ruled it with dictatorship until the Arab Spring happened in 2011. The Assad government refused to step down and started a brutal civil war. Different ethnicities and religious groups fought each other in changing coalitions. ISIS, a terrorist group, used the chance and 1
entered the chaos with the goal to build their own government. It became violent and successful extremist organizations on Earth. Everyone in that area committed horrible war crimes, using chemical weapons, mass executions and repeated deadly attacks on civilians. The Syrian civilians were stuck between the regime, rebel groups and extremists because of these wars within the groups the third of the Syrian civils have been displaced while over four million have fled. This is why Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq has been taking care of %95 of the refugees. The UN s non-governmental organization UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees weren t prepared for a refugee crisis on this scale because of this many of the refugee camps were undersupplied and causing hunger and disease. The Syrian s lost hope and decided to move to Europe. Between 2007 and 2014, the EU had invested about two billion euro to prevent refugees to enter into Europe for high-tech security technology and border patrols but that was not enough for an influx of refugees. The EU sat regulations about the refugees such as they have to stay in the state they arrive first which put a big amount of pressure on the border states that were already having problem about their populations. It lead Greece into an economic crisis on a scale of Great Depression. It led desperate, hungry people on islands that were usually used by the tourists. At this point world needed to come together and be united, work as one but instead it has become more divided. No one wanted refugees on their country leaving the border states alone in their trouble. The awareness on the crisis around the world suddenly changed after the leakage of the photo of the dead boy from Syria found lying face down on a beach in Turkey. Germany announced that it will, accept all Syrian refugee. Germany was prepared to take more than entire EU took in 2014. Most of the help came from citizens not from politicians. But still there are some concerns in the Western Europe; Islam, high birth rates, crime and the collapse of the social systems. Even if the EU alone accepted all four million Syrian refugees and 100% of them were Muslims, only one percent of the Muslim s in European Union will rise. This is not a big change and will certainly not make it a Muslim continent. A Muslim minority is neither new nor reason to be afraid. Most Syrian refugees already are educated, the birth rate in Syria before civil war was not very high, and the population was actually shrinking. The fear that refugees lead to higher crime rates also are not true. Refugees who become immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than the native population. When allowed to work, they tend to start businesses and they fit themselves into the work place as fast as possible, paying more into the social systems than they extract from them. Syrians coming to the West are professional workers needed to sustain Europe s aging population. Social media and internet have become a part of being a refugee. They use GPS to navigate the long routes to Europe, Facebook groups give tips and information about the obstacles on the road. This proves that these people are like the rest of the world. 2
The EU has the wealthiest economies on Earth, so it can handle the challenge of the refugee crisis if it wants to. The same goes with the whole Western world. But Jordan has taken over 600,000 Syrian refugees, the UK (which has 78 times the GDP of Jordan), has only said it would allow 20.000 Syrians across its border. The US has agreed to accept 10,000 and Australia 12,000 people. Overall things are slowly getting better but not fast enough. Bear in mind that there is still a civil war going on in Syria. Europe and Terrorism Terrorism poses a direct threat to the security of the citizens of the world and to international stability and prosperity. It is a threat that knows no border and nationality. Most of the terror attacks in Europe are based on Muslim terrorist groups, such as ISIS and al-qaeda extremist groups. They appear to be more and more frequent across the EU by time. Timeline of Events A 17-year-old man is stabbed to death by Muslims in a racially-motivated 21.09.2001 attack in England-Peterborough. Only one deaths and zero injuries. 11.01.2003 21-year-old women stabbed to death by Pakistani on her wedding day for rejecting an arranged Muslim marriage in England-Birmingham. Only one deaths and zero injuries. 3
14.01.2003 A police detective and father of three is stabbed to death my Muslim terrorist in England-Manchester. One death and three injuries. 15.11.2003 Islamic attacks two synagogues with car bombs, killing at least twentythree and injuring over two-hundred and fifty in Turkey-Istanbul. 19.11.2003 Two Jews are brutally murdered by Muslims in separate attacks in Paris. Two deaths and zero injuries. 20.11.2003 Coordinated Fedayeen suicide truck bombings, one near a British bank and the other outside the British consulate, kill more than thirty and injure over four-hundred people. Al-Qaeda and another Islamic group claim responsibility for the killing in Turkey-Istanbul. 11.03.2004 Ten coordinated al-qaeda bomb blasts on commuter trains during the rush hour leave over two-hundred people dead and over two-thousand people injured in Spain-Madrid. 03.04.2004 Seven terrorists responsible for the deaths of more than two-hundred train commuters, recite the Qur'an and then blow themselves up. One policeman is killed in Spain-Madrid 07.07.2005 Islamic terrorists massacre more than fifty commuters on three separate subway trains and a double-decker bus on the street with four suicide bombs. Over seven-hundred people are injured in England-London. 12.09.2006 An ultra-nationalist group with Islamist ties bombs a bus stop, killing ten Kurds, including seven children in Turkey-Amed. 09.04.2008 Video is released showing the execution of three Chinese hostages by a Turkish Islamic group in Turkey-Ankara. 22.07.2011 A bomb attacking a youth camp killing more than eighty people in Norway-Oslo. 24.05.2014 An Islamic extremist shoots four people to death outside a Jewish museum in Belgium-Brussels. 16.09.2014 Terrorists set off a car bomb at a border crossing in Turkey-Bab al-salam. 07.01.2015 A dozen people are slaughtered by gunmen 'avenging' the prophet at a newspaper office which printed satirical cartoons critical of Islam in France-Paris. 09.01.2015 Four hostages are taken and killed by an Islamic gunman at a Jewish grocery in France-Paris. 16.04.2015 A dozen Christians on a refugee boat are thrown to their deaths by Muslims in Italy-Sicily. 10.10.2015 Two suicide bombers massacre one-hundred demonstrators at a peace rally in Turkey-Ankara. 13.11.2015 Islamic terrorists open fire and throw bombs during a concert at a music hall, slaughtering nearly ninety innocents while shouting 'Allah Akbar' in France-Paris. 14.07.2016 A Muslim migrant mows down eighty-six Bastille Day revelers (including ten children) with a truck while shouting praises to Allah in France-Nice. 4
24.07.2016 A Syrian 'asylum seeker' detonates a nail-packed suicide bomb at a wine bar outside a music festival in Germany-Ansbach. 22.03.2017 Children are among twenty-two young people blown up at a concert by a Fedayeen suicide bomber in England-Manchester. Evaluation of Previous Attempts to Resolve the Issue Some countries across the EU and all over the world tried to make stronger security in their country however it did not stopped the terrorist-refugees to enter their country and put the citizens living in the region in danger. They held meetings around the world but non helped. Whenever an established government is confronted with terrorism they try to stop it by imprisoning or killing the terrorist leaders, by bribing or appeasing terrorist leaders, or in extreme cases by killing every male belonging to the group on behalf of which the terrorists operate. It has been proved by the history of mankind, and it logically follows from the nature of terrorism, that it is impossible to stop terrorism by killing or imprisoning terrorist leaders. As long as the cause of terrorism remains, new terrorist leaders appear and replace those killed or imprisoned. The very fact of killing or imprisoning terrorist leaders increases the feeling of injustice and hatred that feeds terrorism and arouses desire for revenge. The killed terrorist leaders become symbols, martyrs, saints and role models for their followers. Occasional terrorist incidents become regular and increasingly frequent part of daily life, until they reach the proportions of a full scale civil war. It has been proved by the history of mankind, and it logically follows from the nature of terrorism, that it is impossible to stop terrorism by bribing or appeasing terrorist leaders. As long as the cause of terrorism remains, the bribed or appeased leaders will lose the support of their followers and will be replaced by new leaders. The very fact of bribery or appeasement increases the feeling of disdain towards the established government and the resolve to continue the struggle. Possible Solutions What governments can do is that they can make some special places and sacrifice a small abandoned part of their country to the refugees, invest them over months, send spies to the region and see if there are any extremist ideas in that community and interview with them before allowing them in their own country, other than letting millions of people die because some of these people has a high capability to be terrorists or extremists. Another possible solution on this issue is the EU has to make more conferences and meetings with the neighbor countries living in that region. Working as only the European Union is not 5
going to help neither EU no the neighbor countries. Tracking the refugees that entered the country newly and sharing that information with the countries suffering from terrorism and over population because of the refugees might be another solution. Bibliography http://ec.europa.eu/echo/what-we-do/humanitarian-aid/refugees-and-internally-displacedpersons_en http://ec.europa.eu/echo/what-we-do/humanitarian-aid/refugees-and-internally-displacedpersons_en https://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_09/1440106/160301-refugees-calais-terroristsmdl-904_a417a7420770175b4dc9239cfd90e096.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg http://visionofhumanity.org/#/page/indexes/terrorism-index 6