“We should not wait for something to happen and then react. Religious groups, political parties, institutions, NGOs should work on deterring jihadist returnees from possible actions. Of particular importance are the preventive activities, counterintelligence and intelligence services, for retrieving information in cooperation with strong European and global services and with those from the region”, says Pavle Trajanov, MP and former Minister of the Interior, for META.
The fact that Macedonian citizens are fighting at the side of the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Middle East clearly notes that Macedonia is not spared from the risk of their activation. Terrorist cells have been targeted with anti-terrorist actions in the countries of the European Union in the last few days.
According to Trajanov, current estimates are that hundreds of Macedonian citizens participate in military actions in Syria and Iraq, within the ranks of ISIS and that they are involved in the crimes of the organization.
– Ten of them were killed, while some were returned to Macedonia. Nobody can say if they would act, but the very fact that they were part of those radical structures means that they have ties to the terrorist organization and can be instructed to activate here as well, which in itself means that we have security problem – says Trajanov.
According to him, as a country, we have to be very careful and focused primarily on the prevention of potential terrorist attacks, an action which should include everyone in the country.
– Departure of Macedonian citizens to military hotspots in Syria and Iraq, as fighters of ISIS, was first registered in mid-2012 and so far fifteen people of the country were killed while fighting on this front – stated last month the Minister of Interior Gordana Jankulovska at the ministerial forum of interior and justice of EU – Western Balkans, held in Belgrade, where one of the topics was the risk of foreign terrorist fighters in Syria and Iraq.
